A moral lesson through family dinner

Winter Solstice Festival 2023, one of my twin aunties, the youngest sister of my dad, called for a family reunion dinner. Being a person who disliked social, I hesitated to join. A mind-blowing voice came into my thought, which I know was God’s by His extraordinary nature, asked me to “learn from them about a business”.

Motivated by God’s voice, I went on with anticipation to explore what kind of business aunty was about to share. I offered my drive with my little car, driving my parents and my eldest uncle and aunty to Kledang Ipoh my aunty’s house.

Exactly how’s God led, aunty shared about an IT shop in Ipoh town that my cousins are managing. Besides answering my need for a reliable IT shop to purchase technical devices, I learned about the astonishing logic of a growing IT retail chain’s vision and mission. Their core values – Quality, Reliability, and Perfection – helped me understand how this mechanism develops business, and reminded me the process of developing God’s image as well.

Surveying the website: https://pcimage.com.my/about-us/#milestone, initially just wanted to find discount items, I learned the three cores values of the retail chain.

1. To reach quality, requires a set of commitment ensures diligence aimed at precision and innovation, generating actions on meticulousness and creativity to improve constantly.
2. To achieve reliability, requires fostering trustworthy relationships through the responsibility of delivering promises and honesty in interactions and dealings.
3. The path to perfection involves practising care, dedication, empathy, compassion, respect, humility, and gratitude in everything doing.

A moral lesson from God’s image

Genesis 1:27 reminds us that we are made in God’s image, with Psalm 139:14, we are fearfully and wonderfully crafted. Various aspects encompass our identity, including rational, emotional, physical, and spiritual or moral dimensions.

God created us unto His image carefully, and demanded our perfect love in Him, the greatest commandment to conform unto His image. To reach His standard, we need committed diligence to improve continually; to foster trust with God and others, we need to be responsible to deliver our duty and promise; to reach His perfect image, we need unconditional love in every doing and response with humility and gratitude.

Building identity is a dynamic journey, painted by the belief system that is delivered by our connection(trust) and choices (freewill, will, willpower). God’s children are called to perfect, hence we need to first connect with God’s unconditional love, relate His way to embrace our identity authentically, examining our image in God’s truthful mirror.

Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV) Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself: All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

I found perfection is a difficult journey. Sometimes, I don’t love what I do. Even to breakthrough my comfort zone, God needed to be active, guiding me to explore the unknown reunion with my family, relatives and friends. My relatives are not Christian. God taught me to learn His transforming factors from the universe’s rules and unexpected.

I am lazy to meet people, lazy to greet and lazy to initiate small talk, and sometimes even lazy to eat. God of His creativity and unconditional love is transforming me from my laziness, in small steps out to hear others and learn something new and inspiring.

God’s second commandment is to love others as ourselves, which can be challenging when lacking self-love. Identity crisis can lead to purposeless and careless living that harmful dysfunctions, impacting others negatively. God’s truth and justice can transform lives through human conscience, prompting care for the surrounding people, family, and community.

Personally, I need God in the picture to learn, pursue and attain perfection. He is perfect, and His laws in the universe reveal great depth of His marvellous.