To begin with, I will recap the story, which takes place in Matthew 25:14-30. The story begins with a master and three servants. The master is going away on a long journey and so he puts the servants in charge of the “talents”. To one he gives five, another two and to the final servant he gives one, “every man according to his ability” (Matthew 25:15). The master went on his way and the servants were left to do what they would with their talents. The first (with five talents) works and doubles it. The second follows suit. However, the last servant simply hid his talent in the ground. When the master came back he was pleased with the two who had doubled theirs, but he was angry with the one who had simply hidden his.

The correlation which so plainly developed in my mind upon reading this parable is this: where have I invested the talents God has given me? Do I take time to further them? Am I working towards the increase in them? I have found myself in this quandary more than once before; I have the option of developing a musical, writing, scholastic, or spiritual talent… or to fritter my time away gaming or watching videos. I have the option to further myself and increase the assets I have for the kingdom of God… or just take the easy way out.

I have been endeavoring of late to stop taking the easy way out and instead invest in the talents God has given me. Perhaps I’m not always successful, but I’m still trying. I encourage you to do the same, or if you’re already developing the talents God has given you, to continue developing them toward the vision God has for your life.

During Jacob’s flight he stopped to camp overnight, and while he slept God blessed him with a dream, showing him the multitude of blessings He was willing to give. On waking Jacob built an altar and made a vow: “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.”

Arriving at the house of Laban, a relative of his mother’s, Jacob fell in love with Rachel, one of Laban’s daughters. He was willing to work however long he must to marry her. But now Jacob was the one being deceived, as Laban tricked him into marrying his other daughter, Leah, after having worked seven years for Rachel. Yet his love was so great he agreed to work yet another seven years so he could marry the woman his heart was with. After Rachel and Jacob were married, God relentlessly protected and blessed Jacob with a multitude of gifts, including twelve sons.

After staying in Laban’s house for twenty years with Leah and Rachel, Jacob was ready to return home and reunite with his brother. Laban begged him to stay, for his land and cattle had proliferated while Jacob had taken care of them. God had been blessing Laban for the sake of protecting Jacob the whole time!

Jacob feared that Esau still had anger lingering in his heart, especially when his servant reported that Esau was coming to see him along with four hundred men. Though God promised to deliver him from his brother’s ferocity, Jacob divided his family into groups so they wouldn’t all be killed. He needn’t have done so: “Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him; and they wept” (Genesis 33:3)

As I read this story again, I was confused about why God wanted Jacob as a servant. Why would He want a lying, cheating man to serve and represent His holiness? Then I realized that Jacob listened and did everything that God asked him. It doesn’t matter who you are; what that matters is whether you’re willing to listen and then act. Many of us are like the beginning Jacob, only focusing on our own needs. Remember that he begins to hear God’s voice as the story continues, and by following His guidance Jacob’s life is filled with joy.

And just like Jacob, many times we don’t think we deserve the blessings that God gives. He wants to develop us just like he developed Jacob. God turned him from selfishness to servanthood. He wants to help, love, and comfort you. He’s ready and waiting to jump into your life! It starts with your next choice and whether or not you’re going to acknowledge the Almighty in your decision, no matter how small. Don’t settle for the life of a deceiver — let God change you into an Israel.

Last week we talked about small, low-effort portions of life that make a big difference. We called these small changes “shoelaces”. One example is taking the time to compliment or encourage someone. Now there’s a new question to address, however: how can we keep doing this? Shoelaces are low-effort, sure, but they still require effort. No matter how good it makes you feel to brighten another person’s day, it’s easy to get worn out. At some point, making that decision again seems like too much effort.

This is the hallmark of a lifestyle choice: it’s a choice that’s made over and over, even when it’s inconvenient. Lifestyles are defined not by the great big choices of life — the ones that are made by logic — but by the small everyday choices. These are the shoelaces that tie our lives together. For proof, we need look no further than Steven Levitt’s book Freakonomics. The author, an economist, devotes the fifth chapter to the analysis of parenting, posing the question “what makes a perfect parent?”

Surprisingly, Levitt found no connection between traditional parenting advice and the success of a family’s children (as measured by scores on standardized tests). Instead, factors such as parental education, eating habits, and PTA involvement were the determining influence. The author’s conclusion is that, when it comes to parenting, who you are matters more than what you do.

Why is it that character influences more than action? It’s a question of lifestyle choices. Big decisions, logical decisions, those are easy to replicate. But it’s the millions of tiny lifestyle decisions that change the course of a family, workplace, or town. Decisions like kindness, humility, generosity, and personal involvement shape the environment as well as the person. Those kinds of decisions cannot be duplicated by observation, for they are not logical conclusions, but organic results.

Lifestyles are determined at an early age. The broad decisions about what kind of person you will be are made as early as the middle school or early high school years. In a very real sense, all those millions of tiny decisions were made years beforehand. They were determined before we were aware of the repercussions. A lifestyle can be changed, but only rarely can it be planned. Who you become is more important than what you do, or try to do.

Returning to the original question, how can we continue to do this? Where can we find the power to change our lifestyle for the better? As a previous author has noted, Muhammad Ali understood the process of determining a lifestyle when he stated, “the fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” We need a source of power that affects us before the decision arrives. Matthew 6:6 states this very fact: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

We see from the evidence that it is impossible to consciously effect enough change in ourselves to be consistent in making these “shoelace” choices. We cannot perfect ourselves through force of will; instead, we must let God change us and help us become the kind of person that is loving and kind by nature. He is our source of power, the author and finisher of our faith.

How much could a pair of shoelaces matter? Not much, right? Their only purpose is to hold your shoes together. Still, I think shoelaces are pretty important. Just try tying your laces too tight for a few days and see if it makes a difference! Normally that’s what I do: tie the laces as tight as possible so the shoe doesn’t slide around. The problem with that approach is that once I sit down to work for a few hours, extra blood goes to my feet and they get bigger while the shoes don’t. Since I don’t enjoy being uncomfortable like that, the other day I tried tying the laces a bit looser . . . and had a wonderful day. Shoelaces made the difference between a bad day and a good day.

There are hundreds of little things that affect us like shoelaces do. In some sense, you can decide what kind of day you’re going to have by adjusting these “shoelaces” in your life. Can you think of what they might be for you? Here are a few ideas:

• Setting aside time to pray
• Reading the Bible in the morning
• Talking to family members or coworkers
• Driving a little slower to work instead of fighting traffic
• Listening to music that encourages you

As you can see, “shoelaces” take on many forms, but they always affect the way we think and interact with the world around us. Here’s some even better news: we have the ability to affect other people as well. Actually, that’s both good news and bad news, we can affect them positively or negatively, but let’s focus on the positive ways we can affect others. Here’s a hint from the book of James: “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” (James 3:4-5)

What we say can change how someone feels about their day or even their life. Proverbs 15:23 reminds us that “a man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” How much could ‘a word spoken in due season’ matter? I think it could matter a great deal. The video clip embedded below is an example of that. The story is fictional, but human nature is the same. Take a few minutes to brighten up your day and get inspired about helping others with the power of a good word!

Now it’s your turn to validate somebody, because you — you are great. You have the ability to take someone’s day and make it better with only a word. You have enormous potential just waiting to be used. How about practicing on someone right now? Leave a comment on this post to let us know how it goes!

Continue reading in Part 2 of this series!

Those two words comprise the opening line of many lame jokes, so much so that when heard, the victim typically begins to groan before the second “knock” is uttered. But, being a good sport, the poor wretch selected for this joke of a joke will usually reply, “who’s there?”

As I was praying the other day, I found that God was revealing to me that the some of the things I’m afraid of or unsure about are actually part of God’s plan for a greater relationship with him.  And this is not a new thing. Here is the picture that came to my mind.  It’s hard to convey but I have tried and I hope it helps you somewhat.

Imagine yourself sitting in a shell of self protection. This shell has not been formed because you don’t desire to do something for God; although not everything is crystal clear, of course, generally it hasn’t been formed because you don’t understand what to do. But for whatever reason, it’s been programmed in your mind that its better not to do anything “abnormal” and stay in this shell, because then you can control and minimize the damage and pain if something backfires.

Maybe it’s a weird concept, but if God were to come to you in this state and ask you to do something for Him, that request might be something that would seem to be dangerous or wouldn’t make sense to you. But that’s because we can’t see past this shell of “damage control.”  The knock comes on the outside of our little shell: it’s Jesus calling us to a dimension of increased faith.

We hear the knock, but our “stinkin’ thinkin’” tells us that this voice — this knock — is just another failure waiting to happen. Jesus is shaking our little shell and our mind thinks it’s a horrific event. But breaking out of that fear will liberate us to see things we couldn’t see before. It will allow us to experience things we’ve dreamed of, but never imagined that they might be just outside the limits we’ve put on ourselves and on God.

In fact, the very thing you are afraid of might be what God is calling you to do. Does it seem scary right now?  Fear of failure, of what others think, of rejection, and of emotional pain: all of these bombard our faith, telling us to stay in the shell. “It’s safer in here.” But staying in a nest is not how you learn to fly.

I’ve found out over and over again that once you step out on His word, there’s nothing greater!  Talking an absolute stranger into being baptized is one of the most amazing things that has ever happened to me. Most recently, the “sacrifice” of time He asked me to make is turning out to be one of the sweetest parts of my day. So over this next week I would like you to ask yourself, and search your heart — is there something your afraid of? Maybe it’s a big thing, maybe not. But ask God again “is this you calling me?”

I challenge you: the next time your knees begin to knock with fear, ask “who’s there?”

In reality, that’s a distorted view of the way submission is supposed to work. Submission is supposed to be a relationship in which each party has a healthy respect for the other. Although one person may have authority over the other, they would not do anything to harm the other individual.

We see people learning to live up to their full potential through submission almost every day around us. No model is perfect, but let’s examine the model of a teacher and a student. When the student submits to the teacher’s instruction and begins giving all their effort to their studies, the teacher can teach in a way that maximizes the student’s learning capacity.

The student would likely not learn near as much without the help of the teacher. Think of the teacher’s help as guidance that the student submits to. Without it, the student would not reach their full potential.

I’ve come to see parallels to this model in our walk with God. He, along with many other individuals in our lives – such as pastors, youth leaders, deacons, elders and parents – are our spiritual teachers. If we learn to submit to their instructions and grow under them, then we will be able to reach our full potential. We will grow up to be what God has promised us we would be, strong and thriving in Him, unhindered by things that would hinder us otherwise.

Submission done right is a positive experience. As was mentioned at the beginning of the article, many people don’t know how authority figures are really supposed to act. It takes seeing it in action to appreciate how submission can really be a good thing and the key to your potential.

Are there any positive experiences you’ve had with a mentor or teacher? Encourage someone else to follow God’s plan for submission – the right way – and reach their potential: share your story in the comments section!