Walking, Talking, with my wonderful in the Colorado Mountains.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 NIV
Walking is a metaphor all the way through scripture that suggests companionship that influences another. We are admonished not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, but to walk with the wise. Maybe this is where I got the idea of walking on a daily basis. It is a Clarkson habit for most of us. But, to pour the influence of truth requires us to build a world view that gives stability to those who walk with us. We converse and have a grid that says, “This is wisdom, walk in it.”
Foolishness abounds in the world today. Paul hit the nail on the head for admonishing us to resist conforming to the ways of the world. Often, our thoughts and the voices in our heads speak messages to us that we don't even realize are messages straight from the world’s values.
Yet, we are to conform to Jesus, His ways, His values, His actions, His words. Jesus was my ponder. The more I sought to understand his words, the more I changed from within. Jesus said, “The student will be like his teacher.” Hopefully, as I sought Him and sought to please Him, I became more like Him, little by little. And in that becoming, my children could watch me, hear his words, look at His beautiful world, and become more like Him through my life.
What an auspicious thought, that children are inclined toward becoming like those responsible for them. Traditionally, they are learning values by the ways they are taught to fit in, to conform through schedule, peer pressure, and teacher expectations. A mentoring model would move them beyond these expectations of cultural norms. We become the guides in their lives to embody integrity, humane behavior, virtue. Children imitate what they understand, see, and experience every day. How we live is how they will perceive life and act in their own lives.
Every moment, every day, children are ingesting what they see and hear as truth, rightly or wrongly. Parents can pass on what is important to them by valuing what the model for their children. Learning takes place by what is caught and by what is taught, a dual process. Both instruction and modeling are necessary to shape the values of children.
The first years of a child’s life are for building foundations of deep, unspoken virtues and the shaping of principles and standards of behavior that will establish a groundwork for what they learn to depend on as truth for the rest of their life.
What Are You Modeling and Teaching by the Way You Live?
If, as Jesus says, the student will become like his teacher, then to become a good teacher, we must examine our own lives. What have I stored inside my heart, mind, and soul? Does my character reflect the integrity I hope my child will imitate? Am I exhibiting the attitudes that I want my child to exhibit? Do I love those around me unconditionally so that my child can understand the love of God?
As I look back over the years, I understand better that when I took responsibility for the shaping of my children’s lives, it caused me to grow more into the person I wanted to be. The accountability of knowing I was being studied by my own children helped me to strain toward moral excellence, mature love, modeling what I hoped my children would copy.
One of the most important, key pieces of the learning model Clay and I embraced was the idea that we, as parent-teachers, were the most important element within that model. To teach well, then, we had to focus on our own souls—becoming more like Jesus, so we could become better teachers. Read more about it in my newest book, Awaking Wonder!
Today, I had the privilege of talking with my friend, Jamie C. Martin about the subject of education and Awaking wonder. I know you will love her heart.
