Tea Time for Your Soul logo


Order Debi Newman's paperback books and Kindle ebooks on Amazon


Select A Topic:

 

 

 

Dr. Newman Amazon books
Back to Main Topics Page | Amazon Author Page | Subscribe to Emails | Report Broken Link | Site Map | Home


What Do You Want to Learn?

I really wanted my daughter to learn Spanish in college. I had the goal to become fluent in Spanish by the time I graduated from college, but quickly abandoned my plans for more exciting electives. Unfortunately, my daughter seems to be following in my footsteps. She knows that Spanish is a good thing to learn, but there is so many other classes she wants to take. God has sent me on several mission trips to Spanish speaking countries and I wish that I could communicate better with the ones He sends me to serve. I haven’t been able to convince my daughter that she may find herself feeling the same way I do now and wish she had learned Spanish in college like her mother suggested.

Jesus wants to teach me a specific subject, but it isn’t my highest priorityeither. In fact, it seems pretty irrelevant to my life and ministry. It isn’tSpanish or even theology. Jesus wants me to learn to be gentle and humble inheart. Now that’s not a lesson that I want to sign up for right away. Learninggentleness is not so bad, but I definitely don’t want to learn humility.Humility implies humiliation and I’d rather learn how to avoid that.

Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I willgive you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle andhumble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easyand my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Rest, I don’t mind learningrest. I think taking on Jesus’ yoke would be okay, but gentleness and humility,I could think of a lot better things I would want to learn first.

What if the heart of Jesus—gentleness and humility—is what is necessaryto learn anything else? Think about it, how can I learn to love if I don’thave the heart of Jesus? How can I learn to manage my money, or even learn Spanishwithout gentleness and humility? The little advances I have made in the areaof Spanish have been when I was willing to be humble and reveal how little Iknow just to learn a little more.

Perhaps Jesus is showing us that by focusing on learning gentleness and humility,we will naturally adopt all the other virtues we so desperately want. There isa plethora of lessons that evolve from a gentle and humble outlook. Perhaps someonewho is gentle and humble has a starting place for deeper insight

Now that I stop and think about it, the heart of Jesus is gentle and humble.Way gentler and humble than I deserve. That is the same heart He wants me tohave for others. What would happen in my life if I learned to have a heart likeJesus, gentle and humble? How would that increase everything else I learned inlife? Maybe I would even suggest Spanish classes to my daughter in a differenttone.

 

Respond to Dr. Newman's article


Copyright © 2001-2021. Deborah R. Newman. All Rights Reserved.

All material on this website is copyrighted. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication (or article) may be reproduced without written permission.
Request permission to reprint an article.