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Nov 7

House Building 1: Elegant Blueprint

Simple, elegant solutions are some of my favorite things. I love when a time puzzle meshes perfectly. I get excited when one piece of paper can take the place of five. And a truly valuable tidbit that provides lifelong help is positively inspiring.

Of course, this meant I wanted an at-a-glance way to keep everything about myself, my home, and my family in front of me. I wanted an infographic thirty years ago. As is most often the case, the answer came from Scripture.

Proverbs 14: 1 says that “Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down with her hands.” I was fairly sure that women were not the literal house builders in Middle Eastern culture. That meant something even more exciting: women were a significant factor in the complex organization called home.  Read more

Nov 6

Daily Dose 18: Contentment

The discipline, diligence, and stewardship we demonstrate in our lives is more of a statement about our contentment with our designated priorities and our willingness to work through them than about us possessing any special talent or organizational flair.

When we find ourselves spinning our wheels in frustration with our lives, the quickest and easiest way to squirm away from that frustration, conviction, pressure, or dissatisfaction is to begin to daydream about “when” it will be gone.  Tired of tests, five hundred page reading assignments, and endless oral presentations?  Start wishing for the time when school will be done.  Ready to collapse in a tearful heap on the floor because for the twenty-seventh day in a row you’ve changed hundreds of diapers, picked up thousands of blocks, served millions of peanut butter sandwiches, and managed to get dressed at the same time you were fixing supper?  Start wishing for when the kids will be in school.  Had it with unreasonable bosses who act like they own you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?  Wish for retirement, a new job, or the golden opportunity to be your own boss. Read more

Nov 5

Daily Dose 17: Biblical Priority Treasure Trove

Another Priority-Producing Question

Are personal spiritual disciplines, then, the only priorities with which we must be concerned?  To answer that question, we need to ask another right question: Are you a man or a woman?

The answer to this second definitive question blossoms into a clear set of biblical priorities.  While the Scripture unites male and female before God in salvation, it has just as clearly outlined distinctive responsibilities and roles for our daily lives. Read more

Nov 4

Daily Dose 16: Top Priority

Allowing value verses to roll around in our minds for a bit, we (or at least I) sense an underlying theme of being transformed into the image of Christ, becoming Christ-like, making Christ known in every aspect of my life, and having Christ’s holiness, wisdom, and character replace the fleshiness of me.

How Can I Do That?

These ideas, in turn, lead directly to, “How can I do that?”, our go-to generator question for helping our minds translate an inspiring, but vaguely actionable value into a more practical priority for life. So, how can I do that? How can I become more Christ-like? How can I have His wisdom and character replace me? Read more

Nov 3

Daily Dose 15: Discovering Values

How, then, does a Christian set about to discover his personal values?  For this, we need another question:

What Scriptural ambitions should a Christian have?

When we turn to Scripture and seek from it the responsibilities we are to fulfill, expectations we are to meet, commands we are to obey, ambitions and cautions we ought to possess, we search on solid ground.  Scripture is big enough to address any notion we might have, to assess any desire we are fond of, and to challenge any prejudice we hold. It is, as needed, encouraging, consoling, pointed, and confrontational. Read more

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