IFP002_TLA #4

Reflection Paper

Instant mentality or instant gratification is the desire to experience pleasure or fulfillment

without delay or deferment. Basically, it's when you want it; and you want it now. Instant
gratification is the opposite of what we've been taught and try too hard to practice —
delayed gratification. Instant gratification motivates those in need of quick turn-around
and obvious benefit. Delayed gratification might be better at affecting long-term change
and producing more internally meaningful results. Today, instant gratification is no
longer considered a vice for Christians – it's become a lifestyle! Technology delivers to
us immeasurable quantities of information in an instant, while distributing our most
private thoughts to a worldwide audience of strangers. Modern medicine seems capable
of curing every ailment in just 24-48 hours, and instant credit has brought the world's
treasures within everyone's financial reach. Having become a parent myself, I can better
appreciate my parents' wisdom, and so now I'm the one counseling my own children to
practice patience and self-discipline in a world of instant messaging, cell phones and
downloadable everything. Even now I still battle a desire for the "quick and easy"
solution to every situation, but I'm learning that quick and easy isn't always best. For
example, an instant gratification lifestyle can have a detrimental impact on our Christian
walk, leading us to depend upon quick and easy solutions to otherwise difficult spiritual
problems. Instead of regular prayer and waiting on the Lord, we launch urgent church
campaigns and deliver impassioned calls to action. When we seek an instant
gratification approach to our Christian walk, we will inevitably grow frustrated as our
efforts to produce spiritual fruit take longer than we expected or desired. Frustration
leads to discouragement, and ultimately, we may abandon the basic disciplines of the
Christian faith. Conditioned to believe every good thing is quick and easy, we may
rationalize our poor spiritual disciplines with thoughts like, "Prayer takes too long to see
results, studying the Bible is so boring, and fasting just isn't good for my metabolism."
We may live in the age of instant gratification, but there is no such thing as instant
sanctification this side of heaven. Clearly, a mature Christian walk should be marked by
patience, particularly in spiritual matters. While the world preaches "now," we are
counseled by Scripture to look beyond the here and now and choose to live for an
eternal purpose. We are to devote ourselves to a life of discipleship, knowing that these
disciplines produce fruit in time and in direct proportion to our patience and diligence.
Pray, study your Bible, seek godly counsel and serve in your gift with an eye for eternity,
and you will find the fruit of your patience in eternal reward. Our parents were right:
patience is a virtue, which is why I pray the Lord would give me patience.
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The need for instant gratification makes people unwilling to work through things and
take their time on things, and relationships are one of the biggest things that people
need to work on and take their time with. And, the rewards of being in a long-term and
loving relationship with family will be totally worth your patience.
We each have a unique relationship with God. Relationships are dynamic, growing, and
changing; what you're doing at a certain point in your relationship with God may be
different from what I am doing in my relationship with God, and that's okay. My spiritual
practices need to be the ones that bring me to God; yours need to be the ones that take
you to God. And so, the way to reflect is for each person to pay attention, to listen to
God. And to discern, with God, what specific practices or disciplines will best allow him
to do so. There are experiences of what I call the presence of the absence of God. In
these times we sense God as a God who hides himself; it may be that we cannot feel
God or it seems God is distant from us. But being aware of that feeling of absence is
also a way of knowing God.
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Reaction Paper

Commitment serves as assurance – a pledge, a promise, a guarantee of that personal

agreement you made with the one you love. It’s not just about keeping your obligation
during fair-weather days. No. Commitment comes much more into play when storms
blow in. It shows in your resolve to honor your responsibility, sticking with each other
through thick and thin. It begins with fidelity to God. Fidelity is not primarily about sexual
behavior. Being faithful means putting a person or relationship in the proper order of
priority in my life. Loving is also a call to fidelity, becoming faithful to your one true love
who is God. You can only love the “One” who is love. And because of the love of God to
us which is actually the first one to love us, that is why we are able to love. Fidelity
means that someone has claim on my time, my energy, my interest. Each relationship
must fit into a hierarchy of importance. God must come first in the life of everyone who
claims to be a believer. I would concretize commitment and fidelity in our home by being
an open communicator, speaking honestly and plainly, being loving and nurturing, but
always expressing my concerns. By holding them and myself to high standards of
kindness with each other. By providing and loving them with all my heart. To promote
family engagement, we must be intentional in learning about the families in our schools.
It is important to make an initial connection, invite families in to engage in conversations
and start to develop an awareness of each family’s needs, preferences and prior
experiences in terms of involvement with the educational community. We should also
explore any perceived or real barriers to family engagement. Recognizing some of the
biggest barriers to family engagement will help schools to develop the most effective
strategies to help families feel more connected to and supported by the school. Also,
being part of a community gives us a sense of belonging. It enables us to share
personal relatedness and support perpetual growth of each other, ourselves and our
environment. Community commitment is the psychological bond between community
members and their community. This construct is a hotter or more emotional factor, and
is the degree to which the community member is personally involved in a community, as
well as his or her resulting degree of trust in and commitment to the community.
Community engagement ensures access and community empowerment. Meaningful,
inclusive community engagement is important, even critical, to community well-being.
contribute meaningfully to those activities, and develop functional capabilities that
enable them to participate fully.
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