Learning in Community

I play the violin, not well, but I play.  I truly regret not practicing more as a child.  I wish my parents had been harder on me in that regard.  I struggled with private lessons because I did not like playing and practicing alone.  I had started on the piano but  the violin was a good instrument for me because I could play in community.  When I played with others, I improved not just a little but a lot.

Hindsight on learning the violin for my personality type:
1.  Well, first of all, I should have had a smaller instrument when I started. I think this would have helped a great deal.  It was sort of like trying to feed a hamburger to a baby. 

2. I should have been in group lessons from the start.  I just learn more effectively, more "fruitfully" when I am learning with others.  (I realize that I was too young to understand this.  I don't blame my parents either.  At the time I was growing up, parents in my culture did not think about these things.)

Doing my spiritual analogy thing-- we can try to jump into learning and growing in Christ at a level that does not fit where we are in life. As we help others grow, we need to help them understand themselves and be open to helping them learn and grow in ways suited best for them. If they need a small violin, help them get one! If they are struggling growing in Christ on their own, help them yourself (small community) or get them in a group.


Now for a word from internet expertise:

 Shared activity provides a meaningful social context for learning…Social interaction provides support in a physical sense as well as a motivational sense…Through talking and communicating, the gaps and flaws in one’s thinking become explicit and accessible to correction…thought becomes sequential and visible to the thinker. (Bodrova and Leong, 1996, p. 110)  http://web.utk.edu/~rmcneele/classroom/theories.html

Amen! I like the reference to motivation.  Groups motivate me.  Others help me see more clearly where I am flawed in my thinking and actions.

I memorized these Bible verses almost 40 years ago never quite understanding how significant they are is to who I am.

Hebrews 10: 24, 25 (my version for memory)
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

In another translation: The Voice

 Let us consider how to inspire each other to greater love and to righteous deeds, not forgetting to gather as a community, as some have forgotten, but encouraging each other, especially as the day of His return approaches.

In this chapter (10) of Hebrews, the author is finishing up the comparison of the Old Testament way of worshiping God (sacrificial system) and Jesus's single sacrifice, once for all, for sin.  Because of Christ's birth, life, death and resurrection, unique in all history because He was God, we can have a joyous confidence in our spirit, a hope that cannot always be put in words (though some of us who like words try).

This inner spark, that comes only through trusting in Christ, is the foundation for why I want to learn more about God, grow more to be like Christ and spur others on to growth in Christ as well.

That "spark" is fanned when there are others around me motivating me, correcting me, laughing with me, accomplishing with me. 

The music for this year's Christmas concert at church is tough, especially the rhythms.  I could not get those until I played with the other strings.  I initiated two practices "with others" and I'll do it again.  I not only appreciate but I enjoy practicing and learning with others. (Not to mention fun.)  It's true for me in my walk with Christ as well as my playing the violin.