Learning Moments

kingjamesbibleonline.org

I am an HR/Training & Development Manager by trade.  I enjoy my position.  Okay, not every day.  There are days when it is taxing and overwhelming with issues and strategies and issues and projects and issues and (well, you get the theme).  Yet, the largest portion of my job is teaching.  I believe I have my parents to thank for that.  They were both public school teachers (one of the most admirable careers I can think of).  I took the skill and moved over to the business sector.  My professional goal has been to try and teach, coach, and assist others in their learning journey.  To me there is no better feeling than to watch someone have that "Ah, ha" moment when their perspective changes, behavior changes, performance changes - and they decide to become someone different, someone better.

I realized a few years ago, though, that my personal learning moments were few.  I was too "busy".  I had too much to do.  After all, I worked full time, I am a wife and mother of four,  . . . . I was just too busy to learn.  Certainly, I had a desire to learn, but I didn't have the time.  Have you been there?  Maybe you are there today?  Life is too busy to learn, there is too much to do to learn, to better ourselves, to try and achieve more.  It can happen, that time when we realize that life is too much for us.  I was there.  Nobody could possibly understand what I was going through.  Nobody before me had ever felt such a weight on their shoulders. Nobody.  I was trying to do all the right things, but they seemed like 'one more thing' I needed to do instead of a blessing that I was provided the opportunity to do.  

Then, I realized, that the learning moments didn't have to come in a classroom, or with a specific coach/mentor, or through online courses.  I had the best teacher in the world - I had Jesus~~   I felt called to begin this learning.  I had other areas where I could have moved forward.  I could have gone back to school to get my MBA, I could have searched for other degree programs, but they didn't seem to be the ones that were calling my heart.  Jesus seemed to be calling my heart.  He was the one that was saying, "It's time - it is your turn to learn."

Let the learning begin!!  I am blessed to have a supportive husband who is willing to learn with me.  Together we have been learning through Bible Studies as I try to better understand this new platform to learn.  There are daily devotions to be read and Bible Verses to look up.  There was even a challenge a year or so ago to read the Bible in a year through our church.  This has been something I have always wanted to do.  I did it!!  I hope to do it again!!  There was so much to learn, so much to grasp, notes to be made and lessons to be gained.  I will never be able to gain everything our Dear Lord has for us to learn.  Yet, I finally feel as if my heart is being filled - I have had my "ah, ha" moment.  I look forward to learning more about God and His plan for me and my family.   

As I share with my associates at work, we have learning moments every day.  Moments, when we open our minds and heart, when we can learn something new if we actually listen to someone, ask questions of them, have the humility to believe that we don't know it all!!  We are not just the teachers, we are the learners.  Learn - take advantage of the multitude of avenues there are to grasp God's Word now.  Sign up for a Bible Verse a day, maybe a daily devotion that pops into your inbox each morning to start your day off on the right note, perhaps a study group nearby (there are even online ones).  Are you looking for something more conventional?  Open your Bible.  You don't have to have "a plan".  Just open and read.  I guarantee that Our Dear Lord will speak to you.  Have the humility to learn, heaven's wisdom awaits you!

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."  (NIV) James 3:17