Busy Signal
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, September 19th 2016 Share the goods! If you are like me, you hate to be trapped in a sea of voice mail automation when you want to talk to a person live to address an issue. Before the days of caller ID, do you remember what it felt like to call a number and get a busy signal? This pulsating tone would fill your ears and it always seemed like it was an insult or a form of rejection. You felt rejected because someone was not waiting by the phone for your call. In fact, in the early days some businesses realized that busy signals drove customers away, so what they would do was continually remind the callers that they were on “hold” and they would be enthusiastically answered in a moment or two. Some have even switched over to bland melodies by Muzak. But no matter how you look at it, there is somebody on the other line who is too busy to talk to you. It takes a dedicated parent to cancel golf, cocktail parties and trips to the city to spend time in ordinary talk with their children. Click To Tweet This is the same with many children in the homes of absentee fathers. The children frequently hear busy signals. In fact, many of the busy signals come in the form of “Don’t bother me” or “I’m tied up.” For many men, leisure appointments, deadlines, money, and other objects of adult interests seem to be more important than any of the child’s interest. So often the fathers will...
Sculpture’s Mindset
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, September 12th 2016 Share the goods! There is a legend of a medieval sidewalk superintendent who asked three stone masons on a construction project what they were doing. The first said he was laying bricks. The second described his work as that of building a wall. But it was a third laborer who demonstrated genuine esteem for his work when he said, “I am raising a great cathedral.” Raising children is a God-given responsibility. Click To Tweet Pose those same questions to two fathers concerning their role in the family, and you are liable to get the same contrast. The first man may say, “I am supporting a family,” but the second may see things differently and say, “I am raising children.” The former looks at his job as putting food on the table, but the latter sees people from God’s perspective in that he is shaping lives. To shape lives, suggests that the sculptor is at work cutting and chipping, chiseling out of raw material a beautiful object of art. MORE TOPICS addiction authority biblical characters career challenges children communication convictions depression discernment emotions failure faith family fear finances forgiveness grace healing identity leadership love marriage men parenting personal development pornography priorities process purpose relationships respect restoration righteousness sex sin success temptation trials women Help us continue helping others! DONATE TODAY Share the goods! Monday, September 12th 2016 RELATED VERSES Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Matthew 3:17 (NKJV) And suddenly a...
The Father’s Heart
Every day a little girl would ask her father to bring her some ice cream on his way home from work. One day, the father had a horrible and hectic time at work, confronting one problem after another.
Legacy of a Father
The salmon nearly leaped onto their hooks. This was a far cry from the previous day when it seemed like the anglers could not catch a thing. Disappointed but not discouraged, they climbed aboard their small seaplane and skimmed past the Alaskan mountain to a pristine, secluded bay where the fish were sure to bite.
Frazier’s Support
Joe Frazier’s son Marvis decided that he wanted to keep championship boxing in the Frazier family line. So he started boxing in the heavyweight division, and finally got his shot against Larry Holmes.
Antiquated Maps
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, February 6th 2017 Share the goods! I heard a story of a group of people who found a 4-month old abandoned German shepherd who was suffering from dehydration. The puppy also suffered from bruises all over its body. The people said that the puppy avoided them and for the first month, whenever they came near it, it would shrink and tremble. When they tried to reach out their hand to pet it, it would cower in the corner because it had learned to expect abuse from the hands of humans. It feared the world that it had come to know. It is the same way with children who develop their perception of the world based on how their first caretakers care for them. If they had good parents then they develop strong trust muscles. If they had bad parents then they develop weak trust muscles and their ability to bond is hindered. It is through these experiences that we draw a mental map of the world and then we order our journey around it. Am I using an old map to live, govern, or dictate my life? Click To Tweet This is not something we do consciously. It is kind of like touching a hot stove and the brain warning us not to do that again. The puppy, however, had not been warned not to touch a hot stove but not to connect with humans. The only problem is that the puppy’s mental map was now outdated. When we are older and are removed from a painful setting, our brain does...
Life Without Role Models
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, January 16th 2017 Share the goods! Who was behind the murders of Pilanesberg’s rhinos in South Africa some years ago? Elephants. Why would elephants kill rhinos? Well, like juvenile delinquents, they had grown up without role models. “I think everyone needs a role model and these elephants that left the herd had no role model and no idea of what appropriate elephant behavior was,” said Gus Van Dyk, Pilanesberg Park’s Field Ecologist. The problem goes back 20 years to South Africa’s largest conservation area, Kruger National Park. Kruger had too many elephants. In those days, there was no way to relocate their large adult elephants. So researchers decided to kill the adults and save the children, who were more easily transported to other parks. The government veterinarian, Dr. Hym Ebedes, who originally approved the relocations, said it was a good idea. He said that he considered the possibility that the young elephants might not adjust well, but that there was no other option. The intentions may have been good, but the program created a whole generation of traumatized orphans thrown together without any adults to teach them how to behave. Years later those lonely orphans developed into troubled teenagers. That’s when the killings at Pilanesberg Park began. Everyone needs a role model and there is no better role model than Christ Jesus. Click To Tweet Like a police department facing a crime wave, the rangers photographed the murder scenes and put together rap sheets on the prime suspects, giving them each name. One of the suspects was named Tom Thumb. “We’ve...
Call Me Joseph
Family Leadership Men Personal Development Relationships Women Monday, March 21st 2016 Share the goods! There was a couple that had five miscarriages in nine years, and as you can imagine, they were devastated. The husband’s name was Joe, and he and his wife were grossly discouraged. One day as he was having a Bible study, he stumbled upon the Bible character named Joseph in Genesis. The name Joseph means “God will add”. All of a sudden Joe started telling all his friends to stop calling him “Joe” and to start calling him “Joseph”. Every time he heard his full name, it was a reminder that God will add. And do you know, it was not long before his wife became pregnant and after ten years they have a child, and the child is doing well. This is an excellent testimony to the power of words in our lives. (Joel Osteen shared this story on February 5, 2005) Life and death are in the power of the tongue ~ Proverbs 18.21 Click To Tweet MORE TOPICS addiction authority biblical characters career challenges children communication convictions depression discernment emotions failure faith family fear finances forgiveness grace healing identity leadership love marriage men parenting personal development pornography priorities process purpose relationships respect restoration righteousness sex sin success temptation trials women Help us continue helping others! DONATE TODAY Share the goods! Monday, March 21st 2016 RELATED VERSES Genesis 39:2-3 (NKJV) The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and...
Daily Water
There are several ways to kill a plant. You can stab it, poke it, and tear it. Or, you can simply leave it alone, and without attention the planet will die. A plant requires care and attention for it to survive and thrive.