Be Second
It is a hard lesson to learn. THE WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU. Quite frankly, in middle school...it does. At least that is the mindset of most middle schoolers. It is how we are wired. It is what life has taught us. If we do not look out for ourselves...no one else will. It is a lie.
Being second is the best way to have others look out for your well being. To care for you. To have your back. When you set a precedent with others that you constantly put yourself second, people want to do things for you and serve you in return. This process takes time, which is probably why it is so hard. It takes establishing a history to putting yourself second and putting the needs of others first before you start to see that others will rally around you and follow your lead and to fight for your heart. Jesus said it himself...
Mark 10:43-45 NIV
43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
BEING SECOND is the lace in a football. It weaves itself around all the other DIALS and pulls them all together. Think about it. To KNOW CHRIST, you must submit to Him. Let him inside and serve him. Let him take control and turn away from the independence that Adam and Eve declared in the beginning. To BE IN COMMUNITY you must submit to a greater body, a greater good and protect the interests and members of that group before your own. To HONOR WOMEN means to strip yourself of the ways of this world that make women objects and protect them and their beauty at all costs. To EMBRACE ADVENTURE, you must come to realization that life is the adventure. It’s risky, you may get hurt but you have what it takes to authentically engage the world around you and in turn that burning desire for adventure will be fulfilled.
We owe it to our sons to teach them that the world needs them. It needs their kindness, their mercy and their grace. Ultimately, we want justice and mercy to dictate our son’s actions and have them walk humbly with the Lord their entire life (Micah 6:8). To submit to Christ not out of debt but out of reverence (Ephesians 5:21). Not because we feel guilty but because it leads to the life that Christ designed for us…before the fall.
"and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all."
Mark 10:44
