Good morning,

Luke 2:46-After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

If you have ever been promoted to a new position, become a new mom or dad, or moved to a new area of the country or world where the culture is different, it was probably wise to humble yourself and confess that you need to learn a thing or two.

Learning about what you need to do to be effective, helpful, or at peace where you are and what you are doing can save a lot of time, energy, and eventual heartache. But with learning comes a time of waiting and patience, that doesn’t always "cooperate" with our plan of action. We all want to be immediately effective in what we do, so we get impatient when we don’t see results, or the "payoff" from waiting.

But if you take Jesus as an example in His youth, He is sitting in the temple at a "passive season" in His life where learning is an important step for Him to fulfill His "Father’s business". He is young and at a time where He is not to reveal His miraculous gifts and divine nature as the Son of God, because He knew what season of life He was in.

The question is do we know? Of course we are forever "learners" being imperfect, though growing in grace. But are we anxious to be a great Christian, spouse, parent, friend, or co-worker, without knowing that we need to be passive many times like Jesus, and learn from everyone and everything we experience?

The ineffectiveness we maybe experiencing in certain or even all of these facets of our life, maybe because we don’t take the time to be passive and listen to God and the people He surrounds us with?

Like a young Jesus, it is important for us to always be passive enough to listen and learn before we run out and try to apply our own limited knowledge and perspective to any situation. It creates great discouragement to our souls and those around us when we realize we did not "count up the cost" it takes to "build" something, all because we failed to be humble enough to listen.

In His Love, Ld