You Live & You Learn

When I first became a teacher, I used to ask my students one simple question. What did you learn last year? Each year I had at least one person tell me nothing. I used to get annoyed with that response until the year that I taught half my students for the second year in a row. I stood in front of the class and asked the same question. What did you learn last year? Just like all of the years past, a few of them responded nothing.

What I gathered from their response was there was nothing about our time together that made a lasting impact on their lives. I could have been upset or hurt, but honestly we all have been in situations where we were being taught without actually learning anything.

This happens in our everyday lives and it certainly happens in what we call our spiritual lives. I will use myself as the example. I grew up a member of a church that valued having children involved in the ministry. We were taught different scriptures, bible stories, and Christian principles by which to live our lives. I heard what was being said. I could recall the information that I read and I certainly knew right from wrong. However, I wasn't actually learning anything because I was not living according to what was being taught.

I had a form of Godliness, but that was not living. That was existing. I existed by adding scripture and bible stories to my mental Rolodex. I existed by going to church and saying I believed in God. I existed by being nice to to people who I cared for and disregarding those that I did not. I cursed, drank, and did whatever I wanted. That is until realized that I had been existing and existing is living a life without a relationship with God. 

Existing is living a life that does not represent God's principles. Existing is knowing how to follow God and choosing instead to follow your own path. Existing is believing in the old adage you live and you learn instead of understanding that learning cannot take place until you are living in God.

Adayinthelife:-)