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God Notices the Little Things. Do We?

April 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44)

God notices and appreciates the little things. Little things are powerful. They can accumulate to have positive and negative impacts on our homes.

Little things affect our marriages. Most husband-wife relationships that have grown to be strained are not so because of one-time, massive, easily-identifiable “meteors” that suddenly and unexplainably fell out of the marital sky. Most of the significant problems we experience in our marriages can be attributed to the multiplication of the little things—a selfish choice here, rude disregard there. Attitudes produce actions. Actions evolve into habits. Habits undeniably impact life at home. Given enough time, the little things can snowball and cause serious damage at the very foundation of a marriage.

Children who are not taught to appreciate and participate in the little things are set by their parents on a trajectory of ingratitude and self-centeredness. Mom is not the maid. Dad is not the ATM. Children are not entitled to everything their hearts desire, nor should they be treated as immune to sacrifice or free from accountability. When the little things are taken for granted, erosion of the heart is experienced that can eventually lead to devastating consequences.

In Building Blocks, Marriage, Parenting action, attitude, behavior, block, building, character, child, family, habit, Home, husband, little, Marriage, parent, teen, thing, wife

Around the Web (4/10)

April 10, 2013 — Leave a comment

CHEAP eBook Deal of the Day: The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion (Tim Challies) – $3.79 (81% off).
Barbara Fredrickson asks in The New York Times, “Can you remember the last time you were in a public space in America and didn’t notice that half the people around you were bent over a digital screen, thumbing a connection to somewhere else?” What effect are our digital habits having on our hearts?
In light of difficulties and discouragements, Gary Henry writes, “We may question whether there is any use in trying to go forward, or whether, if we do try to go forward, there is any possibility that we’ll find the help we need. But consider this: the person who is alive to ponder such questions is always a person on whom God has not given up. Without His constant grace, we would not have made it this far.
With modesty in mind, Hal Hammons encourages young ladies to make careful choices. “By making yourself available, young lady, you make yourself cheap. Leaving yourself covered draws men to your character (1 Tim 2:10). If, on the other hand, the main thing you want from men is sex, go ahead and uncover. But don’t complain about not being able to find a good man. You’re fishing in the wrong river with the wrong bait.”
In April of 1988, the Los Angeles Times Magazine published a 25-year look ahead to 2013.

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 5:27-30:

This passage is the place where those who staunchly affirm their confidence in the literal interpretation of all Scripture will have to take a very deep breath. There can be no question that Jesus builds His message on a truth from the world of the flesh, but it is evident from the context that His language has application to the world of the spirit (if the right eye was removed, the sinner could still lust just as effectively with his left). In these grim words the true depth of change which the Son of God is demanding finds dramatic expression. In the same vein Jesus spoke of our coming to Him as a crucifixion (Matthew 16:24-25) and Paul provides a commentary on Matthew 5:29-30 in his words to the Colossians: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire…” (Colossians 3:5).

Though our Lord is not speaking here of physical mutilation, which would be wholly ineffectual against the motions of the heart, we should not presume that the figurative intent of His words makes them any less intensely painful. There are “parts” of us—affections, habits, attitudes, values, relationships—which have become by long cultivation so intimately a part of our personality that their removal will make the actual excision of an eye or hand seem conservative. Most of us have spent a long time learning how to be selfish and lustful. We should not expect the end of these things to come without trauma. Shrieks of anguish may arise from somewhere within us as in penitence we apply the gospel knife. But some pain is good pain. “For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Peter 4:1). We can choose to avoid this suffering but our cherished lusts will destroy us like some awful gangrene of the soul.

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 51-52)

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God Notices the Little Things. Do We?

Around the Web (4/10)

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