Perry Black was the production expediter for a printing firm, a bachelor in his 30s, and lonely. He hurried to do what was required of him if asked by someone he liked; if asked by someone else, his feet seemingly were of lead. He gave the impression that he was always available and willing to do anything at all to be helpful, but admitted it was just an impression. He actually hated to be disturbed. [Read more…]
Do I Accept What He Has to Offer?
Let me share this letter from a woman to her brother that she recently shared with me:
Dear Bill:
I don’t have to remind you of the problem Mom always was. How well you knew her self-pity, sarcasm, jealousy, suspicion, injustice, self-righteousness, and nagging that ended only in long periods of sulky silence. You rebelled openly, but my rebellion was silent. I buried the bitterness and resentment, but I buried them in the wrong place. I hid them in my heart and they have come back to torment me. Even after she died, I blamed Mom for making me the wretched person I was. [Read more…]
Freedom in Christ
Peter’s parents had always been strict, but to obey them was his second nature. He knew that to step out of line would displease them and invite the wrath of God. So he tried hard to get all A’s in school and he never ran with a gang or took part in questionable pastimes.
But Peter, now 22, was far from being the happy fellow that folks supposed him to be. After a promising start as a tool designer, he lost his job and then two others after short trials. He renounced his church. He became involved in escapades that would have been public scandals had they been known. [Read more…]
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
“It’s agonizing. Any gathering of people frightens me. In a traffic jam, I feel like jumping out of the car and running away. I force myself to go to church and sit there with a feeling of suspense. Even a few customers lined up to buy something in my place of business frighten me. I feel trapped.”
The gentleman speaking was a college graduate and successful in business. He went on, “It started when we moved to an apartment. The people below us and beside us were noisy. We could hear their radios. They would drop things. Often another car was in my parking space. Finally, I insisted on moving to our own home. My wife wasn’t bothered at all by these things and she resisted our moving back to a home of our own, so now there is a wall building between us. [Read more…]
The Fruit of Rebellion
Kay Ripley was an attractive woman, well poised, a good conversationalist. Yet she wanted to know why she was a social failure.
“I’m afraid to even go out anymore,” she confided. “I never know what faux pas I may commit next.” [Read more…]
Patience in Managing
John Morgan was having trouble with the employees in his automobile repair garage. His mechanics would listen politely to an order, then not carry it through.
“Why, I bet I have to tell them three times before they fill out their repair tickets right or turn out a light they’re through using,” he raged.
Mr. Morgan had come to me from a sickbed. Every month or so he had to quit work. His stomach pained him; he was short of breath; he couldn’t eat. He would blow up at the garage and go home. [Read more…]
Your Body is Telling You …
Years ago, respected physician, Dr. S.I. McMillan, taught the college Sunday school class at the church I attended. He gave a series of lectures on how certain thoughts and feelings can cause pain in many parts of the body. Dr. McMillen included material by Dr. O. Spurgeon English of Temple University School of Medicine.
Up to this time, I had always assumed that pain meant something was wrong with the body and that a physician would know how to fix it. When there was a problem, you simply got it fixed, much like you would take your broken watch to a jeweler. The proper choice of pills or an injection would hopefully do the job. It simply never occurred to me that thoughts and feelings could affect the body. [Read more…]
The Truth about Consequences
We do our children a great favor if we help them understand there are consequences for their actions … good and bad.
Distraught parents often come to me because their children are suffering the consequences of not being adequately supervised. Of course, teenagers do not want to be supervised, but oftentimes dire consequences will be the result of parents adhering to their children’s complaints and demands for more personal freedom in areas where they are unable to cope with temptation. Setting consequences for a child’s choices and then making them happen is a crucial part of teaching children. They must learn the principles expressed in Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” [Read more…]
Setting Limits
In all athletic team competitions, the home and visiting teams and their corresponding fans all go by the same rules and boundaries. The rules are published in a book and knowledge of the rules is essential to understanding and playing the game. Making sure the players stay within the limits established by the rulebook is the job of the officials. If a player breaks a rule, the referee penalizes the entire team. The player and his team must accept the consequences. The referee’s interpretation of the game is final.
The words “football game” can tell us many things. The very name of the game determines the shape of the ball, the dimensions of the playing field, the rules of the game, and the type of clothes the players and officials wear.
The word family also tells us many things. Determined limits make a family unique. [Read more…]
Discipline with Love and Conviction
God’s Word instructs us to love one another (1 Peter 1:22). Nearly every parent wants to give his or her children tender, loving, and sacrificial care that flows out of a heart of love; but even the most dedicated mother or father cannot do this unless God is the source of that love. This is because God is love, and as we walk in His love, it will flow to our children through us.
God does not leave us without guidance. In fact, the biblical standard for love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. It has 15 components: suffers long, is kind, does not envy, does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, always bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [Read more…]
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