Teachable Moments

I just had lunch with a friend of mine, Issa, who is on jury duty not far from my house. I actually hadn't seen her in quite a while, mostly because of that emotional coma I just woke up from. There were five of us at lunch, Issa, Sweetpea, her friend Jess and my daughter in law Bree. It was an unexpected teachable moment with no actual teaching involved. Issa and I had a lively little discussion about waiting on God's timing. My position is God isn't necessarily going to direct your every little move. He gave us free will for a reason and, while I believe that you should always seek His will for your life, I'm not sure that every single decision or action should be postponed until you are sure you have His timing clearly in your mind. The subject was engagements. I'm of the mind that if God has given you the mate that you are sure He wants for you, what more is there to wait for? What possible benefit could there be for putting off, possibly indefinitely, getting married because you want to make sure you have His timing? God said be fruitful and multiply which you cannot do until you actually get married. Issa's position was that getting engaged and married is too big of a decision to make unless you are sure what God's timing is.


It was interesting. She and I went back and forth several times on the subject. We never raised our voices. This was not an argument or fight. It was two believing women with differing opinions and it was glorious! Sweetpea, Bree and Jess are about six years younger than Issa and obviously many more years than that younger than me. It was good for them to be able to see that two believers can believe in the same God, know the same Saviour, read the same Bible and have very different opinions on a spiritual matter. They also saw that we both were seeking our final authority from Scripture and at the same time they also saw that ultimately the major decisions are available for debate by us but are to be made by our husbands and fathers depending on which one you are living under the headship of.


It was one of those things we mothers know so well. Just because we didn't actually say "and the lesson to be learned here is....." doesn't mean that a lesson wasn't taught. More lessons than most people realize are taught by what you are observed doing than by the words that come out of your mouth. 1Peter 3:1-2 states this very clearly. Our actions more than our words reveal the contents of our hearts.

Teachable moments. Never let them pass by without taking advantage of them.