**Sidenote: Don't do this study if you aren't ready to be convicted about something!
Anyways, today she talked about yielding. She posed the question... "When you see a yield sign, what do you do?" Everyone on the video and in the room said "slow down so the other person can go". Well, clearly I needed this lesson more than they did because my response was "speed up so you can beat the other guy and not get stuck behind a slow driver!" Oops.. :)
Yielding is hard for me. Obviously. I feel like I am giving in or giving up if I yield to a person or situation where there are two conflicting ideas or where I have been previously hurt. I feel justified in my way of thinking... especially if the other person in the situation has caused harm or been unkind to me, I do not want to yield to that type of person for sure! Trust me, I know people like that too. And it's especially hard to yield in a situation where I feel I am right-- which of course, is often. :)
But she explained yielding differently. She explained that yielding to something or someone is not giving in. She said "we yield out of wisdom from above, not out of fear below". We have to be looking towards God to know when to yield to a situation or person- even if we might be right, there are times when we must extend mercy and yield. She explains this a lot better than I will so I recommend doing her James study. Nonetheless, I still wasn't sold on this idea of yielding. Several situations/people popped up in my mind during this lesson and I was not sure I could yield.
So...When I came home, I put Caylee down for her nap and started in on my normal quiet time. Guess what? There was that word again... yield... ugh! A situation has continued to come to my mind throughout this entire study. In this situation I have been hurt numerous times and my guard is constantly up and yet here I am with the clear knowledge that God is asking me to yield- not to give in and, as Beth says, not to allow myself "to be trampled on in a situation", but to receive wisdom from above and yield-to extend mercy and basically, in my own terms "to be the bigger person". Thankfully, this time I saw the word, God softened the idea in my head (I'm still wrapping my heart around it), and what I read this afternoon compared yielding to that of a palm tree.
I figure God must have a sense of humor in all these lessons we learn because of course He would use a palm tree! I LOVE palm trees, to me they symbolize the beach, peace and calmness- how could I refuse to listen to something that involved palm trees!?!
Anyways, did you know, a palm tree bends during storms? Did you also know that it's root systems exceed the height of the tree? Basically, during a storm a palm tree has the ability to "yield" or "bend" and amazingly after the storm they can stand straight again and come out stronger than before. Also, the root systems are super deep in palm trees, which gives them solid anchor during the storm. Do you see what I see yet? Yielding isn't about giving in or letting people walk over you. Yielding does not mean you will break. There are times when God asks you to bend a little or a lot, but don't worry- you'll come out stronger in the end. And the roots? Obviously, it's a great reminder that we need to be so deep into God's words that we cannot be uprooted by even the strongest storm. Pretty cool, I thought!
So... to wrap things up.... yielding is not weakness or breakage, in fact, it's just the opposite- it's strength and adaptability. Yielding is wisdom from above and yielding is merciful. Now that I know this, I know the areas I need to yield in my life (driving is probably one- haha) and I'm not saying it will be easy or that I'll get it on the first try, but I love having the palm tree as a constant reminder. (Maybe I need another trip to FL for an up-close visual?!) :)
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