(June 20, 2025) Mama Lava challenges us as she shares from her heart…

What an amazing exhortation is Proverbs 3:5!

In fact, I know several people who claim it as their favourite verse. I’m sure several of you can quote it if I just give the address.

NASB reads: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Difference!
I’ve quoted the above from the New American Standard Bible as I memorised it when I was a child… but have emphasised two words. The Bible I use for my devotions now is the New International Version and when I came across this verse a few days ago, it stopped me in my tracks.

It reads: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight’ (emphasis mine).

Do you see the difference?

It threw me for a loop because I didn’t consider acknowledgment and submission in the same league. And I had to talk with the Lord about it. He showed me three things—

1. Acknowledgment and Submission on a Basic Level
First, God brought to mind something I’d recently learned. Did you know that when people acknowledge each other on a basic level, they either nod or bob their heads depending on whether they know and trust the other?

Someone told me that… and when I thought about my experience, it rang true.When we pass someone unfamiliar on the trail, we nod at each other. Our chins go from level, down. It would be the same motion as ‘tipping our hats’, like they do in western movies.

Our head nod is the same motion as a cowboy tipping his hat. (Shout out to my son for modelling for me!)

But when we pass someone we know, we do a head bob. Our chins go from neutral, upward. And not just our heads, typically, our eyebrows raise, and our lips curl in a smile as if our whole head signals, ‘What’s up?’

There is science behind it, apparently. We protect our necks in the presence of unknown people (head nod). But by exposing that soft spot to people we trust (head bob), we signal our willingness to be vulnerable.

2. Acknowledgment and Submission on a More Intimate Level
There is no head nod or bob when I see one of my grandchildren.

I run to them! And I bend these old knees further than they can really bend, get my arms under their armpits and scoop them up. As my hands wrap around their little middles, I allow their arms to fully enclose around my neck— they squeeze tight and I’m fully exposed.

This is how I acknowledge their presence. If you have grandchildren, you probably know what happens— I’m in submission.

How does the saying go? ‘They have me wrapped around their little fingers.’ Oh no— it is much more than that!

3. Acknowledgment and Submission on the Highest Level
But let me tell you… if I were walking through the park and suddenly saw Jesus… it would be altogether different still.

If my God, the second person of the Trinity, the One who left heaven to suffer as a human for me, was tempted but sinless, despised and rejected, tortured and crucified, rose from the grave victorious was standing in front of me, the acknowledgment would elicit immediate submission. I believe I would fall on my face in full surrender!

Full acknowledgment of who Jesus is demands our total submission!

Demand!
I had been reading Proverbs 3:5 and feeling that acknowledgment and submission were nowhere near the same thing. But how could they be any different when it is the Lord we’re talking about? Full acknowledgment of who He is demands our total submission, does it not?

And then the question: If this would be true if Jesus were physically in my presence, why is it not so when He is spiritually with me? That realisation cut me to the quick.

I’ve been saying that much of our anxiety is caused by a disconnect between what we know deep inside and how we behave. I have been praying for concrete examples in my own life. And I believe this was an overt answer to that prayer.

I can distinguish between strangers and acquaintances, and greet them accordingly. The lines get more blurred when it comes to family. But acknowledgment and submission collide when it comes to our Lord. There simply cannot be one without the other!

Which level are you on, dear friend?
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Mama Lava delights to share openly and honestly from her heart. She sincerely believes in making the big world a bit smaller through caringly connecting, that Jesus wants to remove our anxieties and give us His joy. In her encouragements, Mama Lava regularly tells of life experiences from an unapologetically Christian viewpoint. Link: Mama Lava’s Back Porch (Doses of Maternal Love).
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