Have you ever noticed how hard it is to keep in contact with friends? People move away and we get caught up in the business of life and soon we remember that we haven’t talked to that good friend in a long time.
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I think of my friend Mike. We went to school together from kindergarten until we graduated. He got married shortly after high school and I was able to be in his wedding, but after he went into the Air Force, we didn’t see each other very often. Now we only talk on the phone every couple of years. Though I still consider Mike a friend, in reality he really doesn’t have much of a part in my life anymore.
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Both of my brothers live 2-3 hours away, but we still make it a point to get together. Travis just called me the other night. They were writing their will and wanted to know if we would take their kids if anything ever happened to them. We are definitely a part of each other’s lives. My other brother Dusty calls me regularly and we can talk for hours, even if we have just seen each other recently.
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My brothers and I are so close because of our shared values and our shared faith in God. Neither of them are pastors, but God is a central part of both of their lives. They have each trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and are committed to training their families according to His Word. Travis is not quite as outgoing as Dustin, but he is not afraid to talk to and about his God.
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So how many of us are like that? Even for those who have trusted Christ as Savior, has your relationship with Him become like my relationship with my high school classmate? Have you become so distant from God that it is almost like you don’t even know Him anymore? I believe much of the downfall of our society is because people (even those who call themselves Christians) do not really know God. God declares in Jeremiah 9:24, “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
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If you really get to know God, you will find that Jeremiah 9:24 is true. He is a God of justice and righteousness and He is also loving and kind. But when people don’t even know Him and don’t understand who He really is, no wonder there are so many problems in our world. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” (Romans 1:28).
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I think of the most memorable moments of my life. In many of them my brothers were there. In all of them, my God was there, but did I really acknowledge that at the time? Was I walking close with Him, keeping in touch with Him, not just on a daily but on a moment by moment basis? Am I doing that now?
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If you were to describe your most memorable event, what role would God have in that description? Would you even mention Him? As we consider the Psalms of David, we realize that he is describing things that happened in his life,. What makes those descriptions so important, is not the details of the events. Rather, it is God’s role in those events and David’s connection to his God throughout them that stand out. If someone were to read your diary, would they find God in it? As you go throughout your life, is God a part of it, or is He a distant acquaintance far far away?
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Girls are Prettier Than Boys
Our little boys have an assortment of bathtub toys, ranging from a boat, to bowls, to rubber duckies. The duckies actually came in a set, with the momma and her babies. My 2 ½ year old son brought a baby ducky and the momma ducky into my office and was showing them to me. He quickly understood which one was the baby because it was smaller. I had often told him that his own mother was pretty, so I pointed out the big long eyelashes that were painted on the momma ducky and said, “look, Jared, this is a momma because it is pretty.”
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He then picked up the baby ducky and pointed to it’s long eyelashes and said, “baby mommy ducky.” It looks like our little boy is starting to understand the differences between boys and girls.
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This reminds me of the little 5-6 year old girl I talked with. She had been on a field trip and was all excited to tell me about it. I told her that it sounded fun and that I would have liked to have gone. She informed me that I was too old. I responded by saying that I wished that I was her age for just a little while, then I could go on the field trips and we could play on the swings. She looked at me with total indignation and said, “I wouldn’t play with you.” I asked why not. She looked at me as if I were the most ignorant person in the world and said, “because you’re a boy!”
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Yes, boys and girls are different. “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” (Mark 10:6) Though we can have the same relationship to Christ (see Gal 3:28) we are obviously different.
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Some would like to minimize those differences and suggest that there is no distinction at all between the genders. This goes against nature itself. For example, I did not have the strain nor the pleasure that comes with being able to carry our children in a womb. I will never know or understand exactly what it is like to be a woman, nor will my wife understand what it is like to be a man.
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The differences between men and women go far beyond the physical. It has been said that women tend to be more emotional than men. I fear that tension between men and women has resulted because too often those differences are not understood. It has become politically incorrect to even discuss them.
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Consider how men tend to want to talk about a problem until a solution is found and women just want to know that the man cares. I have learned that instead of trying to find a solution to every concern my wife voices, I sometimes need to simply listen for a minute, be quiet, and give her a hug.
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Now if I thought she was just like me, I would never do that. You see once we realize we are different and that those differences are not bad- just different- we are better able to relate to each other.
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I fear the high divorce rate can partly be attributed to the lie that men and women are the same. If more couples went into the marriage aware of the differences and loved each other because of those differences, they would be better equipped to relate to one another. Yes, God created us male and female, and though different, those differences make us complementary to one another.
-
He then picked up the baby ducky and pointed to it’s long eyelashes and said, “baby mommy ducky.” It looks like our little boy is starting to understand the differences between boys and girls.
-
This reminds me of the little 5-6 year old girl I talked with. She had been on a field trip and was all excited to tell me about it. I told her that it sounded fun and that I would have liked to have gone. She informed me that I was too old. I responded by saying that I wished that I was her age for just a little while, then I could go on the field trips and we could play on the swings. She looked at me with total indignation and said, “I wouldn’t play with you.” I asked why not. She looked at me as if I were the most ignorant person in the world and said, “because you’re a boy!”
-
Yes, boys and girls are different. “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” (Mark 10:6) Though we can have the same relationship to Christ (see Gal 3:28) we are obviously different.
-
Some would like to minimize those differences and suggest that there is no distinction at all between the genders. This goes against nature itself. For example, I did not have the strain nor the pleasure that comes with being able to carry our children in a womb. I will never know or understand exactly what it is like to be a woman, nor will my wife understand what it is like to be a man.
-
The differences between men and women go far beyond the physical. It has been said that women tend to be more emotional than men. I fear that tension between men and women has resulted because too often those differences are not understood. It has become politically incorrect to even discuss them.
-
Consider how men tend to want to talk about a problem until a solution is found and women just want to know that the man cares. I have learned that instead of trying to find a solution to every concern my wife voices, I sometimes need to simply listen for a minute, be quiet, and give her a hug.
-
Now if I thought she was just like me, I would never do that. You see once we realize we are different and that those differences are not bad- just different- we are better able to relate to each other.
-
I fear the high divorce rate can partly be attributed to the lie that men and women are the same. If more couples went into the marriage aware of the differences and loved each other because of those differences, they would be better equipped to relate to one another. Yes, God created us male and female, and though different, those differences make us complementary to one another.
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