SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT   As soon as I saw it, I was disappointed.  Not that what I saw was disappointing, just the opposite.  When I saw the jar of apple-butter on the counter--a gift from some  friends--I was disappointed because I had already eatenmy muffins without any. Missed opportunity! Missed opportunity can be instructive, if we will allow it to be.  Some of us won't.  Some folk live their lives in the complacent illusion that what they do is always the best.  They support the fantasy with statements like, "I didn't want any." or, "I was going by a different plan."  Let's face it, sometimes the truth is, "I missed an excellent opportunity, here, and, now, I'm really disappointed."  I'm not sure whether disappointment is an emotion or a conclusion.  Maybe it is an emotional response to something we conclude--"This didn't work out as I wanted it to, now I feel bad."  At thatpoint, if I ask myself an important question, that bad feeling can be very helpful.  "What should I do different, next time?"  Some people never ask and answer the question.  They just go on producing disappointment, after disappointment--eating their oat-bran muffin with no apple butter--and becoming more and more discouraged, or, maybe even worse, complacent with how life treats them. Instead of looking back with "Would'a, could'a, should'a," let's look ahead with a new plan: What kept me from taking this opportunity that I just missed? What can I do to seize it next time it comes along? What benefit will I gain if I take hold of the opportunity when it come around again? The Bible says we should make the best use of our time--seize the opportunities.  (here)  When I fail to take advantage of one of the opportunities that God provides, I ought to be disappointed.  My prayer is that that bad feeling will cause me to be a better steward next time.    It's STTA.   Find lot's of information about how God stepped into our world to meet needs we cannot meet on our own, here.

It's HARD!

Why are parents so unwilling to encourage--is "force" to strong a word--their kids to do hard things? I'm talking about everything from cleaning a room, to eating vegetables, to dealing with a painful social encounter.
I fear the answer stares back at us from the mirror. I don't expect my kids to do anything hard, because I'm not willing to do anything that measures beyond a "3" on the diff-i-cult-o-meter. Hebrews 12: 4-11 gives the perfect example of parenting. It comes from the perfect Father.
Read it. The text is full of hard things. Our heavenly Father brings the difficult into our lives because He loves us.

When we say we aren't going to make our child do something that he or she ought to do, because it is hard, can we really say we are doing it because we love them? Or is it possible that we don't make our kids do the hard-but-right because it is hard for us to do so?

I fear that an honest--and therefore painful, another hard thing we tend to avoid--examination may reveal that the reason we are not willing to require the difficult but right in the life of our child is because we have abandoned that in our own life long ago.

Child discipline begins with self-discipline.

It's STTA.