Sunday, February 13, 2011

Rule of Spirit



I was a wild filly.  I can see it in my childhood photos--my long, lanky limbs, my dark mane that flung wildly when I tossed my head, my untamed energy and my unbridled passion.



“This is too hard for you,” my mother tried to reason with me.  My little hands had barely shed their baby fat, yet I was determined to learn how to knit.  My mom worked and worked with me but I could not create the right tension on the yarn.  Before long, the knitting needles went flying in opposite directions.  *Click* and there you have a snapshot of one of my youthful tantrums.

Some ten years later, I smugly congratulated myself on how easily I had overcome my childhood fits of temper. I no longer was tempted to hurl the object of my frustration across the room.  I even learned how to knit.  For my first project since sending my tools flying at age four, I chose a sweater with a lovely lacework design in the bodice. When the clerk told me my chosen knitting project was too hard for me, I thanked her and left the store.  Later I snuck back when she wasn’t working, hid my beginner’s status from the clerk on duty, and confidently walked out of the store with my challenging pattern in hand.  With mentoring, I produced a beautiful sweater.  Life was good.

Another ten years passed and I discovered the temper that had plagued my early years had not been cured but had only lain dormant awaiting the proper provocation:  having another four-year-old in the house. Happily, once my kids outgrew their toddlerhood I was no longer tempted to display fits of temper, but I knew enough not to take pride in the fact.  By then I was convinced that my milder outlook had more to do with my kids’ personal growth than my own.

Now the cycle begins again as our household hits the teen years.

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
Proverbs 16:32

Acquiring the ability to "rule my spirit" has been a lifelong quest.  Only recently have I begun to rule my spirit through being Ruled by the Spirit. I’ve learned that to “Bridle your passions,” one must allow the Lord to take the reins to guide through life’s difficulties.  Accepting the bridle means submitting my will to His.  The trouble is that pride gets in the way so sometimes that's a very hard task. But little by ever-so-little, the harnessed energy moves me towards greater happiness.

Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan
1886 – 1936
(From the date Anne entered Helen’s life until Anne’s death,
they remained constant companions.)


Helen Keller was a frustrated child trapped in her private world without words.  Helen didn’t have the ability to communicate, other than the hand signals she devised as a desperate attempt to let her wants be known.   Often she would throw tantrums so her family caved to her demands in an effort to prevent her from falling into fits of rage.

Enter the mentor.
When Anne Sullivan arrived at Ivy Green, she recognized the root of Helen’s frustrations lay not in her blindness but in her isolation.  She immediately began to teach Helen by signing letters in her hands, but since the seven-year-old girl had no concept of words, they meant nothing to her.  Helen became angry and locked Anne in her room. 
 Anne quickly saw that Helen’s lack of discipline made her unreachable, essentially putting a lock on her private prison.  Anne insisted on taming the wild child.  What looked to Helen’s parents like restriction of her freedom to express her needs was really the key to unlock her prison.  Before Anne could teach Helen the power of communication, she had to teach her discipline.  The young Helen bristled at the call to obedience, but in time she submitted to her instructor and her prison of isolation was unlocked.
Once Helen was open to being lead by her mentor, she experienced her landmark epiphany:  connecting the letters w-a-t-e-r to the flowing of water.  Her life would never be the same.  Now she had vision and aim, beginning with the insatiable drive to learn the word for everything in her life.  Through words, her life’s horizons expanded to take in the whole world. 
Anne tried to begin instructing Helen through words, but the key to freeing Helen was not signing letters.  It was in taming her spirit through discipline.  A profound expression of how deeply Helen valued Anne’s key to opening the door to her world is found in her answer to a simple question.  When asked what her favorite word was, Helen spelled out, “t-e-a-c-h-e-r.” 
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller

4 comments:

  1. This smites me with a surge of introspection. How do we know when we have really overcome our weaknesses, or when we have merely changed circumstances so the temptation has receded?

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  2. Good question. That's why I learned not to take pride in self-improvement. That's not to say I don't value the good in me. This blog is about finding the greatness in ourselves while giving the credit to God and the people we're blessed to associate with.

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  3. I decided to post this picture of me because it was the one my oldest sister commented on years ago, telling me how it reminded her of the way I tossed my head like a filly. So after I added the picture, my daughter was concerned that I might be bragging a little, because the way I described my temperament is what she aspires to be. Funny! I thought I was revealing how much work I needed to do to tame my wildness--not meaning to brag at all.

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  4. There are SO many great thoughts in this post! It didn't take me long as a young mother to realize that we are just kids having kids. Being a mere-schmere couple of decades further along the road is nothing in eternity. I, too, was dismayed to discover that in many ways I hadn't made near as much progress from the time of being a "little girl," til "adulthood!"

    I have always loved the story of Helen and Ann. So many life lessons there. How we must submit to discipline before becoming teachable, before being freed from our prisons of ignorance. Enter the mentor! Who do we submit to? We are being tutored by SOMETHING in life, the question is what? Or who?

    I can well remember the fire-spirited Tashie, who flew at life (or us) with a passion. Your perfection-purpose was frustrated by the beginner's learning curve (intolerable). I'm so pleased to see how well you've worked with that and chosen to take the best (still retaining the spirit of your youth) and leave behind that which didn't work for your good. And I chuckle to hear your d.d's take on your confession of self as possibly prideful! That's a great ending to a great blog!

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