10 Minute Tuesday

Every Tuesday, Faithful Chick hosts a blog carnival where she posts scripture and her response to it. She then gives us 10 minutes to meditate on what we've read and post our own response on our blogs. Here is today's scripture:

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
- 2 Corinthians 3:1-5

The first part of this verse hearkens back to my first days staying at home after spending nine years in the classroom. After all that time building up a curriculum vita and credentials by earning degrees, conducting workshops for other teachers, serving on panels, and the like, I found it very hard to adjust to life without tangible examples proving my worth. After much prayer, counseling, and immersion in the Word, I've learned to find my worth in Christ and as a daughter of the King.

The rest of this scripture seems more relevant to me now in this season of my life. I realize that the "letters from Christ" that I am writing are my children. What an awesome responsibility to etch on their hearts lessons from God. What kind of example am I setting for them? How can I be a good role model of Christ-likeness for them? I realize that the answer to this question, like the answer to my struggle when I first transitioned to being at home, is through God. Only by submitting myself to Him can I have true competence in writing letters, that, yes, may have some smudges and ink blots, but whose theme is God's love and grace.