26 June - Start with Me

My eighteen month old daughter has started walking and over night she seems to have become a toddler, not just literally toddling around but also in her behaviour.   Sometimes I’ll hear her saying ‘no, no, NO!’ and rush over to see that she is just sitting there practicing how to say this newfound favourite word.

I feel like this has crept up on me and, being geeky, the first thing I did was go to the library to get a bunch of books on parenting toddlers.  The best one was by Elizabeth Pantley and it was full of helpful ways to gain coorperation and help toddlers with their newfound freedom of emotion.  One thing which really stood out to me this week though was her words on modelling.  If you want your child to use their manners then make sure you are using yours when talking to them.  If you don’t want your children to whinge check to be sure that you aren’t whinging at them to comply with you all the time.

It seems simple, doesn’t it, that getting the best out of your child starts with making sure that the best is coming out of you.  But I keep thinking this week about all the things I want – from my daughter, my family, the Christians I lead in home group, my church community – and how I need to be asking God to ‘start with me.’  Do I want my home group to be more passionate in prayer?  Then I need to start by examining the way I pray.  Do I think Christian’s need to challenge our consumerist culture?  Then I need to start by looking at the way I live.  Start with me, Lord, start with me, I should be praying.

Jesus understood this so well.  Famously he knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples, the men who had sat at his feet learning from him for three years.  After this he told them;

 ““You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

-John 13 v 13 – 17

If something was important to God, Jesus would demonstrate it first, tell people to do it second.  He was saying, ‘I will start with me.  I will show how important humility is to God by first being humble.’  I want so much from people, from this world.  But today I’m going to remember that I need to make sure that change starts with me.