When Familiarity Trips Us Up

When Familiarity Trips Us Up

I pray this nugget and tip for the heart helps you today and many days ahead.

Familiarity with someone or a thing has a way of naturally diminishing their worth or its significance in the eyes of those that know too much.

We can become so familiar with our routines and surroundings that we fail to see the wonder and extraordinary elements and touches of God in His people or His creation. Sunrises and sunsets, like smiles, simple acts of kindness and those who make great sacrifices to serve us, lose their worth before us, when they are all too familiar to us.

We can learn from the Master... He understood this better than anyone.

But Jesus said to them... "A prophet is not without worth except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house" (Mark 6:4).

So, let's bring this home... to our door step. Having this insight doesn't ease the discomfort of being misunderstood or unwanted. But we can recognize a principle and understand why people, most familiar with us, may dishonor, disrespect or disdain our work and witness. Therefore, we don't take it personal... or become frustrated or defensive or apologetic. It's natural to devalue things we are familiar with. You do it, too. We all do... but we can lean in and learn how Jesus approached this in His life.
Their familiarity with Him affected what He did among them, but it didn't affect who He was, how He treated them or what He did everyday from there on out. We want to learn from the Master that we too can remain approachable, accessible and aware of the people we've been given to love and lead.

#nestingwithjesus #mark #mark6 #mark6and4