Equipping Men for Impact

Hard Heart.  Two words I never want to read or hear as next-door neighbors in the description of my life.  It’s not that Hard or Heart are bad words, it’s just that when they sit next to each other, they’re a sorry pair.  They poke at each other, antagonize, stir-up, rile; they become something together that individually would never be. 

Any wise person knows the damage those two can cause when they’re together.  They steal your silence, your sleep and your sanity.  And, rarely do they just affect one person; their effects show up in texts, emails, and conversations.  They’re collective influence is seen in grocery stores, malls and roadways.  They keep doctors and nurses busy all night and hospitals filled to capacity; lawyers and judges occupied.  I’m tellin’ you, they’re a sorry pair.  

“Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: ‘You will listen carefully yet will never understand, you will look closely yet will never comprehend. For the heart of this people has become dull; they are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:13-15).

“The superiority in judgment and diligence which you are going to attribute to Biblical critics will have to be almost superhuman if it is to offset the fact that they are everywhere faced with customs, language, race-characteristics, class-characteristics, a religious background, habits of composition, and basic assumptions, which no scholarship will ever enable any man now alive to know as surely and intimately and instinctively as the reviewer can know mine. And for the very same reason, remember, the Biblical critics, whatever reconstructions they devise, can never be crudely proved wrong. St Mark [for instance] is dead. When they meet St Peter there will be more pressing matters to discuss.” - C.S. Lewis

Hos 2:10-12 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

Responsibility is a tremendously important concept every parent tries to teach their children! Has one of your children ever used something of yours and damaged it while he had it? Chances are, if that thing had any value at all, you talked to your child about being more careful. Then, as a good steward of God’s resources, you probably made sure your child couldn’t get to other valuable things and break them. He or she had to demonstrate more responsibility and earn back your trust, right?

Why do we get bent out of shape when our kids break something? That “thing” represents some type of value. The categories of value we typically recognize are sentimental, monetary or possibly both. I would guess a majority of the time; the financial value is the most significant category to most men. So how do we help our children place value on things but still have an accurate view point of our possessions?

I want to share an idea that has been very effective in our home. We had a situation several months ago that provided a great opportunity to teach responsibility.

Kablam, is the sound heard when a punching balloon, explodes.  We heard this sound twice over two days and my oldest daughter was responsible for popping both balloons.  By accident, she successfully broke both of her sister’s balloons.  She felt terrible both times the balloons exploded as she cried and was very remorseful about her actions.  I was watching her during one of the explosions, and it was completely unintentional.   

However, whether or not she intended to pop the balloons, she was still responsible.  We have a family rule that if you break something, whether accidentally or on purpose, you pay to replace the item.  We believe in teaching our daughters to take responsibility for their actions.  Saturday morning we jumped in the minivan and made the short drive to Wal-Mart.  We finally found the punching balloons (they are not in the toy department but instead are in party supplies.)  Since we had to ask for help in locating the balloons we had a Wal-Mart associate with us as we discovered the balloons.  However, as we picked up the bag of balloons, it was very evident someone had taken one of the balloons.  The bag had a big hole and only three of the four balloons were still in the bag.  Fortunately, for us this was the last bag in the store.

As we walked to the cash register, I inquired to the Wal-Mart associate if we could purchase the balloons for less than the $2.00 marked price since one balloon was missing.  I told her I would be willing to pay $1.00, and she accepted my offer!   

What a day, two lessons from one balloon popping.  As we drove home, I asked our oldest daughter again why we purchased the balloons and who paid for the balloons.  She told me because she popped her sister’s balloon, and she paid for the balloon.  I then asked her if she would rather pay $1.00 for a balloon or $.33.  She told me $.33 and we discussed how I could negotiate with the employee because even though the product was not whole, which in our case, was acceptable.

We can use money to teach our children biblical principles and fulfill our responsibility to teach our children character at the same time!

I went running on the nearby trails yesterday morning.  It was cold and raining,

not the best of conditions.  Because of the rain, at times the path was very wet and muddy.  As I ran, I found myself being very careful

with where I placed each step of my stride.  Where the path was clear, I just ran forward with no problem as normal, however, there were times where the middle of the path was very muddy, so I ran a little to one side or the other to avoid the mud.  This went on for miles.  

The Ninth Commandment states that we are not to lie (Exodus 20:16). Lying is one of the six things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19. Proverbs 12:22). To lie is to NOT speak the truth typically with the intent to deceive. This includes: slander which is the spreading of false reports to destroy the reputation of others; gossip which is the spreading of reports of things not validated to be true (i.e., rumors); perjury which is the swearing of an oath to things that are not true, exaggeration which is stretching the truth typically due to PRIDE and being hypocritical which is living a life that is a lie (1 John 1:6. 1 John 2:21), etc. So you say that you do not practice lying? How many of us have accepted a software's End User Licence Agreement (EULA) that states we have read and understood it and yet we have done neither? If You Can't Say Amen, Say Oh Me! (Psalms 116:11)

The “S” curves along Interstate 405 South to State Route 167 were usually slow at this time of day.  Beginning about 2pm, traffic on any major roadways in and around Seattle are equivalent to the cholesterol clogged arteries of anyone on a steady diet of biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast, McDonald’s quarter pounder with cheese and fries for lunch, and Pizza Hut for dinner.  Within a half mile of pulling onto 167, I was bound the shoulder because I could no longer see the road through my tears.

Hos 2:4-5 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

The second chapter of Hosea is written in poetic form. The language of this literary style is generally more figurative than straight prose. This does not mean we can take it less seriously, but it does mean that details may be more illustrative than concrete. The theme is what’s critical. In other words, the idea is to look at the forest, not the trees. The theme is God’s sovereignty in exposing sin and the people’s choice to accept sin’s exposure and repent or face exposure to conquest by a merciless enemy. Ultimately God sees at least some who rejected Him will return and be fully restored.