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Daily Treasure
Daily Treasure is a 365-day devotional written by published author Sharon Betters and the occasional guest author. Every entry in this 365-day devotional embodies the power of God’s Word to encourage, equip, and energize the reader to walk by faith in the pathway God has marked out for them, regardless of its challenges. Devotions includes a treasure from God’s Word, life-giving applications, guided prayers, and a challenge to reflect God’s love in a way that helps turn hearts toward Jesus.
Daily Treasure
Becoming Fluent - What She Said Part 14 - Week 7 Day 4
TODAY'S TREASURE
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Becoming Fluent
Patsy Kuipers, Guest Writer
Today’s Treasure
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7
The church I attend began a small-group discipleship ministry for our women. As part of getting to know each other better, the leader of my group asked us to share a little-known fact about ourselves. I decided to tell the group about living in Argentina in the early-1970s. The usual questions regarding life in a foreign country followed, accompanied by my well-practiced answers. Being so far away from family and friends at a time when communication was limited to snail mail was decidedly difficult. However, the opportunity to experience a different culture and learn a second language was priceless.
Our 2-year stay abroad resulted from my dad accepting a temporary transfer to work for the Argentine subsidiary of his U.S. employer. Thus, part of the pre-move preparations involved my parents’ 2-week, company-paid attendance at a local Berlitz total-immersion language school. It was a stressful, morning-to-night grind, with no English allowed.
Unlike my beleaguered parents, I began my language studies once we landed in Argentina. I attended an American school where I had classes in English in the morning and classes in Spanish in the afternoon. That, plus daily interaction with native speakers in our community, provided an excellent learning environment. Nonetheless, my parents hired a tutor to help me with the intricacies of sentence structure and verb tenses.
Just as I benefited greatly from learning Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country, Christians thrive best when we’re part of God’s visible church. Scripture is clear that each of us has a vital, God-ordained place in His body and that we should not neglect meeting together. Furthermore, God’s family is composed of members of varying ages, abilities, and spiritual maturities, just like biological families. We are called to do life together in compassionate covenant communities, where we rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, and come alongside each other to teach, support, and encourage according to the gifts sovereignly apportioned to us by the Spirit.
In addition, we have a responsibility to tell the younger generations about the mighty deeds of the Lord and instruct them in His ways. Likewise, the Apostle Paul’s directions to Titus are clear regarding the role older women are to play in tutoring the younger women, teaching them the finer points of Biblical womanhood through both word and action.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
I don’t remember how long it took, but one day, to my amazement, I realized I could speak and respond in Spanish without a conscious translation step. The second language had become second nature.
And so it is with our spiritual transformation. Because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on our behalf, we’re no longer slaves to sin. Instead, we’ve become slaves to righteousness. Through the Spirit’s power at work within us, we’re able to discern what is right and true, something we could never do when we were dead in our trespasses. As our sanctification progresses, Christ’s light shines ever brighter in us, and we produce spiritual fruit. More and more, our renewed nature becomes second nature as we seek to please God and abide in Him.
Nonetheless, aspects of our old selves will persist until God calls us Home, as Paul so eloquently describes in his letter to the Romans. And so we press on to become fluent in God’s ways by studying His Word, praying, and joining with fellow believers to worship Him and stir one another to love and good works.
Even now, over five decades later and without daily use, I’m apt to spontaneously sprinkle Spanish sentences into conversations with my grandchildren. They’ve become used to these linguistic detours and know an immediate translation-repetition-translation mini-lesson is sure to follow. Yes, I can speak Spanish, though far from flawlessly. I still have trouble rolling my Rs, and I mix up verb tenses, but I enjoy the language and sharing it with my grandchildren.
How much more I savor sharing our Savior with them. I’m far from perfect when it comes to fluency in my Christian walk as well. But I pray I’ll always be faithful to spontaneously sprinkle His ways and words into our activities and conversations as I point them to the only perfect One who loves them even more than I do and encourages them to take their places in His family. May His nature become increasingly second nature for us all.
PRAYER
Dear Lord, thank You for the transforming power of the Spirit at work within us, making us more and more like Jesus. Please help us to share the wonder of Your amazing grace with the generations coming along behind us.
