Ambassadors Spend Quality Time

via TJC

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.”

John 17:6-8

Recently I took on a months-long project to level part of our yard for a pool. It involved excavating and leveling a 12 foot square area of hill, 2 feet at the deepest point, constructing a deck and filling the center with sand to support the pool. My 6 year old son was out helping me more than our other two, 4 and 8, and he was present from the first time we broke ground to finally spreading out and leveling the sand. He dug out rocks, played archaeologist, jumped off the 2 foot high wall onto the dirt pile while I worked. We talked about his games and he helped with each phase for as long as his attention and strength would allow. When the job was almost finished he had an idea and called me over so I could press my hand into the sand next to his to commemorate our hard work. He compared our hands, saying “Wow, yours is huge! I can’t wait to have huge hands and muscles like you when I am older!” I smiled, hugged him and said I look forward to when he is big and strong because then we can do even more projects together.

    The more I ponder that moment the more I understand where his comment came from. He watched me transform our hill over a month, lifting and moving many rocks that weighed more than he did, wheeling away hundreds of pounds of dirt in our wheelbarrow, swinging 8 foot long 2x12s around for the deck and carrying 2650 lbs of sand bags to the location. He tried to help with each task but experienced how heavy the rocks, boards and bags were. He also saw that I could lift them for hours on end which left a strong impression on him.

    I cannot pinpoint when “just spending time” with my son turned into “quality time” but I know it did and we can see the same for the Apostles. Each started off spending time with an interesting rabbi and matured through their experiences to value the quality of what Jesus taught them during that time. We cannot plan or choose for a moment to be important to someone else but we can control the amount of time we spend and the actions we do with people. As we learn to call people to discipleship, we must look for experiences to be around each other so that through our manifestation of Jesus' love, spending time with us brings quality to those around us and calls them to be better.

Daily Battle Order:

Who is God calling you to have quality time with this week as his ambassador?  Pray and ask God to reveal a path that would allow you to demonstrate Christ in an impressionable way.  Then follow through and invite them to spend time with you trusting that your time will be fruitful.

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