by Ross Middleton

I was amazed the other day at the love that was in my heart after my kids had just both been absolutely horrible. Like the spawn of Satan horrible. That’s pretty harsh, but they were being redonkulous. I’m just trying to keep it real people. Stop being so religious. Just keep reading.

We had a rough afternoon, they were crazy disobedient and I’ll be honest, I was mad, I was frustrated and I was just having one of those moments you have as a parent. If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about.

We put them down for their nap and I prayed, repented, and asked God for grace to have a better attitude and have more patience. I then went into their rooms and it just took one look at them taking their naps and my heart melted all over again. I was in love, I immediately forgot the frustration and the anger in my soul.

I then just had the simple thought of  ”Wow, if I as an imperfect, earthly, mortal can love my kids that much, right after they have been bad, I just cannot fathom the love God has for me when I have been acting like the spawn of Satan and have been completely terrible.” The best part is, its immediate, and constant, his love never stops like mine does momentarily.

His mercy and compassion is new every morning and it blows me away.

Ross Middleton is an Every Nation campus director in Florida State University, Tallahassee and is the author of  Collide Leadership.

by Steve Murrell

“Your sons are so gifted.”

I’ve heard it a thousand times…
-  at William’s elementary school piano recitals – “wow, he has a musical gift”  (no, he’s practiced every day, since he was 5)
-  at James’ tennis tournaments – “I wish my son could hit a forehand like that” (try training 7 days a week, for a few of years)
- when people see Jonathan’s paintings -  “he obviously has a special gift for art” (you should have seen his “art” before we hired an art teacher to mentor him)

Yea, we have gifted kids – they were gifted with a mother who wouldn’t allow them to waste time doing nothing. And they were gifted with a father who was on a 10-year anti-TV, anti-video game kick during their formative years. That’s why they spent countless hours reading, listening to music and developing killer kick-serves.

My sons were also gifted with mentors/coaches/teachers who helped them discover and develop a few of the skills and talents that God hid in them.

Gifts are free. Talents are costly; they must be discovered and developed.

But sadly, most talent is never discovered, never developed. It is simply wasted while staring at a screen. Tragic.

What are you doing to develop your gifts and talents?
What are you doing to help develop your kid’s gifts and talents?

(i’ll never forget the tennis tournament when the father of a kid my son had just destroyed turned to me and said: “i bet you paid a lot of money for his forehand.” that father understood where the gift/talent came from – dad’s checkbook.  he was right, and it was worth every dollar/peso.)
Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”

by Greg Mitchell

Yesterday, my wife and I went to a parenting seminar at our kid’s school. The presenter began with the encouragement, “Parenting isn’t rocket science… it is much harder.” She went on to describe the myriad of “factors” that affect our children’s development.

Later that night we were counseling a married couple, and they began our time together by asking, “We are doing really well now, is that okay?” We had been meeting for a few times and they were surprised that marriage counseling wasn’t more complicated.

Parenting and marriage are fairly similar topics, so why does the presenter describe things as harder than rocket science, while the couple sees things as quite simple? It is my experience that whenever someone describes their life issues as complicated it is usually because they haven’t started at the right place. Proverbs 1:7 describes the “fear of the Lord” as the beginning of wisdom or knowledge. Without a fear of God, life becomes very complicated, very quickly.

To fear God means to view life in terms of His supreme greatness and goodness. Whenever a life issue is examined outside of an all-powerful and all-loving God, it is nearly impossible to manage. Conversely, whenever such a God is acknowledged and respected, what is left for us to do is relatively straightforward.

God has been walking me through my life these days, and showing me how every difficult area can be traced back to a lack of reverence for God’s love and authority. When I deal with those issues by starting with who God is in those places, what is left for me to do is not only clear, it is actually enjoyable, for there is no greater joy in life than to surpass rocket science.

Greg Mitchell is the senior pastor of Every Nation Vancouver and is the author of Pastor Greg’s Blog.

by Ferdie Cabiling

PSALM 127 SPEAKS OF laboring in vain apart from God building the house Himself.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”
Psalms 127:1

But in Psalm 128, it’s amazing to see a God-centered home…

“Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways.”Psalms 128:1

“Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.”
Psalms 128:4

…where a man’s labor will not be in vain, instead it will be richly rewarded.

For those of us who have struggled in the area of the past, in this passage, we were given the opportunity to look forward to what’s ahead of us. We may not be able to do something about our ancestors, but at least we can do something about our descendants.

A quote from the classic ‘KungFu Panda’ movie says…

“The Past is history; the Future’s a mystery, but Today is a Gift, that’s why it is called the Present.”

Well, as we live in the present, here are the promised effects in the life of a father or a husband who have made a choice to ‘fear the Lord’ and ‘walk in His ways’ today:

PHYSICAL PROVISION

God is blessing the works of the man’s hands. There is contentment in the midst of hard work. Men, husbands, and fathers…we are called to WORK. Work is not part of the curse. Man was assigned to work (Genesis 2.15), even before the curse came (Genesis 3). Guess what? He has promised satisfaction and assured return…

“You will eat the fruit of your labor…”
(Psalm 128 2a)

SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

The ultimate area of our responsibility as husbands and fathers: to establish a progressive spiritual atmosphere in our homes.

“…happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.”
(Psalm 128.2b KJv)

Wellness and prosperity can’t just be relegated to material aspects but, overall, to the spiritual condition in a person’s life.

DOMESTIC (Home front) PRIORITY

The man of God being described here as the head and leader of the homes…

“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.”
Psalms 128:3

The “fruitful vine” speaks of an ‘enjoyment’, while the “olive shoots” speaks of ‘enrichment’.

An olive plant, if properly taken cared of, could possibly live for 150 years! Blessing generation after generations with its fruits.

“…and may you live to see your children’s children…”
Psalms 128:6

When we try to combine the two terms (enjoyment and enrichment), they actually depict ‘an abundant life’. Wow… ‘a wife like a fruitful vine, and sons like olive shoots’ for me is the ultimate picture of what a domestic life is all about.

So what does a home that has the taste of ‘heaven on earth’ look like?

Imagine this…

“A Home That Puts God First Can Experience An Abundant Life, In The Highest Sense.”

by Steve Murrell

On January 28, 2002 at 9 PM, my dad breathed his last breath and slipped from time into eternity. He was seventy-four years old. He had been in and out of the hospital several times since August of 2001. His tired lungs just stopped working.

He died peacefully because he finally was at peace with God, after a lifetime of resisting the gospel.

His journey to God hit warp speed when his heart stopped on October 11, 2001. The doctors were able to revive him, but more importantly, the Lord visited him. While laying on his back in the emergency room, he came face to face with the God of eternity and lived to tell about it. In fact, he later told my younger brother that when his heart stopped, he had a vision that God was giving him one last chance. In the vision, as he watched the doctors frantically trying to revive him, he suddenly saw a whiskey bottle, a pack of cigarettes, a handgun, and a Bible floating around his lifeless body in the emergency room. He knew he had a choice to make. He told my brother he decided in that moment to choose the Bible rather than the things that were destroying his life.

Three months later, he would face God again, this time forever. But this time, he was ready.

Providentially, I happened to be in New York City ministering in our new church when my brother called saying that I better get on the next plane to Mississippi if I wanted to see Dad alive. While on the plane, I wrote what would be my last words to Dad. I read them at his funeral a few days later. Here’s what I wrote:

Thanks, Dad, for never missing a baseball game, basketball game, football game, track meet, birthday party, or anything else that mattered as I was growing up.

Thanks for being there for me . . .
. . . every time I crossed the finish line at a high school track meet,
. . . when I fell through the frozen lake while duck hunting when I was nine,
. . . when Mike Croswell’s easy grounder rolled under my glove at second base, costing us the Little League championship.

You were always there for me, and I’m glad the Lord allowed me to be there when you crossed your final finish line.

Thanks for trusting me, accepting me, and supporting me especially when I . . .
. . . grew long hair in the ’70s,
. . . quit the football team in tenth grade,
. . . became a pastor rather than your business partner,
. . . moved to the other side of the world to be a missionary.

Thanks for teaching me . . .
. . . to ride a bike and drive a car,
. . . to throw a baseball and hit a golf ball,
. . . to fly fish and quail hunt,
. . . to work hard and save money,
. . . to write a check and pick a mutual fund
. . . to be a real boy and a real man,
. . . to be a good son and a good father.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I miss you and will see you in a few years.

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”