Our local newspaper, The Northern Advocate has a weekly column for the different Pastors and Ministers in Whangarei to write a guest piece (called Perceptions of Faith) and it was my turn last Saturday. Here's my article... and even as I re-read it I'm so challenged. May we all become people who are skilled at mining for gold.
Mining is hard work –
not that I have any personal experience as a miner. When I hear the word “mining” I think back to
the early images I’ve seen in movies and read about in books. Images of hard working men come to mind,
covered in sweat and grime, risking so much - even their lives, to find
something precious that is a much-needed resource or jewel.
A while back at a
parent/teacher evening at our school, I received a challenge from one of my
children’s teachers. It was the
challenge to look for the gold in my child.
I've thought a lot about this phrase over the last months and have not
only pondered searching out the gold in my kids but also in my marriage, my
job, my community, my church and my everyday life.
As I said before, it
takes effort to mine for treasure – you have to look hard and sometimes you
need to search for a while to actually uncover the gems hidden beneath the
rubble or behind the hard, cold walls.
It's easy to focus on
the negative stuff isn't it? I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I
find it way easier to stand around and point out the dirt and grime, the cold
hard walls in the tunnels and the problems and risks ahead, than to make the
effort to actually go mining for gold and precious jewels. It’s so much easier to point out what my kids
are doing wrong, their flaws and imperfections... doing the same thing with my
husband, my neighbours, my home, my job and the everyday ups and downs of life.
Taking the time and effort to actually look for the gold and precious
jewels and even verbalise it and point it out to others is life changing, yet
so often I just can’t be bothered.
If something is life
changing, surely, we should take notice and make the effort to do it?
Try it... I dare you
to find some gold in your kids, your spouse, your job, your house, that
annoying person at work. See if you can
verbalise it to yourself and them (obviously your house won't be impacted if
you point out it's 'golden' points, but you never know!).
I’m so thankful that
God is someone who looks past the dirt and muck in our lives and sees the real
us. He loves us even when we are a mess,
and is the God of second chances. He
speaks out the gold in us before it’s even found – I’m so glad He looks beneath
our cold and hard surfaces for the treasure hidden beneath.
1 Samuel 16:7b says “For the Lord sees
not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
I want to be someone
who is realistic about life, but knows how to focus on the good stuff at the
same time. There are so many treasures
hidden in the people around us, in our lives – we just need to roll up our
sleeves and start mining for it.
Keep looking for the gold
in your life and those around you - and remember to verbalise it to those
special little ones around you (including the lanky 6ft ones), because there is
plenty of gold sitting right there, you just sometimes have to do a bit of
digging to uncover it.
1 comments
It is evident to me that you are a very deep and laden gold mine and it's a privilege to see our God, the greatest gold miner of all, uncover and utilize all things precious in you. Sister-in-law Sandra.
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