Stop Editing Your Life, Let Someone Do It!

“Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.” Romans 12:2 ERV

There are two ways to change ourselves, DIY (do it yourself) or let somebody do it for us.

Really? I don’t have to do anything?

Of course not, but what this verse is saying – don’t let your own effort make/implement the change. There are inner workings that needs to happen in our heart before we can make changes to our life. I know for a fact that I can put persistence to the new habits that I want to form/learn/activate in my life but I know that it will take an enormous amount of time/effort for the effects to take place. There is an easy way – let God do it for you from the inside out, meaning – that the change has to be internal first and then the actual transformation follows in the physical realm which can be visible by other human beings.

My son is now 17 and in senior high school. His academic ranking is close to top 5 (not percent, but the actual #). He is a tennis varsity player and ranks #2 in the team. No girlfriend (zip, nada). Does not drink or smoke or do drugs. He is somewhat obedient at times but can be rebellious 15.5 % of the time.

But…

Yes, there is a but.

He is very unorganized, his room is like a mad scientist lab and his bed looks like it was meant to be occupied 24/7 – meaning he does not make his bed at all. My background is military. When I was in the US Army, I was trained to become a soldier ready for battle at all times. I did not understand the meaning of boot camp at all when I was still in boot camp training but when I arrived at my first duty station in South Korea in 1992, I realized that the training/indoctrination that the army did to us was for real – there was a purpose in all the individual tasks that we trained for. The purpose was to mold us to become the same individual in body and mind and being able to follow orders and execute a mission and accomplish an objective without failure.

It’s been more that 20 years now since I joined the army. I served for 4 years only but the things that I’ve learned and grasp during my 4 year enlistment was worth every minute. Even now, I still missed the life in the military. I love the structure, the discipline, the brotherhood and the mindset.

Lately, I’ve been wishing that I could send my son to boot camp and let him go through the hardship and strict training that I’ve been through. But that is not possible so what I’m doing lately is showing him examples of how a soldier is trained for battle. Each day, I spend time with him chit chatting (not lecturing) about life in general (gentleman way). We talked for a few minutes each day regarding positive and negative things that happened and what countermeasures I put in place to prevent from something to reoccur. I have less than a year to mentor this guy since he is leaving for college next year and I need to make sure that he is equipped with the right internal knowledge on how to live a good life.

I understand that I cannot edit my son’s life to the way that I wanted it to be. Nor does he can by himself. I’m doing the best I can to mentor him and show him that life can be made much easier if we slow down and listen to our heart and values. I’ve demonstrated to him that I believed in God and study and read the Bible regularly. I’ve showed him how to conduct business with other human beings with utmost respect. I’ve displayed my extra ability to organized my material things such us books, utensils, tools, computers, files, library, paperworks in file cabinets. I’ve showed him how I disciplined my body to perform the right amount of training in my swim, bike and run program. In short, I’ve showed him a lot already.

To Brent – May what I’ve showed to you today may become a guiding light in the days to come. You can’t change yourself, I certainly cannot , but surely God can.

To my dear readers – to some of you that are thinking of changing for the better, I want to encourage you, don’t do it on your own. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in your transformation. It maybe hard at first but one day you will say “God did it for me and it was not in my full effort”.

I have not attained perfection in life yet but I can truly tell you that the changes that I’ve been through internally we’re not because I willed and forged myself to change, it was God’s hand holding me throughout the process of change.

See it at YouVersion.com: http://bible.com/406/rom.12.2.erv