It's Official

Christmas time is here...bring out the lights, the trees, and all the great Christmas music.

The blog will be taking a short break for the Holiday weekend. May the Lord bring to mind all that He has blessed you with during these coming days.

Have a great weekend!

Food for Thought - #7

"It's a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it." - Arnold Toynbee

I ran across this quote the other day, and to be honest, I didn't know what to think about it at first. I went through this whole process...enjoy the following trip inside my brain.

• Wait a second...that's the whole point of goals, is to reach them.
• If you aim for a more ambitious goal, you're still going to feel like a failure because you didn't reach that more ambitious goal...even if you did happen to complete a mini-goal on the way.
• Who cares about goals, anyway (ok...I didn't really say that...just making sure you're still with me).
• So, is the original goal, the goal...or is the ambitious goal, the goal!
• That's enough thinking for now...

Although, I can't quite follow this guys logic, and if he were in a true debate/discussion, I'm not so sure this would "hold up," but what I think he is trying to say is that we often set our goals way too low. So often, we are content with only accomplishing something relatively small, and that if we were to think "bigger" and more "audacious" that perhaps many of those smaller goals would be accomplished along the way.

So, you might be asking, how does this relate to parenting or my family. Glad you asked. My hunch is that many parents set very small goals for their parenting process. A few examples:

• "As long as they don't do drugs or drink alcohol, I'll have done my job."
• "If they like going to church, then I've done a good job."
• Here's a popular one, "if they make good grades, make a good score on their SAT, and get into a good college, then I've done a good job."
• And so on, and so on...I could go for a while.

I will never say that those things aren't important, but those are pretty "tiny" goals in the light of God and His kingdom. I think our goals ought to be a bit bigger than these. What they are for you? I don't know exactly for you...that's for you to determine!

Just for laughs

I'm considering implementing this strategy at Firewheel. What do you think?

Food for Thought - #6

"My family is the primary place where my walk with Christ takes on flesh." - Voddie Baucham

Here's a sobering thought for today. Kids are smart. They are some of the world's best "hypocrisy-detectors." I have a feeling you know what I'm talking about. Your home (how you act, what you say, who/what you prioritize, etc.) say more about you to your kids than whether or not you come to church on Sunday mornings. I'm glad you come to church on Sundays...I really am, but the stark reality is that what you do every other day of the week matters infinitely more in the lives of your children.

May that sobering thought drop us to our knees in prayer every day. May each and every one of us, ask God to show us where we need work and how we can accomplish that through the power of his Holy Spirit. And when you feel like a failure as a parent, may that drive you to an even greater appreciation of the cross of Christ where those failures were paid for in full. Your genuine love for God, lived out as best you know how even in the midst of struggle, will be the thing that has the single greatest impact on lives of your children. Press on! Be encouraged...you can do this!

"Why...But Why...But Why..."

If you have kids, you've probably heard this before. The endless string of "why's." You've tried to explain something to your child, but their little inquisitive minds just can't grasp it. My hunch is that there will be many times in life, if you're doing the hard work of discipling your kids that they will ask these sort of questions about God, the Bible, or life with Christ. The truth is, some things are hard to understand...they just are. But "hardness" can't be an excuse not to talk about those things.

I ran across a great resource the other day, and I wanted to highly recommend it to parents. This book titled "Big Truths for Young Hearts" is a phenomenal resource for parents who may be trying to answer some of those tough questions that kids can often ask. Spend the $12 to buy this book, invest the time to read it, and plead with God to give you opportunities to talk about these deep truths with your children.

Big Truths for Young Hearts

Here's the kicker...you may even learn something too!

The Spanking Debate...

You want to start an argument really fast. All you have to do is get a group of parents from different backgrounds and cultures and ask them about their thoughts on disciplining children. To spank or not to spank...that is the question. Seriously...you should try it!

Want to get them even more riled up? Ask this question...Would Jesus spank a child? What would He do? I found this below to be an interesting take...it's at least a thought provoking question.

Would Jesus Spank a Child?

Something to believe in...

I was recently driving through Dallas, and saw a billboard for a church. I won't mention the church's name...that's just not how I roll, but I couldn't believe what I was reading. A rather well known church in our area had a billboard along a major highway and it had a picture of a family and it said... "A church you can believe in."

Now, you might think anything of that, but my eye catches those subtle things. I don't want to be critical, but if this particular church is asking people to believe in them...they're promoting the WRONG thing.

I don't want a church I can believe in...I want a God/Savior I can believe in. You can believe in the church all you want and you can spend an eternity without God in hell. Now, I get what they're trying to say. They're trying to say, "we think our church/body of believers is great, and you should come join us," but they may have inadvertently communicated it the wrong way.

That's just a free rant for you today! In all seriousness, don't believe in Firewheel Church...believe in the Savior we gather to worship and lift up.

There's a LION in your house!

One of the more famous depictions of Satan in the Bible is that of a lion who is seeking to kill and destroy. I've watched enough Discovery Channel to know what a lion is like when they are looking to eat. It's not pretty!

Well, I've got to tell you that the Lion may be in your house, and if you're not careful, you may be allowing the Lion to nip at your kids. I have one BIG question.

Do you have a filter on the computer that your kids use? I'm not asking you if you check where your kids have been on the internet after they've been there. I'm not asking you if you check the history. I'm not even asking if you try your best to monitor where they've been. I'm not asking you if you've looked at the security settings on your computer. I'm asking you if you've got a designated program on your computer that WILL BLOCK inappropriate materials from purposefully or inadvertently popping up on the computer screen.

Here's the facts. The average boy sees pornography for the first time by the time they are 10 years old. 10!!!

Please don't be naive! There are lots of good filters out there. Your child may not be old enough to stumble into anything on the computer they shouldn't yet...but it's coming!

The two programs mentioned below are GREAT options. They cost a little money, but when you have a LION in and around your house, you do what you have to do to protect your children!

BSecure
Safe Eyes

Every parent needs encouragement...

Whether you realize it or not, you do need encouragement every once in a while. I ran across this encouragement for parents, and I wanted to share it with you.

How do you encourage and advise Christian parents?

My prayer is that it is an encouragement to you and a "push" to keep up the work of parenting.

-Robert

How many people would still show?

I have had a thought that has stayed with me since Friday night. On Friday night, our team in Colombia had a victory service to celebrate the week. Along with all the North Americans, hundreds and hundreds of Colombians "crammed" into a church that had no A/C and barely any fans. It was about 93 degrees that night and the humidity was around 90%. There was no air moving at all, and within 10 minutes of being in the building, my shirt was soaked through with sweat. And you know what the coolest thing was...I didn't care at all. I was as hot as I could possibly be, and I've never wanted to be anywhere else anymore than I did that night.

So, here's the question that has stuck with me...

If it were late July in Dallas, and it was supposed to be 100-something degrees on a Sunday morning. If everyone knew that the A/C was broken at the church and there was no hope of it being fixed before services, how many people would still show up?

My sneaking suspicion is that many of the people we see on Sunday mornings wouldn't show. They'd just frankly stay home! Would you be one of those people? Would you forego the beauty of gathering with the assembly of believers and offering your praises to God? Oh, how my heart hurts for the state of Christianity in America...where so often, it's more about us and our comforts, than about God.

I'm not pointing fingers at all...I'm just grieving over this thought that has stuck with me. My prayer is that it would stick with you as well.