Wednesday, July 12, 2006
yup ok, so i admit i did a tad bit too much shopping while i was in bangkok. my room still looks like a warzone with all my clothes and shoes and bags and earrings (ok u get my dirft) strewn all over the place..so i've sworn off shopping for the rest of the year..but this article caught my eye - "shopping for selflessness". heh figured that if i can't shop than at least i can read abt it rite? haha
it was about something much different tho, so thought i'd share it here. heh writing also helps me internalize things. so anyway, this guy was talking abt how he absolutely dreads shopping with his wife and it's really quite hilarious how much he hates it. but then he talks about how he realized it really was his own selfishness that caused him to whine and pout and make his displeasure known whenever he had to accompany his wife out shopping. he began to see that she'd made several sacrifices to do things he wanted to do without complaining or whining but he'd never noticed. so as he thought about it, and looked into the Bible, here's what he writes:
"The Bible comes down pretty hard on selfishness. Of course I've always been well aware of this. Somehow since it didn't specifically address selfishness in the context of a shopping mall, I missed the application. But the Bible's teaching on the subject is hard to miss. "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others" (1 Cor. 10:24). "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" (Mat. 7:12). Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Phil. 2:3).
Those verses nailed the problem on the head. I had a habit of putting myself before others. I could disguise this vice while I was single. Being married brought it into sharp focus. I had to change."
and so that's something i'm learning too - putting others' interests above mine. really not easy but i'm learning it in the small ways - to not grumble, to not judge, to consider others better than myself, to serve others...and to stop shopping when others got tired or bored. i'd admit that many times in bangkok i kept at it and din wanna stop and felt horrible after that, being the high D that i was in the most inappropriate way and setting possible. so i loved how this guy took something so ordinary like shopping and expounded on it coz it spoke to me so directly.
and like i was telling ade, i guess my perception of being "tied down" and "burdened" by a relationship is slowly changing as i realize increasingly that it's more an opportunity to learn to love and grow in selflessness and put others above ur own desires and will than anything else. it moves you beyond being nice and accomodating when it's convenient to something that needs to be consciosuly done.
so if ur interested to read the article for urself, u can find it at http://www.boundless.org/features/a0001027.html
