Week 8 | Chris

It wasn't until recently, within the past year or so, that I really began to honor and respect my parents as an adult.  I've always loved them and respected them as a son and child, but since then I've learned to see them in a different light.  I completely agree with what PB says about keeping that respectful and honoring submission to one's own parents.  I do at times see my Mom in a light I shouldn't.  My mom struggles with a language barrier from her being born in China.  So my mother really looks to me for help with the culture here and always asks me for advice.  Sometimes it can get really annoying and frustrating because she is so persistent and I know deep down I feel like I don't want to hold that responsibility of help my own mom with such heavy topics (parenting my brother, etc).  I remember a few Sundays ago PB talked about basically the same thing that he went through with his father.  It really reminded my of all the great trait my mom has, that I could never think of having.  My mom came to the US when she was 18 years old, not known a single word of english.  Just that alone is pretty amazing and the fact that she works really hard and is very persistently loving of everyone.
I never looked at life as a story.  It's a really interesting and motivating take on life.  Changing my story and making it interesting is what first comes to mind.  The video on narrative really just moves me and motivates me to just make my life interesting and exciting.  But at the same time, offer others a better and great story.  The part where he talked about the daughter wanting a better story with her father really made something inside click.  I want to be a person that offers others an interesting story to live.

"We cannot volunteer for transformation.  We must be slain by Jesus to be transformed. The person receiving prayer cannot lead themselves to slaughter themselves to slaughter their own flesh by their own efforts. Instead Christ slays them"

Reading this without knowing what I know now would be a very very intense bible verse.  Just hearing the word slain brings a kind of fear in my head.  But after sitting on the verse a little I began to see slain as "repentance", "cleansing", "sanctification".

Having good roots is a key in having a fruitful life.  Roots without bitterness and resentment help grow a healthy tree.  I believe that a persons roots really heavily relies on their relationship with their parents.  This is where honor your parents may come in to play.  Having a good relationship with parents from an early age can really affect the life of a child and adult.  But there are many factors in how bitter roots are made.

The most important thing is knowing how to identify and cast out the bad.  Although the process may be self-explanatory, the process cannot be done alone.  I believe that cleaning something that has been deeply embedded in you requires the help from the church, as PB says:

"Also we need the church to build one up after being slain"