Repetitive Motion
We were gathered around the dinner table one night and my then 5 year old son asked, "Mama, why can't you talk normal?" To which I replied, "What do you mean talk normal?" And he said, "You know, (hands flailing) without all the motions." My husband responded, "She can't."
I talk with my hands. A lot. In fact my husband is right, I can't tell a story without "the motions". I've tried. I see this occasionally in my two elementary age kids; they get excited about something and the hands start moving. They pick up the bad habits, too. As my son's scowl grows on his face when he is frustrated I know he has seen that look on my face. We repeat the motions we see.
My grandmother had a familiar pose. She would gracefully tell stories, or listen to yours, while she absently ran her fingers over her necklace along her neckline. Moving it back and forth gently, her elbow perched on the arm of her chair. My husband says I do that. I didn't realize it until he pointed it out.
When my mother meets someone new, she leans in, tilts her head to one side, and nods a lot. I do that too. I call it the "rush" pose. She also tilts her head in every picture she has taken her entire life. My daughter follows suit.
I had a teacher who would say, "do as I say, not as I do." That's impossible. I think you do both. You see and do. That's why God's Son had to leave his throne in Heaven and come down here. He had to show us what to do, To be humble as He is humble. I am re-reading Humility by Andrew Murray and here is a quote....."Humility means giving up self, taking the place of perfect nothingness before God. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death. In death He gave the highest and perfect proof of having given up His will to do the will of God. In death, He gave up self with natural reluctance to drink the cup; He gave up life He had in union with our human nature; He died to self and the sin that tempted Him; so, as man, He entered into the perfect life of God. If it had not been for His boundless humility, counting himself as nothing except as a servant to do and suffer the will of God, He never would have died."
And another...."It is only in the possession of God that I lose myself. As it is in the height and breadth and glory of the sunshine that the smallest speck dancing in its beam is seen, even so humility is taking our place in God's presence to be nothing but a speck dancing in the sunlight of His love."
We repeat the motions we see; when you see God's humility, you repeat it. His love, that too.
I talk with my hands. A lot. In fact my husband is right, I can't tell a story without "the motions". I've tried. I see this occasionally in my two elementary age kids; they get excited about something and the hands start moving. They pick up the bad habits, too. As my son's scowl grows on his face when he is frustrated I know he has seen that look on my face. We repeat the motions we see.
My grandmother had a familiar pose. She would gracefully tell stories, or listen to yours, while she absently ran her fingers over her necklace along her neckline. Moving it back and forth gently, her elbow perched on the arm of her chair. My husband says I do that. I didn't realize it until he pointed it out.
When my mother meets someone new, she leans in, tilts her head to one side, and nods a lot. I do that too. I call it the "rush" pose. She also tilts her head in every picture she has taken her entire life. My daughter follows suit.
And another...."It is only in the possession of God that I lose myself. As it is in the height and breadth and glory of the sunshine that the smallest speck dancing in its beam is seen, even so humility is taking our place in God's presence to be nothing but a speck dancing in the sunlight of His love."
We repeat the motions we see; when you see God's humility, you repeat it. His love, that too.
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