I will be on paternity leave starting with next weeks episode since our baby girl is coming by next week, but we will have guest speakers for the next several weeks! They bring a different perspective, which is exactly what I brought to lunch today. Bella, our friend Brianna's daughter, wouldn't eat her chicken. No matter what Brianna tried, Bella refused. Then I gave it a whirl, and wouldn't you know it, she at it. Same fork. Same chicken. But a different person offering it. Aren't kids funny? Well...I think there is a lesson here. We would do well to ensure that we are sitting at the feet of more than one teacher - there is great wisdom in listening to a variety of different perspectives! Even with our children, we should be sure they have several different mentors - because even though we're saying the same things, sometimes it doesn't quite sink in until we hear it from a different perspective.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
I will be on paternity leave starting with next weeks episode since our baby girl is coming by next week, but we will have guest speakers for the next several weeks! They bring a different perspective, which is exactly what I brought to lunch today. Bella, our friend Brianna's daughter, wouldn't eat her chicken. No matter what Brianna tried, Bella refused. Then I gave it a whirl, and wouldn't you know it, she at it. Same fork. Same chicken. But a different person offering it. Aren't kids funny? Well...I think there is a lesson here. We would do well to ensure that we are sitting at the feet of more than one teacher - there is great wisdom in listening to a variety of different perspectives! Even with our children, we should be sure they have several different mentors - because even though we're saying the same things, sometimes it doesn't quite sink in until we hear it from a different perspective.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! I’m your host BJ Sipe – I’m a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. In this podcast we take everyday, ordinary events and explore how they can teach us extraordinary, eternal truths. I’m so glad that you joined me for this episode. Now, let’s open up our minds, our hearts, and our Bible’s together.
Before we get into today’s episode, I’ve got an announcement to make! As you all know, we are getting very close to baby time over here. As a matter of fact, we are only just over a week away from a scheduled induction – and there is a pretty good chance that Finley will come on her own before that. With that being said, I am going to be taking a little bit of a break from podcasting for a few weeks as I enjoy some paternity leave at home with my family. However, the show must go on. Y’all remember Kenny Embry, the host of Balancing the Christian Life podcast, right? Well, he and several others are going to be stepping in and sharing their own perspectives while I am away. So, starting with next Tuesday, you can still expect a new episode to drop each week – just with a different guest speaker! I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you are too. Now, on to today’s lesson.
I had an early morning today, as I have a new study that starts at 6:30 am – so I was up by 5:30 AM – which is at least good practice for the baby. I had a 9 am class prep session with Philip Smith immediately after my early study, and by the time we wrapped up around 11 AM my stomach had been up for 6 ½ hours and was ready for lunch. I called Kylie and asked if I would be in the way if I came home a bit early for lunch, to which she responded that I should absolutely come home! Our dear friend Brianna Ratliff and her daughter Bella were over for a play date and we could all just do lunch together. We cooked up some chicken, some macaroni & cheese, and some green beans to go along with some fruit for us all. As you can imagine, no matter what you end up making, trying to get a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old to eat everything that is put in front of them is going to be a challenge. Dane annihilated his macaroni & fruit, but the rest took some convincing. Ava did pretty good overall, which was nice. Now Bella, well, she apparently has been protesting eating her meat for her mom and dad as of late. We sat and enjoyed watching Brianna try to convince her to eat her chicken, but no matter how Brianna presented it she wouldn’t eat it. Finally, Kylie suggested that she let me give it a try, for which I was totally game. I picked up the same fork, the same chicken, and started doing my Disney impressions for Bella (I’m told I do a spot-on Donald Duck & Mickey Mouse). After pretending to eat her chicken, I then offered it to Bella while doing my silly voices – and guess what? She ate it with a grin, no questions asked. “Well that figures,” Brianna laughed, “I guess you’re gonna have to come over at meal times and help her eat her meat then.” We all laughed, because we’ve all dealt with this with our children. It might not make much sense to us, but that’s the way it goes. You can have the same food, the same fork, whatever it might be – but your kids won’t eat it until someone else offers it to them. All they needed was a different perspective.
As I thought about this, I realized how many practical spiritual lessons can be taken from this instance this afternoon. We have talked about this principle in part before, but we want to revisit it and get a little bit more specific this time around. Let’s begin by considering the wisdom of the Proverbs, as we will see this principle repeated time and time again. “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” (Proverbs 11:14) “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22) “For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.” (Proverbs 24:6) The commonality between all of these Proverbs is clear: there is great wisdom in inquiring from many sources, and hearing from several different perspectives. Now let me clarify – we are not suggesting that there are many truths, and you just choose the one that best suits your desires. That is called having itching ears, and Paul warns Timothy about this in his second letter to him in chapter four. What I am suggesting is that sometimes the truth can be presented in different ways and from different perspectives, and often one will resonate with us better than another. The message is the same, the point is the same, but when we hear it presented by someone else than we’ve heard before – it’s often in this moment that it finally makes sense or becomes easier for us to understand.
There are a lot of practical applications as a result of understanding this principle. First, it’s important to not just sit at the foot of one teacher. Consider what we are told about the church at Antioch in Acts 13:1, “Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” In many churches today, there is primarily one man who does most of the teaching and preaching publicly. While there are perhaps benefits to this, there are certainly a lot of disadvantages to this as well. I feel particularly blessed to be a part of the church family here in Danville that was much like Antioch because of how many men are regularly involved in teaching & preaching. While I certainly do the majority of the pulpit lessons, every month there are others who preach also – often it is Mike Estes, but sometimes it’s someone else. For example, in this upcoming month with my paternity leave, we will have at least 5 different speakers by the end of the month. This is of huge benefit to the church, because while the truth is always being proclaimed be each of us, sometimes we learn better from someone else. We would do well to ensure that we are regularly sitting at the foot of not just one teacher, but many teachers. But there are other applications as well. Naturally, as parents, we are primarily responsible for teaching and instructing our children (see Ephesians 6:4). However, it is critical that we ensure that our children have good mentors that they can go to and learn from as well. Growing up, my parents would say things to me until they were blue in the face – but I wouldn’t listen. I was stubborn & rebellious. And yet, someone else that I respected would come along and tell me literally the exact same thing from a different perspective – and guess what? It finally sunk in. There is great wisdom in what Paul teaches in Titus 2, where older women are to mentor the younger women, and older men are to mentor the younger men. We need mentors, not just one, but many, because with many counselors there is success.
There are many more practical applications that we can learn from this truth, but I think that at this point we get the picture. I’m excited that in the next few weeks we get to put this truth into practice. While many of you have graciously shared the encouragement you get from the perspectives I offer, you are going to get to sit at the feet of some incredible guest speakers over the next few weeks. Guys that I learn from regularly and get great encouragement from. Please tune in for them, and then subscribe to their own podcasts, because the way they present things might just be exactly the way that you need to hear the truths of God’s Word.
Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode, and I would invite you back every Tuesday for a brand-new episode each week. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for occasional announcements and special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, please if you’re able to be sure to share it with someone else that you think could benefit from it as well. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.