This post covers chapter 11

Pre-reading exercises:

1. Consider your daily life. When you encounter unexpected delays or difficulties, which would better describe your reaction: a “spirit of prayer” or a “spirit of self-sufficiency”? To what shaping influences, or postures of heart, do you attribute this habitual response?

2. What kinds of things most often remind you of the reality of Jesus Christ? (Answers might be like these: things in nature, the smell of my baby fresh from a bath, or my husband’s consistent patience with my fears…)

After having read (or while reading) the chapter:

1. In the previous chapter, Miller has been talking about five cures for the cynicism that hinders our prayers. He now tells us his sixth cure: “Cynicism looks in the wrong direction. It looks for the cracks in Christianity instead of looking for the presence of Jesus. It is an orientation of the heart. The sixth cure for cynicism, then, is this: developing an eye for Jesus” (96). What kinds of things do you now do that help you to remember Jesus as you’re going through your regular day? (If nothing, leave space to jot down the things you’ll start doing soon!)
2. On page 97, Miller makes a broad statement that’s really an aside to his main point, but it struck me this time around. He says, “Humility makes you disappear, which is why we avoid it.” I personally think that humility is a virtue to be prized above most others (since it strikes as the roots of my deadly pride).
   • If this is so, what things do you cling to that keep your from “disappearing”?
   • Also, what things do your children do to “keep from disappearing”? Might this fear of disappearing explain some of their more unlovely behaviors? If so, how can you help them embrace humility while feeling more secure in your and God’s love?
3. Miller says that his way of looking for Jesus is to look in the lives of others for “the difference between what others would normally be like and what they had become through the presence of Jesus” (97). He then recounts his day in Cleveland where it seemed he saw Jesus everywhere! We need to look for such evidences of God’s grace (we call them EGG hunts in our household) in our families, which is our main place to do life as homeschooling moms. Let me ask you a few provoking questions:
   • When is the last time you wrote your husband a note of encouragement, telling him where you “see Jesus” in him? Many of us stumble over the biblical command to “encourage one another daily” (1 Thess. 5:11, Heb. 10:25, etc.). It’s sometimes humbling to point out ways that we see Jesus in others. But that doesn’t let us out of our obligation! For most of us, we just don’t know quite how to start.
   • You can do it verbally and simply, if you’re a person for whom words come easier aloud than on paper. Just notice an EGG, and open your mouth and say to your beloved one: “When you made this choice, or did this act, or said this thing… I saw Jesus in you.” Writing is the same kind of message: just longer!
   • You might find it easier to start with your kids. One way to begin is to train them to encourage their dad! Let them write about the EGG hunts that they have as they observe your husband and you. Just make sure that you put them on your EGG hunt list as well, and let them know when you see Jesus in them!

Please take time to share with us some of the EGGs that you’ve found in your own home this week! Doing so will encourage both you and those who read your comment!

Below are links that will help you navigate the discussions easier. (You can also use the Archives section of this blog.)

Discussion #6 for this book.

Discussion #8 for this book.

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