In Search of a Teachable Spirit

I just started re-reading the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver for our summer book club at church.  I remember it being so good about ten years ago when I first read it, and I know that God desires to use it to shape my heart for Him as I read it again.  When I think about Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus in Luke 10:38-42 a calm sweeps over me that I long to have each day.  But too often I am like her sister Martha - scurrying about to get things done and missing some important moments in front of me!

Over the last year especially I have felt God prompting me to simply "be still" before Him (Psalm 46:10) and allow Him to speak into the seemingly mundane moments of my day as well as the frantically busy moments I have often.  But I still continue to fight being still!  In contemplating Mary's spirit before the Lord, God has prompted me with the reminder to have a teachable spirit before Him as I seek to learn to be still.

Do you know people who don't seem to really possess a teachable spirit?  I have encountered them in many different places, but I guess I have found it most frustrating to encounter them when I've been teaching piano lessons, or in counseling, or even in my 4 year old son.  I mean, there aren't many things I claim to know more about than others, but in the instance of teaching piano, I do hope I know a little bit more than my young students just starting out.  And when it comes to cutting paper I think I know a little bit more than my stubborn son still in his first years of using scissors!  (Obviously this is what is fresh on my mind today!)

It can be easy to spot an unteachable spirit in those who may know less about certain subjects than I do, but can I admit to not always having a teachable spirit before the Lord?  

Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?  So here is where humility has to step in.  In order to have a teachable spirit before the Lord, we have to humbly admit that He knows so much more than we can possibly even begin to fathom with our human brains! (See Isaiah 55:8-9).  And we as humans do not like to admit our shortcomings.  But it is there in our weakness that Christ is made strong (2 Corinthians 12:9).  And we are made strong as we allow Him to do a work in our lives for which He alone knows the blueprint (Ephesians 2:10).

It can seem so ridiculous to me when my son is unwilling to listen to me for help with things he is just beginning to learn, so I can't imagine God's thoughts when I am too stubborn to just listen to Him for infinitely greater wisdom.  Don't you just love it when God gives you a picture of yourself in a small child?  Ugh!

Lord, help me to have a teachable spirit that can be molded by you, ready to be used for you!