Picture frames are used to house and protect some of our most precious memories. These frames come in all shapes and sizes as well as colors, textures and often times they have extra things added to make the frame stand out. We personally know the stories of the pictures in the frames and if you are like me, you love to tell the story. The story we tell though is from our perspective of how it happened and from our perspective is how we reference the event enclosed and protected in the frame — our “frame of reference”.
Often times, our “frame of reference” can be skewed. Maybe our mind remembered things the way we wished it had happened or along the way for some reason we changed the narrative of the story. We do this in so many areas of our life each day. I believe this even spills over into our spiritual walk. We are all guilty of doing things and saying things based on what we were taught and if we are being honest, many of us might even say that we never even took the time to read God’s word for our own understanding.
I began a journey on January 1, 2021 of reading God’s word for me. I am not reading it to prepare a message to share nor to just check it off a list, but to try and understand who God really is, who I am and what this life is really all about. On the first day of this journey, I came across the perfect verse in the book of Psalm.
Psalm 119:34 AMP
“Give me understanding (a teachable heart and the ability to learn), that I may keep Your law; And observe it with all my heart.”
How perfect for the journey I was beginning that day right? Then God….whispers in my spirit let us begin with your words. If you are like me, words fly out often— so often in fact I wish that I could catch them before they escape. How we speak though goes back to what we were taught (the reference shelf we pull from).
So, I prayed in that moment for God to help me with my words. I wanted my new “frame of reference” to be from Him.
Psalm 81:10 AMP (the end of verse 10)
“….open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”
He will fill it - not me! The key that unlocks this verse into our lives though is letting God teach us. He can’t teach us unless we actually spend time with Him. Spending time with God may look different for each of us. Whatever that means for you make and take the time to do it. I challenge all of us to have a teachable heart with the ability to learn, so that we can frame it well.
