Thursday, April 30, 2015

The Marriage Box

 
Most people get married believing a myth that marriage is a beautiful box full of all the things they have longed for; companionship, intimacy, friendship, etc. The truth is that marriage at the start is an empty box. You must put something in it before you can take anything out. There is no love in marriage. Love is in people. And people put love in marriage. There is no romance in marriage. You have to infuse it into your marriage. A couple must learn the art and form, the habit of giving, loving, serving, praising, keeping the box full. If you take out more than you put in, the box will be empty.
 
Bottom Line Thought: Though the box and us may get old, we are still us, and the box is still the box. Young or old, the only thing that changes is how much we put into, or take out of, the box. Are you doing all you can to keep your box full?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Unknown source

Bottom Line Thought: Though the box and us may get old, we are still us, and the box is still the box. Young or old, the only thing that changes is how much we put into, or take out of, the box. Are you doing all you can to keep your box full?

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

School of Hard Knocks


Even though I finished college and then completed my Masters Degree at middle age, when someone asks about my education I always answer that I got my PhD from the School of Hard Knocks—with honors. Many of us went there didn’t we?

It was my attendance there that prompted me to pen the lyrics for a country song I wrote—All I Ever Did Right, was Everything Wrong. It takes attendance at that fine institution to wake some of us up doesn’t it? Some of the courses I particularly focused on while attending were;
·         Stupid Choices and Decision Making 101. I aced that one.

·         Yielding to Temptation 302. I had a hard time quitting that course.

·         Maintaining Loss of Self Control 405. One of my favorites.

·         Sabotaging Good Relationships 202. I got an A++ in that one.

·         Ego Building 104. A perennial offering I really enjoyed.

·         Why You Don’t Need God 206. The curriculum was wild!
Hard Knocks University turns out some of the finest broken people in the world. One of its shortcomings is that they don’t teach how to handle the baggage that comes with the course work.
Luckily for all of us, a degree from that place doesn’t have to be a permanent mark on our record. We can get a better degree from Christian University. It’s a worldwide school, housed in churches, with satellite facilities known as small or community groups. We can even attend this University in our own homes. If we choose to attend, we will find;

Jesus is the Principal
The Holy Spirit is our teacher
Other Christians are our classmates
The Bible is the study book
Trials, errors, and temptation are our exams
Winning others for Christ is our assignment
Prayer is our attendance
Grace and redemption are the lockers for our baggage
The Crown of Life is our degree
Praise and worship is the motto
And, Heaven is the graduation present.

I’m glad I decided to attend CU. What a difference it has made in my life. What a difference it makes in all of our lives.

Bottom Line Thought: Have you decided to be alumni yet? At which school?

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

You figure it out


A boss will sometimes be approached by an employee who has a question about a project, and will simply states “figure it out.” We do that sometimes with our kids as well—“you figure it out” Or, there is a family problem and we may say to our wife, “well, figure it out.” In those cases there are several ways one can take the response;

·         “I’m too busy and I don’t want to be bothered right now.”

·         Or, it can be an implied encouragement to do something on our own.

Either way, it becomes a guessing exercise for us. What did the person mean? Doesn’t he care? We can have all kinds of thoughts about it.

What do we do when we have some serious life questions we are trying to find answers to? They may be questions like;

·         My spiritual life is in trouble. What do I do?

·         I have questions about my relationship with God. How do I handle that?

·         I have relational issues and I don’t know what to do.

How would we like to hear “you figure it out” when we have those kind of issues facing us? There is one single source of complete help, information, inspiration, and truth available to us. It’s called the Bible. The Bible never once says “you figure it out.” what it does say over and over is “trust God.” That’s because He’s already got it all figured out. So in those times we need an answer we can go to the book, we can pray, or we can seek the counsel of a godly person we are close to. We’ll never get a “you figure it out.”

Bottom Line Thought: Do you abdicate your responsibility as a man and father by saying “you figure it out” when it isn’t necessary? Do you know where to go when you can’t figure it out?

Monday, April 27, 2015

Blood Bath

        Sometimes we just feel grungy don’t we? Maybe we aren’t really dirty—we just feel like it. What do we do? We take a bath or shower, both of which we consider a feel good thing. After a nice shower or bath we feel clean, content, and happy to feel clean.

Doing life sometimes makes us feel grungy as well. Because of our brokenness, some of the things we do out of habit, the sin in our lives, or just the stuff we have to deal with we feel unclean inside don’t we? None of us are immune to that. It’s heart dirt that is making us feel unclean, a grunginess of our soul. Jumping into the shower or bath isn’t going to change that one bit.

The only means of cleaning heart dirt or soul grunge is a blood bath. It’s the best bath available for that type of cleansing. It doesn’t take any water and we don’t have to dry off (except possibly our tears), and we don’t have to change clothes.

A blood bath is when we take the time to stop, reflect on our present conditions, and focus on the magnitude of what Christ did us. He died for us. It was His blood that washed away our sins, and still does. It’s a blood bath we commemorate when we take communion. But we don’t have to wait until communion to take our bath. We can do that at any time that our grungy soul and dirty heart requires a bath.

Bottom Line Thought: Think of it this way—the blood baths you take are the best baths you will ever take. They will renew you like none other.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

You Never Know


I attended a men’s breakfast a few years back, and I was fascinated by the conversation of one of the men there. Lyle was a successful businessman with whom I had done business. He opened his remarks by saying, “I can’t wait to get to Heaven.” That got the attention of those of us sitting around him at the table.

Lyle then went on to explain why he said that. His words are paraphrased due to the time that has passed since I heard them (a nice way of saying my memory isn’t what it used to be). He said;

“All of our lives we come in contact with others. We often know very little about the people. I just can’t begin to imagine how exciting it will be to get to Heaven and have a perfect stranger come up to me and say ‘Thank you.’ Since I wouldn’t what he was talking about he would go on to explain—‘years ago, Lyle, you didn’t know what I was going through, but we were talking and you said just the right thing. It was what you said that got me to think about my relationship with God. You planted a seed in me which eventually grew, and it grew to the point where I am here today, a place where I have the chance to meet you again and say thank you.’”

Lyle then stressed that it is all of the little things we can do that could be the pivotal moment, or tipping point, in another person’s life, and that we may never know whether something we say or do may trigger a spiritual awakening in someone we run across. He concluded his remarks with “you just never know.”

His comments made me think about my own awakening. There were no bells or whistles, no pleas, no pressure. There was just some passing comments that planted a seed.

Bottom Line Thought: It seemed as if Lyle had made it his mission to be comfortable, real, and openly honest with the folks he came in contact with, as well as wearing his faith on his sleeve. You are not Lyle, but you have the same opportunities as he had. Are you open to them? Wouldn’t it be nice to have that stranger walk up and say thanks some day? You never know!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

The Butler did it


In the old movies, the “whodunits”, it’s not uncommon to hear the lead detective declare “the butler did it”, is it? The Sherlock Holmes movies were good for that. Well, they all had to have a story line didn’t they?

What are butlers? There are still butlers in today’s world. They are dressed up servants with a fancy name. They are a special kind of servant.. Their purpose is to serve at the will of their master, attending to his needs and wants. A butler makes life for his master comfortable. A good butler always does it with class, is humble, stays in the background and s faithful and loyal. Their purpose is to make it a lifetime job of servitude.

It’s not a real stretch to say we are all butlers is it, if we so choose? We are all called to serve at the will of our master—God. We are asked to serve faithfully and loyally, be humble, and make it a lifetime choice. The only difference in being a servant for God is that we serve Him by serving others. In that sense, there are pastors, church staff members, other ministry partners, many of whom are full time servants.

But what about us—the ordinary folk who are butlers called to serve? We don’t need any education, special talents, background, or particular abilities serve. We are special because we have our willing hearts. We can serve in such ways as;

·         A volunteer for one of the teams at church—the traffic team, the set-up team, the cleaning team, office team, maintenance team, grounds team, or any of the other project teams the church may have.

·         As a story teller or helper for the kids ministry. Most kid’s ministries need male role models to be a part of their team.

·         Find and “adopt” an elderly couple or a widow or widower. Many will need such simple things as transportation, mowing, a meal once in a while, etc.

·         As a family, take food to the local homeless encampment.  They are out there.

Bottom Line Thought: The butler did it. Is there any reason that can’t be said of you? What’s to stop you from being one of God’s servants in different ways?

Friday, April 24, 2015

Fairy Tales


When we were small, our parents used to read fairy tales to us before we went to bed. Perhaps that still happens in families. While most of us picture fairy tales as all about glamour, pretty pictures, and happy endings, that really isn’t quite so if they are carefully dissected. Some cases in point are:

1.    Cinderella: Cinderella is held prisoner in her own home where she is treated like a slave. She is subjected to both physical and psychological torment at the hands of her stepmother and stepsisters after the death of her father. That’s real happy times isn’t it?

2.    Hansel & Greta: They are abducted by a sadistic maniac who keeps them in captivity in the woods. His plan is to fatten them up and then roast them alive to cannibalize them. That’s a real class story for the little guys isn’t it?

3.    Little Red Riding Hood: This girl goes to the forest to visit her grandmother. What does she find there? That granny has been savaged and eaten alive by a wild animal. A darling little story for the kids, right?

Despite the behavioral implications of those fairy tales, they are still being read to children. In no way am I implying that these fairy tales are the driving pin for future behavior of kids. What I am saying is that since they are not true and are just fairy tales full of fantasy why not share stories with our kids that are truth with no fantasy involved?

When have we ever heard of the Bible being called a book of fairy tales? In its entire history it has been challenged and tested, but it remains solid and has never been debunked as untrue. What it has been is a matter of choice for all people. We have the choice to believe the Word, or we can disbelieve it. The stories, parables, and lessons within it all deal with the lives we live in one way or the other, and we can apply it to our lives.

Bottom Line Thought: Whether a father, eventually a father, a grandfather, or just a man of faith, wouldn’t you prefer to share life lessons with the children in your life instead of fairy tales based on bad behaviors?

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Oxygen


 
I was walking with a friend once on a day that was overcast, sprinkling slightly, a bit chilly, and it was just gloomy. I happened to mention to him what a crappy day it was. He got quite animated and corrected me. He said, “No! It’s a beautiful day out. The sun is out, we just can’t see it.” I stood corrected about my negative outlook, thanks to his positive one. He was looking at the big picture, I the small.

We’ve all experienced times like that. We have had days when nothing seemed to go right despite our best intentions and efforts. We’ve had times when we are strong in our walk, yet the curveballs of life and those little surprises we don’t want or expect come at us as if we were being tested. Those are the times we may find ourselves doubting God, or we question Him.

How do we deal with those times? How do we pull it all back together? It isn’t always easy to do so is it? Sometimes we simply have to get root level basic and think,

God is like oxygen. We can’t see Him, but we can’t live without Him.

 

 

Bottom Line Thought: That’s something that can help us during certain times in our lives, just as it can be used when sharing your faith with a non-believer, isn’t it?

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Hard Question


 
Case 1: A healthy, robust, middle aged business owner, active in church, family, and community, looked forward to retirement a few short years away. Sadly, he suffered a very severe stroke while dressing for work one day. He will never fully recover, and will require specialized care during his remaining life. Result: a family turned upside down.

Case 2: A happily married retired couple. They had planned for retirement wisely, and envisioned travel they had longed for all of their married life. Not long after his retirement, the wife became “different”, and was finally diagnosed with dementia. She went downhill fast, and it wasn’t long before she had no idea who family was. Result: a family turned upside down.

In both cases, each of the parties of each case were very spiritually grounded and of strong faith. In neither situation did any family member cave in to “why us” self pity, bitterness, or doubt in their faith. None became angry at God for what had seemed sure to be pleasant retirements gone badly. And, in each case, each family unit stayed as a family unit, fully accepting their new roles as care-givers.

Some cases like these end up badly. There have been times when the care-giver has simply given up and bailed out, or, worse yet, where the case has ended up as a horrific murder-suicide because there seemed to be no other way out. Families have splintered because of situations like these cases.

How we govern our lives, from now until an eventual catastrophic event like this, will govern how we handle such a situation. If God and our faith is at the core of the relationship, He is the center of our lives, we stand a much better chance of handling such a situation with both dignity and honor. We will continue to love the other, no matter what. We will remain stronger than we will otherwise. And we will know, that no matter what, God hasn’t abandoned us.

Bottom Line Thought: While we all hope with all hope that situations like those above will never occur to us, we never know do we? Are you building your foundation in such a manner now that should something like that occur you will be able to deal with it in an honorable and dignified manner? Is your love for your partner strong enough to do that? That’s a hard question—or isn’t it?

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Stress


 
If we were to ask any of our friends or family members who have had strokes, overly high blood pressure, eating or sleeping disorders, or heart attacks what might be a single contributing factor, almost universally we would hear, stress. Doctors have singled that cause out for a number of health issues we face.

I’m no doctor, and thus I can’t get into a medical discussion about stress, but from my own experience this is what I know about it;

·         Stress is what I feel as a result of worrying or fretting about things I have no control over, to the point that it affects my attitude, behavior, and my well-being. In doing so, it also affects my relationships with others around me. It drives a wedge into my spiritual foundation. It is self inflicted, and it is not communicable.

There are medications that are prescribed to control stress. A change in dietary habits also goes a long way in controlling it. A change in lifestyle can not only relieve stress, but prevent it. No, we’re not talking the “be happy—don’t worry” thing here.

The most solid thing I know of to prevent a reoccurrence of stress once we have it under control is faith. Stress affects our heads and hearts. Faith lives in our heads and hearts if we choose it. If we have truly strong faith, we may minimize our  stress because we fully trust the Lord with our lives, not ourselves. Think of it this way—we get stress from things that we do to ourselves—nowhere else. By the way, we can’t buy faith at Walgreens. We have to find it on our own.

My way=Stress

His way=Faith=No stress

Faith, in combination with a change in our lifestyle, will give us our best shot at controlling our stress. It’s something many of us want to ignore, simply because we have a human tendency to want it now and not fully trusting God with our lives.

Bottom Line Thought: Only a simple choice remains. Which will it be, stress or faith?

Monday, April 20, 2015

Straight Arrow


 
“He’s a straight arrow.” We’ve heard that before, yes? Whenever we hear someone called that, we believe him to be a straight shooter, not a liar or cheat, and a man who stays true to the course.

An arrow that is bent cannot be shot with any accuracy. They must be straight, to an exacting degree, to successfully hit their target. But, it’s not just the arrow that makes that happen. An archer or hunter is involved, and in order for the shot to hit its mark, he must pull the arrow back deliberately and straight, all the while carefully aiming and focusing on the target. The better his focus and aim, the greater his opportunity for a great shot will be.

We are all born with just one shot at life before we die. One shot, that’s it. Some of us have had do-over’s. Those do-over’s are Gods way of letting us refocus and aim once again—but we’re still on that one and only shot we have at life.

We are, therefore, both the arrow and the archer. When we are straight arrows we are assured that we will reach our target—Heaven, and as the archers we responsible for the aim and focus needed to do that. As the archer, we compensate for any dents and flaws on the imperfect arrows we are as humans.

Bottom Line Thought: Have you considered the thought that you have just the one shot at life? Are you a straight arrow to your family, friends, strangers you meet, and God?

Sunday, April 19, 2015

We're Gardeners


 
Wildflowers and weeds grow freely, fast, and without any care. We just have to look at our gardens and lawns to see that. Whether the seeds land by the wind or are dropped by the birds, once they hit soil, they grow without any care. Our gardens, lawns, and flower beds are different. We plant the seeds, we water and feed them, and we care for them as they grow into beauty and usefulness.

Some of us, however, don’t have green thumbs, and we leave the lawns, gardens and flower beds to others. But, as men of faith, we are all gardeners.

·         Our garden plot lies within the hearts and minds of those around us—our family, friends, co-workers, strangers.

·         Our seeds are our words, actions, and deeds we say and do around those people in our lives.

·         Our gardening tools are the Word, the example we consistently set, and our obvious love for the Lord.

·         Our fertilizer is our passion, love for others, patience, and gentleness we use in growing the seeds we have planted.

Christ chose 12 very ordinary, and in some cases quite jaded, men to be His gardeners among all men during His life and after His death. Their job was to plant, care for, and grow the seeds of Christianity. Their garden plot—the world. The obvious irony of what He did when He selected those men, was that they were just like all of us—ordinary, in some cases troubled, with some not the most nice of men before He planted the seed in them.

We don’t have to be anything special to be a Gardner for God. We don’t have to have unblemished pasts, nor do we have to live the perfect life—because we can’t. We just have to have the desire to keep growing ourselves as we use all that is available to us as gardeners to spread His word among men—one, by one, by one. Our gardening is simply a people to people thing.

Bottom Line Thought: So, Johnny Appleseed, are you working in the Garden for God?

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Reactions


 
I had a friend, 10 years older than I, who I knew for a long time. We’d golf together, then dine together, then get royally drunk together until the bar kicked us out. The ban never lasted long, because we spent a lot of money at the place. Then came the point in time when we’d golf—but he’d go home to eat and spend the evening at home. Some years passed, until one night I came home drunk and couldn’t stand myself living like that anymore so I instinctively called that friend to come get me because I was sure I was going crazy. He did, and he took me to his place to talk and have coffee. That was when I found out he had stopped drinking and started living. That was the early turning point in my life.

In ensuing years, our relationship as a couple of guys living a sober life became very special. He willingly shared a lot of wisdom about life with me. One of the things he shared was about reactions and their effect on relationships. He shared that when he was drunk, his wife knew where all the buttons were, and she would push them unmercifully, and he would react—usually in an inappropriate manner. With sobriety, he found that by not reacting inappropriately when his buttons were pushed, the marriage improved, and the times that the buttons were used diminished. One of the things he shared was, “I found out that when I react in a bad way, it is like sticking a knife in the heart of our relationship—and the heart gets damaged.”

We don’t have to be drunks to react in a bad way when we are in less than pleasant discussions do we? Yet, don’t we often do that—perhaps because we may think that we will somehow get an upper hand by doing so? Even during the course of a perfectly normal conversation we may get offended erroneously because we take something we hear personally, when that intent was never present. And if we react in a way we shouldn’t, even if it feels natural to us, aren’t we really just like sticking a knife into the heart of the relationship? Reactions can be relationship killers or relationship healers. We have a choice of which type to use.

Bottom Line Thought: Have you gauged how your reactions affect your relationship?

Friday, April 17, 2015

The Train


 
At birth, each of us boarded a train where we met our parents. We believed that they would always be traveling with us. However, along the way, at some station, our parents stepped down from the train, leaving us to continue our journey alone. As time went by, at different stations, others boarded the train. Many of these became significant to us. Brothers, sisters, friends, the love of our life, and even children boarded the train.

As time goes on, many of those will step down from the train at different stations. Some, by getting off the train, will leave a permanent vacuum. Others will go so unnoticed that we won’t realize that they are gone, their seats now empty.

This train ride will be a mixed bag of joy, sorrow, expectations, hellos, surprises, great happiness, ravaging hurts, and great happenings, lost dreams, missed opportunities, farewells and goodbyes. The trip will be successful if we have a good relationship with all that board the train while we are on it—including the Engineer who actually owns the train. In fact, in the Engineer’s Book it clearly states that while on the train, each is to give the best of themselves and trust that the Engineer will provide for them a safe and rewarding trip.

There is a mystery about the train. No one knows at which station he/she will step down from the train. And that is why, in the Engineer’s Book he shares with all of his passengers, he shows each passenger how to live the best way—love, forgive, and offer the best of who you are. It is important that each passenger do this, because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty, we will be prepared to go to that very special train station where the Engineer lives—Heaven.

Bottom Line Thought: I hope that when I get to the station when it is my time to get off the train, that I will have lived in a manner that is consistent with the Engineer’s book, and will have been some sort of an example for those still on the train. How about you?

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Evil will not win


 
Since time began bad things have happened to good people. In recent times there have been many that have captured the nation because of their inherent evil;

·         The 9-11 Twin Towers destruction by airplanes

·         The Columbine shootings in Colorado

·         The movie theater shootings, also in Colorado

·         The Sandy Hook massacre.

·         The Boston Marathon bombing

Often many will ask after such incidents, “How can God let something like this happen?”, or “If God is so good, why does He let such things happen?” Many books have been written which try to answer those very questions. People just want to know why bad things happen to good people.

I’m just a blue collar guy with no extensive education, particularly of a biblical or spiritual nature. But, never in any of my reading have I ever found anything to suggest that God stops all evil. I don’t think there would be very many of us who wouldn’t call any of the above events anything but evil based. I personally think evil based events like the above are a test of our individual resolve. Will they shake our faith in the Lord, or won’t they?

I do know this—based on the fact that history always seems to repeat itself;

1.    Tragic events of a horrific nature will always occur sometime as long as there are people.

2.    There are always some purely evil people in the world.

3.    No legal or preventative measures will ever stop evil events from happening.

4.    Evil nature in mankind cannot be legislated or controlled by mankind.

Whenever evil such as the above occurs we really have only one clear choice to make:

 We can overcome evil, or we will let evil win.

By cowering in the face of evil, it wins. By our standing tall and believing that God is mightier than all evil in the world, evil will not win.

Bottom Line Thought: Do horrific and major evil events shake your faith in God? Do you start to question your faith in those times?

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Public Enemy # 1


 
“I don’t have an enemy in the world” How many times have we heard that? Maybe we’re all the same. We really don’t have any enemies out there. Oh, there may be some that don’t particularly like us, but enemies—nope, they’re not there. Well, there is just one in my case. My enemy is me. At times he’s just as bad as public enemy #1, the one we see pictures of in the post office.

The enemy within me is the one that doesn’t like me. He pokes his head up every once in a while to remind me that I’m not as good a person as I think I am. He’s the one that tries to dictate and direct my bad behavior, the one who will try to tear me down in a heartbeat. He shows up in different forms, like;

·         Anger, or pouting and withdrawal, when something doesn’t go my way.

·         Retaliation or sarcasm when I think someone is trying to best me.

·         The indignant and self righteous me when a hurt wasn’t really meant.

·         Sarcasm when I know I’m right and someone else isn’t.

·         Smart mouthing when I am trying to put someone else down.

The enemy within is the one who doesn’t want me to be forgiving, but expects full forgiveness for every slight, real or imagined. He’s the one who doesn’t want to look at the others viewpoint, even though it might be solid, valid, and truthful. He’ll throw words out of my mouth faster than Clint Eastwood’s .41 Magnum, with the same amount of impact.

The bottom line is that the enemy within is the one that fires up my “conclusion gland”—the one that will never draw a right conclusion about someone or something. He also has very good aim. I’ve proven I can shoot myself in the foot time after time.

Our relationship with God helps put the cuffs on public enemy #1. Through God we learn forgiveness. We forgive ourselves, he forgives us, and we forgive others. We experience forgiveness asked for, forgiveness graciously received, and self forgiveness through which we can learn. Yep, public enemy #1 is slowly realizing he can’t bully me around anymore.

Bottom Line Thought: Is there a public enemy # 1 in your life? Do you share all of his antics in prayer with the Lord, and ask for strength?

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Liberal Logic


 

Does that meme bother you? The message it conveys bothered me, as I imagine it does a lot of us. The senseless truth of the message is a morality issue, one facing the nation today. It is but one issue that has diminished the morality of our country, one among many which is threatening the spiritual fiber of this nation.

Why is this happening? I will offer that complacency on the part of many of us is one of the causes. We have allowed ourselves to become numbed by a progression of morality watering down events of many years, starting with the removal of scripture reading in the classrooms in 1963 as a result of a Supreme Court ruling in favor of Madalyn Murray O’hare, the atheist activist. In many ways we have “caved in”, saying “oh well, what can I do about it?”

Complacency is a form of a soul and heart wrecking cancer. It grows slowly and steadily, robbing us of our spiritual vibrancy. One of the results is 15 year old girls being allowed to get abortions without their parents consent, even though they have to get their parents’ permission to take aspirin at school. It’s upside down isn’t it?

What can we, as parents, do? The first thing is to realize that if you roll over, you have rolled over—you have given up. That is complacency. Here are some suggestions:

·         Dare to be different. Get angry and vocal about such issues.

·         Get actively indignant about issues that are spiritually and morally wrong.

·         Don’t keep it inside. Share your feelings and beliefs with others.

·         Pray for “sane” leadership and actively seek and promote morally sound candidates for local offices. Strong politics always starts at the bottom levels.

·         Insist that your family not “cave in”, talk about the issues from a spiritual context.

·         Wear your values on your sleeves. Does it really matter what others think?

It is really all about taking personal responsibility. It becomes a one by one, by one, process of people having enough, of people getting angry about moral issues.

Bottom Line Thought: If your 15 year old daughter came home to tell you she had had an abortion without your knowledge, would that be okay with you?

Monday, April 13, 2015

America


 

 

 

HOW MANY OF US ARE LIVING OUR LIVES IN SUCH A WAY

AS TO PUT THE “B” BACK IN IT?
 

 

Bottom Line Thought: Our kids are the future. Are you raising yours in such a manner that the moral fabric of our country will not suffer any further?

Sunday, April 12, 2015

How hard is it?


 

Some of us tend to make kindness a rather selective thing don’t we? We appreciate it when someone is kind to us, particularly when there seems to be no real reason for doing so. Yet, we aren’t always as kind as we wish we would be—like when;

·         We know someone we know is financially struggling, yet we don’t help because we are too concerned about parting with some of our money.

·         We see the homeless person on the street approaching us and we avoid eye contact or make a quick turn away.

·         We know the elderly lady across the street has trouble getting about, yet we conveniently ignore her plight.

·         We know one of the guys in our small group is really struggling yet we don’t find the time to give him our shoulder to lean on.

·         We think random acts of kindness are for sissies and women.

Kindness breeds kindness, no matter what station of life the giver or receiver is at. Kindness, particularly when unexpected and random in nature, is a true form of humility. Kindness with no limits on race, creed, need, or socio-economic status is the ultimate in kindness. Jesus, throughout His ministry provided us with example after example of the most humble and basic forms of kindness—because He loved all.

Bottom Line Thought: How hard can it be for you to live a life of humble kindness?


 

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Progress Report on Book

The manuscript for my book, A Better Man, Husband, Father, which arose out of this blog,  is in the hands of the publisher. It will be thoroughly gone over by the editor as the next step. That will take about 15 days. Then, after any needed corrections, the art work gets sent in, as do the endorsements, and it's on it's way to the printer. Yesssssssssss !!!!!

Stale Bread and Crackers


 
Sometimes our relationships or marriages get like bread and saltine crackers that have been opened. Stale! That doesn’t mean they are necessarily bad, it simply means they don’t have the freshness they once had.

What do we do with our stale bread and crackers? Typically, don’t we throw it out or feed it to the birds and squirrels? We can’t do that when our relationship or marriage goes stale can we? That being the case, what do we do?

Regardless of who we think may be at fault for a stale marriage, we really only have one option—start by changing ourselves by;

·         Looking within for ways we have left the wrapper open to staleness.

·         Wondering if we may not be reaffirming our love as much as we could.

·         Placing the value on the marriage or relationship that it should have.

·         Not taking the other party for granted so often.

·         Expressing ourselves as a committed partner.

We need to believe in our heart of hearts that it is possible to fall in love, not just once when we found the one we are committed to, but that we can each and every day of our lives with them. If we can do that, we, and they, will never get stale. If we do that, it will become a partnership of amazement, because they will follow your example.

Bottom Line Thought: Stretch your thinking to include this about you: “I never thought it was possible to fall in love with her over and over and over again.” PS: Has God ever stopped loving you?

Friday, April 10, 2015

Sliced Bread


Haven’t we all heard the phrase “that’s better than sliced bread”? We use that term when we are amazed about something new to us, something that does just the job—like a tool specially made for one purpose, to replace one that was not just right for the job prior to that. Perhaps when color TV’s came out to replace the old black and whites that phrase was used in many households.
Why don’t we start this day off as a better than sliced bread day? Let’s make it a real “up” day! Just like everyone else on God’s green earth, we have our issues, our problems, our baggage and hurts. We have our uncertainties and our struggles to face as we walk yet another day in this walk of life. But, we certainly don’t have to be down about it in any way because we can all be proud of ourselves for at least something.

Let’s start this day as an “I’m better than sliced bread” day—because we are just that today. We are free to be us, we know that God shares His unconditional love with us, and we can realize that we aren’t the men we used to be. We have purpose, and we know we are not alone in our journey—no matter how rough it might be.

Bottom Line Thought: Repeat after me—“I am better than sliced bread today.” Now, go enjoy your day in a happy mode!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

What about the kids?


Many of us have heard the saying “our kids are the future of the world.” If we believe that saying, one implication of that belief is that it is we who are raising the future of the world. Here are some observations I’ve made over the past couple of decades that makes that implication somewhat scary;

·         More young kids are being shuffled off to pre-school or sitters because both parents work, and there is less and less stay at home parents.

·         Television (the one-eyed god) and electronics have, to a great degree, replaced social interaction.

·         Social media and cell phones have become must-haves for children.

·         Less and less kids seem to play outdoors.

·         PTA/PTC groups are clamoring for parental involvement.

·         In many ways, childhood is being robbed because parents are willing to let their kids grow up way too soon and are too busy to play like kids with them.

·         Many parents are not bringing up their children with a spiritual world view.

I think we all understand that many times families are facing financial challenges that demand that both parents work. If those challenges are because the family has succumbed to the “monster of more,” as is the case many times, then perhaps the spiritual fabric of the family is torn or worn. Abdicating parental obligations in favor of worldly stuff is not conducive to raising our kids with a spiritual worldview.

If we don’t teach our children how to follow Christ,

the world will teach them not to.

That statement brings to mind several points: 1) How much about the Christian way of life will the kids learn from television social media, and texting? 2) Assuming that most of us feel that our children are so important, why is it that so much of their upbringing is placed in the hands of others?

Some of us, like me, have raised our children while non-believers. That doesn’t mean they all turned out bad, but in my case only a couple have chosen a Christ like walk for their lives, and those of their children—something that is very, very sad.

Bottom Line Thought: Can you accept the fact that it is never too late to change, no matter where you are in your spiritual walk? Are you preparing your children for a Christian walk?

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Happiness


 
What is happiness? Loosely put, it is the state of being happy, or, a state of contentment or well-being. We have often heard that money can’t buy happiness, yet many of us, through our actions, don’t really believe that do we? We may buy a new car, tool, or toy and initially we will be happy because we have something new. That sense of being happy over our newly acquired object eventually wears off doesn’t it?

Why do we sometimes think of ourselves as unhappy? Why do some folks seem to be terminally unhappy—those folks we really don’t like to be around for very long? Isn’t it really just because we can’t find any contentment or sense of well-being for ourselves at that point in time? We do know that happiness isn’t something we can’t go to Walmart and buy don’t we?

One of the easiest ways to find happiness, not the temporary kind that comes from buying something new, but the more lasting and meaningful kind, is to simply look within ourselves and look at all the good we see there. We need to set our temporary issues and problems aside and just recognize that there is a lot of good residing there in our skin.

If we need to double down a bit, because we may not be quite certain we have anything to be happy about, we need only look around us and we will find others who are far less fortunate than we are, folks who have stuff happening to them that we wouldn’t wish on our worse enemy. And, often times as we look at those folks we will find that they too have a sense of contentment and well-being because their particular issues aren’t worse than they are.

Being happy is infectious to those around us. Granted, there are some grouches out there that find our happiness annoying, but they might just be some who are terminally unhappy. What we don’t know is if our happiness may just be an example for them.

God didn’t make us to be unhappy. He made us to be content, content with ourselves and what is going on around us.  As long as we trust Him, he will take care of our well-being.

Bottom Line Thought: Are you a happy person generally? Do you feel contentment in your life no matter what is going on?