Christ-followers are servants!
We want to raise Ethan in a culture where serving God and others is part of the DNA. A culture where serving God/others is part of the DNA is a culture which says …
It’s not about me!
Rick Warren begins his book, The Purpose-Driven Life, with the words, “It’s not about you.”
We all come into the world, it seems, thinking everything revolves around us. And it first, maybe it does. In fact, for the first 8+ weeks of our time with Ethan, we will both be on parental leave. During this time, we will very much be focused on Ethan! And we can hardly wait!
But as Ethan grows, we want his world to expand beyond himself. It’s an unhealthy attitude for any of us to have that believes, “it’s all about me.”
To help instill a servant culture in our home, we will need to find ways, as a family, to serve — God, each other, others in our church family, and others in the world.
A servant’s heart is a surrendered heart. Jesus demonstrated total surrender like no one else. Perhaps it was because Jesus was reared in a home with a servant culture. He had a mother and father who showed him what surrendered lives look like. As a young (betrothed) wife, Mary was approached by an angel with a mind-boggling opportunity to raise God’s Son. (See Luke 1.26-38.)
Mary, more than a little confused, tried to figure out what it meant. In end, she demonstrated total surrender, saying …
I am the Lord’s servant! Let it happen as you have said.
Now, that’s the kind of attitude we want to help Ethan develop! Of course, that means we will need to model that kind of surrender. In other words, shaping a servant culture, a culture where serving God/others is part of the DNA, comes with a pretty big price tag!
This is the fifth part in a series of reflections on the kind of culture we want to create in our home, especially for Ethan. Previously, we’ve written about shaping a Leadership Culture, a God-centered culture, a learning culture, and a high AQ culture. I have a couple other ideas on my list. I’ll try to write about those in the next few days as we prepare to bring Ethan home.
With his dads death and being named pastor of liberty Jonthan Farwel new phrase of direction is NOT I, BUT CHRIST I find a wonderful direction in those 4 words and try to use them everyday
It’s a good phrase, and a good reminder, Harold.
It reminds of a verse of Scripture that crossed my mind when I wrote this piece. Galatians 2.20 talks about being crucified to Christ and letting him live through us.