Wisdom Justified by Time

Dick Cheney’s autobiography In My Time reviews the lives of political figures who have shaped America the past several decades. Cheney rubbed shoulders with many of Washington’s elites, gleaning wisdom from some of their lives.

Careful observers gleaned one valuable lesson from observing the leadership of Gerald Ford: some actions are only justified by time.

Cheney shares the surprise he and many Americans, experienced when President Ford announced on September 8, 1974, that he was issuing a full, free, and absolute pardon to Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. Cheney writes, He described his actions as a way to ‘shut and seal’ the matter of Watergate and to mitigate the suffering of Richard Nixon and his family.  

At the time, this action cost Ford – some speculate that it cost him the reelection. There was immediately a firestorm of controversy and criticism. Ford’s approval rating dropped from 71% to 49%. The press condemned Ford, and he endured much negative criticism as a result. 

However, more than thirty years later, Cheney writes, the wisdom and generosity of Gerald Ford’s instincts have been recognized for their courage and honored for their rightness. But at the time the pardon was controversial and unpopular.

The Right Choice

Wisdom beckons that at times the right choice is the unpopular choice. The right choice may be greatly misunderstood and even condemned. It takes courage to make the right choice. And in time, even those who criticize that person may see years later that it was the right choice.

Many years ago, my parents left a toxic church situation. When they joined the next church, the pastor told them, I don’t know what happened at that church, but everyone who comes here from there comes hurting. Before they left, Mom warned some persons of the unwise and ungodly path of the senior pastor. Mom and Dad received an incredible amount of criticism and ostracism for their stance. The pastor told the staff to not have conversations with them.  My parents left their church of 25+ years belittled, bruised, and broken.  Several years later, however, after several hundred people and most of the staff left the church, an ex-staff member commented to me in retrospect, Mrs. Wilson was right.

One of the traits of a godly man or woman is this: a godly person does not play to the crowd. A wise person does not make his judgments solely based on public opinion. King Saul in the Old Testament lived most of his reign working to make himself look good in front of others. The fruit of his character revealed a pitiful life, not so different than the lives of some Hollywood favorites or political figures that woo the crowds but lead miserable lives of shallow character.

The roar of the crowd and public opinion are often fickle and sway with the wind. As with President Ford's day, systems of people are quick to make fast judgments and shift blame to scapegoats to manage their current stress. But the perspective of years often reveals a different reality.

Be willing to make the hard decisions when necessary. God will be pleased, and time will tell.

 

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay

Remembering - and Moving Forward

 

In 1972, our country’s most popular song was “American Pie,” the Living Bible became the most popular nonfiction book, the Waltons premiered on CBS, NASA introduced the Space Shuttle Program, and one Monday evening in September, I took my first breath. This fall I hit the half-century mark, and I’m proudly wearing the “Vintage 1972” accompanying t-shirt and cap.

Turning a milestone age brings reflection. The world has changed tremendously in half a century. In some ways for good and in many ways for bad.

If I could speak to my eighteen-year-old self, here are a few words I’d give:

+Life is seasonal. Many relationships, blessings, and hardships will come and go. Enjoy them while they last. Know the bad things will eventually change. Most friendships are seasonal, not long term.

+Take a deep dive at knowing yourself. You will help the most people, be the most fulfilled, and receive the greatest benefits when you stay true to the gifts, talents, and passions God has given you.

+Spend little time worrying over what other people think. Don’t live by other people’s expectations.

+Discipline and persistence, not talent, are the keys to long-term success.

+Develop multiple streams of income. Don’t put all your financial eggs in one basket.

+Take more risks. Don’t play it safe all the time.

+God is utterly faithful, and His Word is eternally true.

+Get video or tape recordings of your grandparents and other older special people in your life telling their stories. You will miss them tremendously when they are gone.

+Society is going to reject truth, love evil, believe lies, and embrace absurdity. Don’t expect to be at home in Zion, but remember biblical heroes like Jeremiah, Daniel, and Old Testament Joseph.

+The little things will often mean more in the long-run than the things that get the most attention.

+Buy a lot of stock in Dell, Netflix, Redbox, and Amazon when they go public. I know the names are weird, but trust me.

+True love and its rewards are worth the wait. Be patient.

Dan Miller’s writings and podcasts have been great encouragement to me. He shares a helpful framework for every decade of life:

Learning (20s) – trying lots of things and making new decisions

Experimenting (30s) – sorting out your interests and eliminating

Mastering (40s) – focusing on your interest and developing skills and expertise

Reaping (50s) – and creating systems to keep you moving forward

Guiding (60s) – mentoring others and leveraging your life message

Leaving a legacy (70s) – preparing for when you are no longer here

Maximizing your zone of genius (80s): spending 75% of your time doing what you do best

Our society glamorizes youth. Classic wisdom, however, honors age, for with age should come wisdom and understanding.

Grandma Moses finished her first for-sale painting at age 76 years, which ultimately sold for $1.2 million. She spent the next 25 years painting.

Colonel Sanders franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken at age 62.

Laura Ingalls Wilder first published the first Little House book at age 65.

At age 52, Ray Crock purchased McDonald’s.

Ronald Reagan did not hold public office until his 50s.

Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence at age 70.

Peter Roget oversaw every update of Roget’s Thesaurus until his death at age 90.

Miller writes, “If you plant corn, it will mature in 180 days. If you plant bamboo, it will mature in five years. If you plant walnut trees, they will mature in forty years. My recommendation, be doing all three in every stage of life. Be doing things that will give you a return in six months, in five years and in forty years.”

That’s good advice. I wrote the following prayer as a reflection on my 50^th birthday. I hope it encourages someone:

Help me hold on to those things that reflect my true self, not driven by other voices, but Yours.

Help me listen to my calling – vocal – vocation – innately from within – congruent with the materials entrusted to me by my Creator.

Help me hold loosely the expectations of others, so I can pursue the best things, expanding on my unique abilities and passions, thus serving the greatest good where my deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger.

Help me look back only for wisdom and thanksgiving. Keep my gaze moving forward, letting go of yesterday's losses, building on the strength of the past, embracing today’s limitless opportunities, and expecting a fruitful and prosperous tomorrow.

Help me create legacy, assisting, encouraging, and empowering fellow travelers and friends on life’s journey, embracing the good and walking in the divine Presence of the Unseen One.

Help me take action, thinking deeply, treasuring wisdom, grasping opportunity, making decisions, living creatively, sharing generously, advancing positively, choosing now, embracing love, faith, hope, truth, and joy – and dreams that parallel with God's reality.

Help me to laugh, reflect, rest, and enjoy the most important blessings of life.

 

A Merchant of Time

“Time flies. It’s up to you to be the navigator,” quipped Robert Orbin.

The freshman year of college is a big learning curve in knowing how to be disciplined and organize yourself and your schedule. With all of the new freedoms, a lot of freshmen either get way too overcommitted in activities and social engagements, or they seem to major in vegging and hanging out.

Dr. Jack Presseau, my freshman adviser, shared a nugget of wisdom that remains with me today. Perfect for that role, Jack was accomplished enough to earn my respect, thoughtful and pastorly enough to emulate genuine care, and thorough and disciplined enough to challenge a young eighteen/nineteen-year old.

He gave a chart to me with the instruction to write down what I did every half hour of every day for one week. It made me begin thinking in terms of time management and learn to see my time in terms of short segments. Since then, I've learned to think of an hour as four segments of fifteen minutes, and many tasks can be completed in a fifteen-minute segment. It was also a good exercise to begin appreciating the power of keeping tasks and appointments written down. As Adrian Rogers said, "The weakest pen is greater than the strongest mind."

Our Private Worlds

Several thousand books have come through my library the past thirty years. Some stayed. Others found another life via Goodwill. A few helped change my life. One of those in the latter category is Gordon MacDonald's Ordering Your Private World. 

MacDonald shares his experience as a young pastor with lots of talent and a great personality. For most of his latter twenties he rode the wave of those two assets, while ignoring the guardrails of habitual disciplines.

After hitting an emotional-mental wall one day, a sobering reality struck him head-on: he could not coast the rest of his life and ministry on what had made him attractive and outwardly successful in his twenties. His gifts and natural charm would not enable him to be successful over the long haul of life.

He had to learn discipline.

MacDonald writes, "There came a time in my own life when I wanted to make sound decisions about the budgeting of my time, and I wanted to be free of that frantic pitch of daily life in which one is always playing catch-up." 

He learned nine symptoms of disorganization that characterize his life when disorder rules: 

1.  My desk takes on a cluttered appearance. 

2.  The symptoms tend to show themselves in the condition of my car.

3.  I become aware of a diminution in my self-esteem.

4.  There are a series of forgotten appointments, messages to which I failed to respond, and deadlines I have begun to miss.

5.  I tend to invest my energies in unproductive tasks.

6.  Disorganized people feel poorly about their work.

7.  Disorganized Christians rarely enjoy intimacy with God.

8.  The quality of my personal relationships usually reveals it. I may become irritable.

9. When we are disorganized in our control of time, we don’t like ourselves, our jobs, or much else about our worlds.

That first year of college I read Charles Hummel's book The Tyranny of the Urgent, digesting the concept that the use of our time will always include two conflicting needs fighting to become our master. Those two conflicts are important things versus urgent things. 

The disciplined person learns to get important things done. The undisciplined person is always a slave to urgent matters.

 

MacDonald’s Laws of Unmanaged Time

Macdonald writes, "Time must be budgeted!  We must resolve to seize control of our time.  The disorganized person must have a budgeting perspective of time."

In his chapter on time management, he shares four laws about unmanaged time.

 

Law #1:          

Unmanaged time flows toward my weaknesses.

Law #2:          

Unmanaged time comes under the influence of dominant people in my world.      

Law #3:          

Unmanaged time surrenders to the demands of all emergencies.

Law #4:          

Unmanaged time gets invested in things that gain public acclamation.


The struggle of wisely investing our time knows no age limit. I recommend MacDonald's book to anyone.  I read it again every two to three years. But I especially commend it to anyone age twenty-five to thirty-five. 

May we heed the warning of Hummel, who said, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.”

And may we be found faithful with our time, echoing the words of J. H. Jewett: “The disciple of Christ is to be an expert merchant in the commodity of time.”

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay.

 

Change: The Name of the Game

 

Here's a good word from Chuck Swindoll heading into a new year:

"When you boil the Christian life down to the basics, the name of the game is change.

Those who flex with the times, who refuse to stay rigid, who resist the mold and reject the rut . . . ah, those are the souls distinctively used by God. To them, change is a challenge, a fresh breeze that flows through the room of routine and blows away the stale air of sameness. It seldom fails to stimulate and invigorate . . . and it often serves as oil on the rusty gate of habit. This is especially applicable when it comes to certain habits that harm and hurt us. That kind of change is always hard—but it isn’t impossible. Let’s think that over."

Read the entire article here at Insight for Living.

Picture used by permission from Pixabay.

How to Not Obsess in a World Out of Control

Stressed out over the fact that there are many large scale issues out of your control? Dan Miller shares good advice this week . . .

I Want to Change the Wold

In his classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey distinguishes between two circles. The first is our Circle of Concern. This includes a whole range of things – global warming, the state of the economy, the current pandemic, societal attitudes including racism and bigotry, the apparent collapse of political systems, the demise of the American church, and more. The actual list will depend on the individual, but the important thing is to understand there may be little you can do about these large scale issues since they are outside your influence. Devoting energy on them may be a waste of time - the equivalent of yelling at the television - and our energy is thus depleted.

Our Circle of Influence will be much smaller but includes the things we can actually do something about.

People who focus on their Circle of Concern - because they have very little direct control - are often reactive and maintain an attitude of victimization and blame.

The extent of your control will obviously be related to your power - if you’re the President of the United States, the chairman of NASA, the CEO of General Motors, or the Pope, you may have far more influence than the average person. But the key is to focus our energy on those things we can influence. And thus we can in fact initiate effective change. And when we do this with wisdom and decisive action, we’ll find our Circle of Influence will increase in scope. Conversely, if all your energy goes into things you cannot control, your Circle of Influence will shrink. Not only will you waste your energy and perhaps destroy the very resources needed for positive change, you’ll feel frustrated, drained of energy, and others will see you as a negative force to be avoided.

And yes, this presents a very dicey balance. If we assume our Circle of Influence is small and thus we have no power or impact, we can justify inaction on large scale issues. We can bury our heads in the sand, protect our tiny space or escape to a place of isolation. So what do we do with problems like lack of clean water in foreign countries? What about challenges of adequate food or housing right here in the United States? What do we do when desperate immigrant families are locked up when approaching our borders? How do we correct racism and police brutality?

If I watch TV and scream in anger at the injustice or join the incensed mob in breaking windows in my home town, I may be acting righteously in my Circle of Concern, but the likelihood of positive change is slim.

On the other hand, if I focus my energy on working with my neighbors on cleaning up the local park, or leave an extra tip at the newly reopened restaurant, or provide work for an immigrant family, or supply a hand-up to a young black lady who just got out of prison, or be an example of health and optimism in the face of a pandemic, I can expand my Circle of Influence, and create a small positive change on those larger issues.

When I spend my mental, emotional and spiritual energy serving others and adding value to their lives, rather than tearing things down, I can create a tiny ripple toward the major challenges in the world. And each of us is equipped with unique skills to accomplish that. We don’t all need to find positions with nonprofits, church or political organizations; rather, finding work that engages God’s greatest gifts to you is likely your best way to improve your life and, subsequently, help improve the lives of your family, your friends, the members of your community, and ultimately, the entire world.

I’m reminded of this inscription on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Abbey, dated 1100 A. D. (I used this with permission in No More Dreaded Mondays)

“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits,
I dreamed of changing the world.
As I grew older and wiser I discovered the world would not change –
So I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country,
But it too seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt,
I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me,
But alas, they would have none of it.
And now I realize as I lie on my deathbed, if I had only changed myself first,
Then by example I might have changed my family,
From their inspiration and encouragement I would then have been able to better my country,
And who knows, I might have even changed the world.”

Picture used by permission from Pixabay.

 

Pardons, Ink, and Toner

The following article is my editorial this week in The Clinton Chronicle . . .

“Dare to risk public criticism,” said Mary Kay Ash. She should know. A successful businesswoman who broke many molds and took many risks, I’m sure she endured her share of critics.

I remember as a young pastor receiving an anonymous letter full of complaints about me and my wife. Most pastors have received a few of those cowardly gems.  The author rebuked me in one line by saying, “You make too many photocopies, which wastes our ink and toner!” Boy, he might as well have said I was lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut. My wife and I still laugh, some almost twenty years later, that we may stoop really low one day and waste too much ink and toner.

Dick Cheney’s autobiography In My Time reviews the lives of political figures who have shaped America the past several decades. Cheney rubbed shoulders with many of Washington’s elites.

One lesson was gleaned from observing the leadership of Gerald Ford: some actions are only justified by time.

Cheney shares the surprise he and many Americans experienced when, on September 8, 1974, President Ford issued a full, free, and absolute pardon to Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. Cheney writes, “He described his actions as a way to ‘shut and seal’ the matter of Watergate and to mitigate the suffering of Richard Nixon and his family.”

At the time, this action cost Ford – some speculate that it cost him the reelection. There was immediately “a firestorm of controversy and criticism.” Ford’s approval rating dropped from 71% to 49%. The press condemned Ford, and he endured much negative criticism as a result. 

However, more than 30 years later, Cheney writes, “[T]he wisdom and generosity of Gerald Ford’s instincts have been recognized for their courage and honored for their rightness. But at the time the pardon was controversial and unpopular.”

Wisdom beckons, at times the right choice is the unpopular choice. The right choice may be greatly misunderstood and even condemned. It takes courage to make the right choice. And in time, even those who criticize that person may see years later that it was the right choice.

Two decades ago, my parents left a church situation that had become toxic. Before they left, she warned some persons of the unwise and ungodly path that the senior pastor was taking. Mom and Dad – and anyone else who questioned the pastor - received an incredible amount of criticism and ostracism for their stance. The staff was even told to not have conversations with them. Several years later, however, after several hundred people and most of the staff left the church, an ex-staff member commented in retrospect, Mrs. Wilson was right.

I’ve tried to remember through the years one simple difference. Reputation and opinion are what people think and say about you based on their limited perspective. Character is what God sees about you from His unlimited perspective when no one else is looking. Sometimes they are the same, sometimes different.

A godly person does not play to the crowd. A wise person does not make judgments based solely on public opinion. Instead, he or she seeks to please the audience of One – the Lord. The book of Proverbs reveals that true wisdom is rooted in the fear of God.

King Saul in the Old Testament lived most of his reign working to make himself look good in front of others. The fruit of his character revealed a pitiful life, not so different than the lives of some Hollywood favorites or political figures that woo the crowds but lead miserable lives of shallow character.

Be willing to make the hard decisions when necessary. God will be pleased, and time will tell.

Pictures used by permission from Pixabay.

The Importance of Handwritten Notes

Last weekend, I cleaned out our filing cabinets. For the first time in eighteen years of marriage, I thoroughly purged our many files. I spent about four hours going through loads of paper and ended up with more than a laundry basket full of paper to throw away. I found receipts from every pregnancy, doctor visits for babies, paperwork for every vehicle purchased, and invitations to our wedding. It’s fun to see it all, and it is fun to throw most of it away.

But it was also a great reminder of a tradition we need to preserve for our children.

You see, tucked in between the items to discard were treasures. No, they can’t be sold and won’t bring any money, but their worth is priceless. I found letter after letter written by family members, loved ones, and friends. Some of those people are no longer on this earth.

Those treasures include the following:

• Birthday and anniversary cards from our grandparents, all of whom are now in heaven. My wife and I remarked in recent years how the mailed birthday cards decreased. My grandmother always sent us a $50 Red Lobster gift card on special occasions, along with a hand-written note.
• Long, hand-written letters of encouragement, thanks, and sometimes exhortation from my mother.
• Letters to our children from my great-aunt, who never had children of her own but took great interest in ours.
• Notes from church members, who occasionally took time to express their love, assure us of their prayers, or send a gift.
• The only letter I ever received from my father. I was struggling over a life-decision in college, and he mailed me a very short note that read, “I am praying for you. Love, Dad.”
• Love-letters between my wife and I from our days of courtship, which is now two decades ago.
• Simple notes and pictures that our children have written us during the years for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, and Father and Mother’s Days. Though often misspelled, they are treasures, like the one I have taped on my wall that says, “DIER DADDEY; I HOP YUW HAVE A GUD HAPPPEYE BERTH DAYA.  I LUV YUW DADDEY.”

Because of our digital age, we live in a day when we are losing the craft of writing letters. People text and email habitually. And there is nothing wrong with those inventions. They make life simpler in some ways, and they are convenient when I need to send a quick word.

However, texting and emailing does not adequately replace the personal note or letter—and they don’t leave treasures behind for us or our children.

BIOGRAPHIES AND LETTERS

I enjoy reading biographies. One of the main ways we learn about historical figures is from their correspondence: the letters they sent and received. We read the letters and journals of great political statesmen like George Washington, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, of seasoned missionaries and pastors like Hudson Taylor, Mary Slessor, and George Mueller, and of outstanding thinkers and achievers like C. S. Lewis, Benjamin Franklin, and Elisabeth Elliot.  If Martin Luther King, Jr., had lived in our day, I guess his famous book would be titled Texts and Emails from Birmingham Jail. 

Donald Whitney, Professor of Biblical Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says that most of his students say that, other than for special occasions, they have never in their life received a personal hand-written letter. Whitney says that a hand-written letter is “the height of personal touch today. It has a personal touch to it that an email doesn’t.”

An email from your mother and your bank, printed out on your printer, look the same. There is nothing personal about the white paper and black ink.

However, a card that was picked out to send just to you, or a piece of someone’s personal stationary with a note that is hand-written or typed and then signed by the sender carries personality. It’s a touch of care, concern, and love from the sender, in a way that can never be accomplished electronically.

If you don't have good handwriting, then do what I do. Type a letter and then sign it with a short handwritten note.

CREATING TREASURES

Let’s get back to writing letters and notes on cards. And let’s keep the ones we receive so our children will someday have memories they will treasure. Let’s teach our children the value of hand-writing a birthday greeting, thank-you note, or a congratulatory expression, so that they can bless the lives of others.

I still have some letters and envelopes sent to me by loved ones years ago.  When I pick them up, I remember that their hands touched that paper, wrote on it, and signed it with their pen. For the ones now in heaven, I can’t see them.  But I still feel loved by their handwritten notes sent years ago.

Today would be a good day for you to write a handwritten letter to your child. He or she will treasure it one day.


Pictures used by permission from Pixabay.

Men Trying to Be Sexually Pure

Recently,  in light of the #MeToo movement and the Kavanaugh hearing, I've seen several memes floating around showing how many messages women receive in our sexually-charged culture aimed at telling them to be modest and not lead on men.

Some of them seem to imply that all of the weight is on the women.

As a man, I have tried during my adult life to live a life that pleased the Lord and honored him, including in the way I relate to the opposite sex. Keeping one's self under control is a discipline, particularly in a society that flaunts sex on magazine covers, television ads, and almost everywhere you turn.

As a boy, I learned the Royal Ambassador Pledge, which includes the statement, "As a Royal Ambassador I will do my best . . . to keep myself clean and healthy in mind and body."

While a college student, I read in a Christian magazine about a young man asking a 40-something year-old if he ever struggled with lust. The implication was that the young man thought since the older man was married and enjoyed sex with his wife, the struggle with lust was over. The 40-something year old replied, "Son, I did not know what lust was until my 40's."

Certainly sexual temptation knows no age-limits. 



A Lifestyle to Adopt

For moms raising sons they hope to be godly, self-controlled young men, and for Christian men who seek to live a life above reproach, here is a reminder of some of the responsibility men bear in the path of purity . . .

• Turn our gaze from magazine ads and covers, internet pop-ups, television ads, and the 100+ other forms of sexually charged items in our culture.
• When I walk down a hall or narrow path near women, I often put my hands in my pockets or press my hands against my pants so as not to in any way accidentally touch a woman inappropriately.
• Start every day before getting out of bed submitting myself - including my body - to the Lord for His glory and use.
• Pray the Lord's Prayer at the start of every day - not by rote but by meaning. And seek to walk in the Spirit and live a life bathed in conversational prayer daily.

• When a situation is appropriate to hug a women (other than my wife), I make sure and move towards a side hug so as to not press my body in any way against her breasts.
• When out in public, when I see a woman dressed immodestly, I discipline myself to look away and not keep looking at her body.
• Refrain from flirting with women, even casually.
• Never discuss sexual matters with another woman (unless in a strict counseling setting - and even then only with another person present).

• Refrain from seeking emotional "strokes" from women other than my wife. Don't try and be a hero or "Prince Charming" to anyone other than my wife and daughter.
• I refrain from meeting a woman other than my wife or family member in public - at a restaurant, for example (some of the same folks who criticize President Trump for his immorality criticize Vice President Pence for his practices like this one aimed at moral purity.)
• Choose to not watch television shows, videos, or movies with much sexual situations and scantly-clad women.
• Refrain from watching movies with nudity.

• Turn the station when music comes on of a sensual nature (a lot of today's country music has turned from love to lust songs).
• When sex is satisfying at home, enjoy!
• When sex is sparse at home, practice self-control and self-discipline and learn to be content when my wants are not met.
• Discipline myself to meditate on and memorize Scripture from the Bible. Keep a steady supply of biblical sermons and devotions on my phone and in my car to listen to at times when driving - for the purpose of renewing my mind.

• Abstain from indulging in internet pornography, which is always a few clicks away.
• Treat women with respect and dignity. That includes opening doors for them, saying "thank you," and asking about their lives.
• Choose to dress in a way that shows self-respect and modesty.
• Never engage in sexual jokes - not even with other men.
• Keep internet filters on my devices.

• Never engage in bragging about sexual activity with anyone (other than your spouse!)
• If I am feeling especially tempted sexually in some way, ask a godly man to pray for me.
• Discipline my thought life to only think about my wife sexually. 
• Keep a short account with God. When I realize I have lusted or harbored inappropriate thoughts or desires, repent of them immediately, asking God to cleanse me and fill me afresh with the Holy Spirit.
• Speak to women graciously, humbly, and respectfully. Serve and honor them when appropriate.

• Do not indulge mental fantasies with the culture's entertainment.
• Choose to take every thought captive and keep my mind set on the good things of Philippians 4:8.
• Live counter to a culture that embraces "free-sex."
• For single men, the list could probably double. For starters, choosing to abstain from having sex until marriage, though our single culture today embraces hooking up and having sex just for the physical pleasure.

• Act like a man! Not just like a boy.
• Speak often of my wife and children to other people.
• As a pastor, for years I refused to counsel a woman alone in my office with a closed door.
• When counseling a woman, I intentionally insert my wife and children's names into the conversation several times, just as a subtle reminder, "I belong to them."

This list is just the beginning. I'm sure other godly men could add more.

With the excess imbalance of the #MeToo movement and the Kavanaugh hearing, where it appears a person can be accused with zero evidence by one person dating back decades, men will likely have to add many more items to this list seeking to guard themselves and their reputations.

Let's remember that staying sexually pure, above reproach, and pleasing to God depends on both men and women doing their part.

"God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin." 
- 1 Thessalonians 4:3


Pictures used by permission from Pixabay

Burn the Boats

In 1519, Hernán Cortés landed on the vast inland of Mexico along with 600 Spaniards, approximately 16 horses, and 11 boats. The Span­ish con­quis­ta­dor and his men were about to embark on a con­quest of an empire that hoarded some of the world’s great­est trea­sure.

 

This dar­ing under­tak­ing seemed insur­mount­able because for more than 600 years, con­querors had never suc­ceeded.  For this rea­son, Cortés did something daring when he arrived at the land of the Mayans.

 

Instead of charg­ing through cities and forc­ing his men into imme­di­ate bat­tle, Cortés stayed on the beach and awoke the souls of his men with embla­zoned speeches.  However, it was just three words he murmured that changed the his­tory of the New World.  As they marched inland to face their ene­mies, Cortés ordered, “Burn the boats.”

 

Read the entire article by Hal White here.

Preventing Burnout

Here is part two of a great article from Focus on the Family's Thriving Pastor to pastors about preventing burnout . . .

In Part 1 of this article we talked about the reality of “burnout” – its prevalence among ministers, its symptoms, and some of its more harmful practical effects.  We discussed how this psychological phenomenon impacts pastors in the office, in the pulpit, and at home with spouse and kids.  I closed with a promise to give you some specific advice for avoiding “burnout.”  Here are some of the syndrome’s most common symptoms and a few suggestions for dealing with them.

Lack of rest: To avoid burnout you have to be spiritually, mentally, physically, and relationally healthy. This isn’t easy to achieve, of course—sometimes the ministry can be so consuming that rest seems impossible. That’s why Jesus’ words to His disciples are so important: “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:11)

If you don’t intentionally schedule rest, it will not happen.  Here is the rule that I try to live by: Whatever is on the calendar first wins. I don’t change the calendar unless it is an emergency by my definition. I recommend that you sit down with your spouse and schedule time for recreation, study, a day off, and your vacation. Then, when you get a request to do this or that, you can honestly say, “I am sorry but I have an appointment.” It’s important to maintain this boundary and protect your time off.

Read the entire article here.