Today’s Verse:
I am shedding the old me and putting on the new me (Ephesians 4:22-24).
In Context:
Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes
from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which
is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts
and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous
and holy. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth,
for we are all parts of the same body. And “don’t sin by letting anger control
you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a
foothold to the devil. (Ephesians 4:22-27)
This shedding of the old and putting on of the new takes
time, I think. As the snake and moose naturally shed their old skin and the
velvet on their antlers, respectively, we too shed the old and put on the new
naturally as we grow into wiser, more experienced spiritual beings. Of course,
not all of us do. Some of us allow the more bitter, angry, and resentful side
of our nature to take over, and we never really grow or change, becoming
crabby, lonely, old men and women. But,
hopefully, for the rest of us, we continue to learn from our mistakes,
experiences, and relationships with others, and we become like new, even though
our bodies start to look old.
For me, I have become new in many ways over the years, but
most recently, I have thrown off (or started to) my old nature of arguing every
point automatically without really thinking about what or why I am arguing or
more importantly how it affects and makes others feel. I mostly put on this
argumentative nature with those I am closest too, and it has been a habit since
I was very young. Unfortunately, I have
passed a bit of it onto my youngest son, so hopefully because I recognize it,
and I am now attempting to put it off, my son will follow suit and change that
part of his nature sooner rather than later, saving himself some growing pains
along the way.
In the early years after my divorce, God helped me put away
the old nature of anxiety associated with maintaining control over raising my
sons the way I expected them to be raised.
This “letting go of control” was huge for me and for my boys, providing
them with a much more stable and happy daily living situation, even in the
midst of going back and forth between two different homes and two different
lifestyles. It’s also the only way I was
able to accept with grace and love my older son’s choice to move and live with
his dad later on. Bottom line, I don’t
ever want either of them to feel they mean any less to me or that my love is
conditional on them making choices based on my happiness alone. I love my
children no matter what, and I believe wholeheartedly they know that because
God enabled me to put off my old, human nature of control for what was in the
best interest of my children and me and trust Him to provide the best situation
and life experiences for their growth.
In small ways, I am also shedding my old self and my
perceptions that I could never do certain things, such as run a ½ marathon or
be a manager of people in the workplace.
Those things that I said, “I could never do that or I’m not cut out for
that” I’m slowly rubbing away (like the moose and his velvet) to reveal a
stronger, more motivated 41 year old woman than the young lady who started
running short distances in track when she was 14 years old and said even though
she was majoring in English in college, she would never want to or be able to
be a teacher.
I am very different today than the shy girl who never even
felt comfortable enough around children to become a babysitter herself. (I only
tagged along with my best friend on her babysitting job to be with her.) I now work with children and their caregivers
for a living and teach adults in my field. I even volunteer to read to children
in low-income preschool programs simply because I miss actually being in the
classroom on a daily basis, and I love story time with little ones! I also serve
in a managerial role now, something else I never thought I’d be able to do, and
today I completed my first ½ marathon, not as fast as I’d like to, but the fact
that I could push my body to do that, run farther than I ever have in my life,
proves my point.
Renewing the mind today means believing that you can
continue to grow, change, and become new, no matter who you were in the past. It means believing that you can put off the
old and become new. It may not happen as quickly as you would like, but as my ½
marathon training plan revealed, it’s adding just those few extra steps each
day and each week that make all the difference!
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