DNA – Modeling is Training
Summary: After watching my mom do this action repeatedly, I had picked it up from observation and didn’t even know it.
Isn’t it amazing how things get passed on and repeated? We may model prayer to a new believer and they, without being taught formally, begin to pray the way they were shown. What is seen and experienced is naturally reproduced.
As a little girl I used to sit on the kitchen counter and watch my mom make homemade apple pie. My eyes followed her fingers as she pinched and twisted the edges of the crust to seal it and make it decorative. Years later, my friend and I decided to make some apple pies. There in her kitchen, when it was time to put the top crust over the sugary, sweet apples, I began pinching and twisting the edge of the crust. My friend said, “Oh my goodness, that’s so nice! Show me how you did that!” I had to admit to her that I was surprised too. After watching my mom do this action repeatedly, I had picked it up from observation and didn’t even know it.
Last week, a believer I led to Jesus asked, “So, after I share a bible story with someone, how would I ask them if they wanted to start a small group with me?” We discussed different scenarios and ways to invite a person to study the bible. Then she smiled and said, “Its interesting I’m asking you this question. When all I really need to do is look back at what you did with me. And I can do the same thing.”
The way to pray, the way to study the bible, the way to share bible stories with others, the way to invite others to follow Jesus – when these are new experiences for new believers, they will put them into practice the way it has been modeled to them.
What would happen if we reminded ourselves that with new believers, that we can train by modeling?
