I got a tattoo over the weekend. Okay, it's only a spray-on tattoo, but it is the visual reminder of my weekend, of a night on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with my leadership students and over 700 other junior high school students. I have received comments, questions, and even a look from a stranger about the tattoo, most of which have required me to explain its origin. This tattoo is a symbol of my past, and these events show me that my decision to get one in the past has affected me in the present.
The same is true for all our decisions. The choices we make in the past, whether public or private, influence our present perceptions, behavior, and dispositions. This is true not only for major life decisions-- a career path or spouse, for instance-- but even for the daily habits of thinking in which we actively and passively engage. For the major life choices, a person's choice of career is a more obvious example. In my own life, my decision to teach junior high school students has affected my disposition to a noticeable extent. In this role, I am compelled to organize and lead, to advocate and express opinions, to correct myself and others, and so reflect and learn, so much so and with such regularity that my behavior in the classroom has affected my behavior and outlook on life outside it. I am firmer in my personal boundaries than was true in the past because I am required to be this way with students. My place as an English teacher has influenced what I choose to read in my spare time, and even the fact that I read at all; and my problem-solving practices and observations in the classroom have affected my perception of how problems should be solved in theory and how they actually are solved in reality. Even my choice of when to listen and when to speak has been tempered in part by turn-taking practices in the classroom.
If we are influenced by major life choices, we are still more affected by our habits of thinking. Although our thinking habits are less obvious than major life decisions, I believe they influence our perceptions about our abilities and limits more widely; determine our attitudes toward our respective pasts, presents, and futures more broadly; and affect our perspectives about own and others' worth more thoroughly than our more obvious life choices. What you choose to make of yourself when you look in the mirror-- and I do believe that what you make of yourself is a choice-- manifests itself most visibly in how you behave alone and with others; and how you choose to view others in relation to you affects how you will behave toward them. A person who sees others as obstacles to overcome a problem will treat a person very differently than one who sees them as partners in order to solve it. Someone accustomed to snap judgments will respond differently to a person than one who chooses to reserve them. If you spend enough time with a person, in fact, you can decipher what he or she thinks of himself or others, and his or her general outlook on life, without that person ever telling you so.
This does not mean we are a mere product of our environment, on the one hand, and that we are only what we think, on the other. Human beings are more complex creatures than is sometimes presented in the nature-nurture debate, and our own perceptions about ourselves and others can change. It is only to say that we must believe about ourselves what God believes about us, and we must respond by believing that he sees others in the same way. This mindset comes only with the practice encouraged by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Like a spray-on tattoo, then, a person's mindset about himself or herself and others can fade enough so that the reality of a person becomes visible. I certainly have far to go in this regard, but I can be encouraged in the hope that it is possible with God's help.
The same is true for all our decisions. The choices we make in the past, whether public or private, influence our present perceptions, behavior, and dispositions. This is true not only for major life decisions-- a career path or spouse, for instance-- but even for the daily habits of thinking in which we actively and passively engage. For the major life choices, a person's choice of career is a more obvious example. In my own life, my decision to teach junior high school students has affected my disposition to a noticeable extent. In this role, I am compelled to organize and lead, to advocate and express opinions, to correct myself and others, and so reflect and learn, so much so and with such regularity that my behavior in the classroom has affected my behavior and outlook on life outside it. I am firmer in my personal boundaries than was true in the past because I am required to be this way with students. My place as an English teacher has influenced what I choose to read in my spare time, and even the fact that I read at all; and my problem-solving practices and observations in the classroom have affected my perception of how problems should be solved in theory and how they actually are solved in reality. Even my choice of when to listen and when to speak has been tempered in part by turn-taking practices in the classroom.
If we are influenced by major life choices, we are still more affected by our habits of thinking. Although our thinking habits are less obvious than major life decisions, I believe they influence our perceptions about our abilities and limits more widely; determine our attitudes toward our respective pasts, presents, and futures more broadly; and affect our perspectives about own and others' worth more thoroughly than our more obvious life choices. What you choose to make of yourself when you look in the mirror-- and I do believe that what you make of yourself is a choice-- manifests itself most visibly in how you behave alone and with others; and how you choose to view others in relation to you affects how you will behave toward them. A person who sees others as obstacles to overcome a problem will treat a person very differently than one who sees them as partners in order to solve it. Someone accustomed to snap judgments will respond differently to a person than one who chooses to reserve them. If you spend enough time with a person, in fact, you can decipher what he or she thinks of himself or others, and his or her general outlook on life, without that person ever telling you so.
This does not mean we are a mere product of our environment, on the one hand, and that we are only what we think, on the other. Human beings are more complex creatures than is sometimes presented in the nature-nurture debate, and our own perceptions about ourselves and others can change. It is only to say that we must believe about ourselves what God believes about us, and we must respond by believing that he sees others in the same way. This mindset comes only with the practice encouraged by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Like a spray-on tattoo, then, a person's mindset about himself or herself and others can fade enough so that the reality of a person becomes visible. I certainly have far to go in this regard, but I can be encouraged in the hope that it is possible with God's help.
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