Today is a very important day: it is my dad’s 91st birthday! He is an amazing man in many ways, and I tell him frequently that he has warped my perspective of what old is. He does not look or act his age. He still runs up the stairs in their house, so when people tell me about someone “old” who is 75 or 80, I think to myself, “That’s not so old.” This past winter Dad snowmobiled sixty miles in one day with my brother and nephew. He loves to be doing.
My dad was an Air Force pilot who fought for our country in WWII and the Korean War. I am mighty proud of him. He has always been a man of great integrity and honesty, who served his country and his family with self-sacrifice and courage.
I have many happy childhood memories involving my dad. He made everything fun, whether it was bedtime with guessing games involving bed time treats, or vacation times Continue reading ‘Happy Birthday, Dad!’
Speaking of father hunger, that is the topic of this year’s ministerial conference in Houston. Look on my husband’s blog for details. Valerie has kindly put up the direct link in her comment.
How do you forgive the people who have never sought your forgiveness? And what do you do when you have sought to restore fellowship and the other person just won’t respond?These are two tricky situations and here are just a few thoughts. Every situation is different, so of course there is no “three steps to a quick solution.” But, we can and should do all in our power to put things right. Sometimes you have to accept the fact that there is nothing more you can do.
Let’s begin with the people who never seek your forgiveness. You just can’t go through your whole life being miserable about how someone wronged you long ago. If they were the ones who sinned in the first place, there is no sense getting bitter. Why? Because that puts you into sin as a result of their sin. That is like lying down on the ground and letting your enemy put his foot on your neck. That is what bitterness does to you: it wields power over you, giving the adversary (the devil) the advantage. So we ought to first get rid of Continue reading ‘Finding Forgiveness’
Focus on the Family has a little magazine they publish, and the May edition has a very good article called, “Emotional Affairs, When friendship crosses the line.” I have to say it is right on. Dr. Debby L. Cherry lists ten warning signs that your friendship may have crossed the line. Here are a few: Do your conversations with your friend include things that should be kept between you and your spouse? Do you look for excuses to see or talk to your friend? Do you share thoughts, feelings and problems with your friend instead of your spouse? Do you look for “legal” ways to touch your friend (brush lint off his jacket, help her with her coat)?
She also lists eight safeguards to help protect your marriage. I heartily amen them all, but #7 really sums it up: Set boundaries about how you will interact with the opposite sex. For instance, you and your spouse may decide that neither of you will be alone with someone of the opposite sex, even for business lunches or late nights at work.Â
I only wish she had stated that a little stronger! I would change the may to should. If you can find a copy of this, it is well worth reading.
Here’s a little recap from our evening study for moms tonight.
God gives moms a huge amount of natural love for their children. Even unbelieving moms love their children sacrificially. But that is not enough. That creaturely love is wonderful, but it runs out eventually. It gets used up, so moms find they can’t overlook an annoyance, or they just can’t read one more story or give one more glass of water. What mothers need is supernatural love, the kind that only God has. If we ask, He can fill us with His kind of love. That is the kind our children need.
Sometimes we ask God for supernatural love when we have a neighbor or a co-worker or friend who is unlovely. They get on our nerves. We want to love them, but we find we have no natural love for them, so we ask God for some of His supernatural love to fill us to love these unlovely people. So they get the really good stuff, and our children get the natural stuff.
We need to get the supernatural love to love our own children, because it is far higher octane than that natural love that we have. And the supply is limitless. We just have to ask and keep asking. Then we can love our children the way God wants us to love them. The kind of love that suffers long, is kind, doesn’t envy or parade itself, is not puffed up, doesn’t behave rudely, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, and thinks no evil. The kind of love that doesn’t rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and never fails.
This is the greatest thing, and we are to pursue it.
I thought I would take a look at what Thomas Watson says about “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” in his book The Lord’s Prayer. But I’m afraid I didn’t get very far, so you’ll have to bear with me because you just have to read this. He has made the observation that the Lord’s prayer has two petitions regarding the soul, and only one regarding the body, and that is the context of this next bit.
“Observe hence, that we are to be more careful for our souls than for our bodies; more careful for grace than for daily bread; and more desirous to have our souls saved than our bodies fed.”
“They are reproved who take more care for their bodies than their souls. The body is but the brutish part, yet they take more care, (1) About dressing their bodies than their souls. They put on the best clothes, are dressed in the richest garb; but care not how naked or undressed their souls are. They do not get the jewels of grace to adorn the inner man.
(2) About feeding their bodies than their souls. They are caterers for the flesh, they make provision for the flesh, they have the best diet, but let their souls starve; as if one should feed his hawk, but let his child starve. The body must sit in the chair of state, but the soul, that princely thing, is made a lackey to run on the devil’s errands.”
Of course, there is so much more good stuff here. All his books are filled with riches. I’ll keep looking and post some more later.
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