Discipleship and crumbs in my cream cheese

I'm not a neat freak. You want to know how I know? For starters, my flip flops are still under the chair I was sitting in when I kicked them off over an hour ago, and that's not where I am sitting now. But the whereabouts of my shoes isn't what started me to thinking about my issues with tidiness. It was this.

I think a section of heaven must be made out of cream cheese. Oh yes, I love cream cheese! When I eat cream cheese, I  mean really ENJOY cream cheese, I pull open the package and dig right in. I don't try to be neat or orderly, clean or sophisticated. I dig, gouge, and scoop my way to sheer bliss. No need to waste time removing it from the foil, cutting even slices or anything like that. No sirree. Life is short!

While I was digging in my little hunk of heaven the other morning during breakfast, some granola crumbs from the knife stayed stuck in the cheese.

From out of nowhere thoughts of my mother flashed through my mind. She is a neat freak. One look at my cream cheese would have her twitching. As long as I've lived and known my mother I don't think I've ever seen a crumb in her cream cheese, in her butter, or even left on the counter longer that a split second. My mother wouldn't eat cream cheese right out of the foil in the first place, much less dig it out so unevenly and leave crumbs behind.

I thought, as I ate, about how different my mother and I are. Oh, I look a lot like her, but in so many areas, neatness being a big one, we are very, very different. I wondered why.

Again, a lightning bolt thought--Lavonda, you are not her disciple.
Wow! Where did that come from?  (I love it when the Holy Spirit joins me for breakfast.)

If you look the word disciple up in the dictionary, you are probably going to find:

disciple--noun--follower

That's a pretty dull definition. It is also an insufficient definition.Pull out a Lexical Aid and you'll see a disciple follows, yes, and a disciple learns from her teacher, yes, but a true disciple puts those things she learns into practice in her own life. She applies what she knows.

My mother was diligent in teaching me how to be neat, clean, and tidy. She taught me that crumbs in the butter or cream cheese are not good. I know how to completely unwrap cream cheese, place it on a plate, and slice (with a clean knife) off only what I need at the time. I learned and I learned well.

I JUST DON'T DO IT!

 No, I'm not my mother's disciple. The life changing question is...

Whose disciple am I? I'm I a disciple of Christ? Do I learn from Him, follow Him, and do I put the things I've learned into practice in my own life? Do I LIVE the life of my teacher, master, and Lord?

Becoming a disciple is not something I can do once and then mark it off my list of things to do. Being a disciple requires me to actively apply the teaching of Jesus Christ to my life, my actions and attitudes, every single minute of every day.

Let me tell you, I'm trying. I know I fail from time to time. Sometimes I'm aware when I mess up and sometimes I'm not, but I have a feeling that from now on, every time I eat cream cheese, right out of the foil wrapper, I'll have Company for breakfast and He will help me see and get past my points of failure.

What about you? Are you someone's disciple? Are you a disciple of Christ? Please leave comments and share your thoughts on discipleship.