Learn their lessons

Elisabeth Elliot, in her book Passion and Purity, wrote:

     I write in the hope that those who know what honor means will be cheered to see that they are not entirely alone.  It may strengthen them to find that, even in recent decades, there are those who recognize something far greater than their own passions, even though for the world at large there seems to be nothing else of any consequence...
     The greater the potential for good, the greater the potential for evil.  That is what Jim and I found in the force of the love we bore for each other.  A good and perfect gift, these natural desires.  But so much the more necessary that they be restrained, controlled, corrected, even crucified, that they might be reborn in power and purity for God.
     I don't think we ever talked about honor as a concept.  Jim honored me as a woman; I honored him as a man.  We saw the difference, all right.  How sharply we saw and felt and were awed by the difference between a man and a woman.  A system of fixed values and relations held us apart, each holding the other in reverence for the Owner.  His we were, all the rights were His, all the prerogatives to give or to withhold according to the pattern of His will, which remained as yet a mystery to us.  Few, I suppose, even of those who hold the same system of values, need to go through so prolonged and so exquisitely cautious a process.  Perhaps most learn their lessons with greater facility than we did.  I don't know.  For us, this was the way we had to walk, and we walked it, Jim seeing it his duty to protect me, I seeing it mine to wait quietly, not to attempt to woo or entice.

Perhaps the most difficult thing in the world is to realize that you must come to your own conclusions and convictions about things.  You can poll all the people you want, debate over endless cups of coffee, and mull things over in your mind ad nauseum, but at the end of the day the decision must be yours with no apologies or reservations or excuses.  Your convictions must be able to stand on their own and you must be able to take responsibility for them.

How gracious it is that we do not do this alone, that our teacher is none other than Jesus Christ, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Thank goodness He guards our hearts and our lives even to the very end of the age.