Christian Living, parenting, marriage, leadership and more!
Welcome to Favourite Links Friday!
This is my way of saying “Thank-you” to all my fellow bloggers by sharing some of their wonderful posts that I have read during the week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Also, make sure you check out Jason’s Light Friday Hit List over at Connecting to Impact for some more great posts!
“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” Proverbs 27:12
This verse introduces us to two types of people – the prudent and the simple. In other places in the book of Proverbs these two companions are referred to as “wise” and “naive.” It’s interesting to note that both start off on the same path and both “see danger” but they respond very differently. As a result of their responses they experience two very different outcomes.
Conflict is inevitable in any marriage relationship. I used to falsely believe that all conflict was bad. This led to more harm than good.
The issue is not whether couples will have conflict; the issue is how they approach or deal with the conflict. The truth is: all conflict is not created equal.
Good conflict, in contrast to a bad conflict, is helpful not hurtful. It is positive, not negative. Good conflict stays clean but bad conflict gets dirty.
Everybody blows it. We all make mistakes. This means: “I’m not perfect. I don’t bat 1000. I don’t measure up to God’s standard. I don’t even measure up to my own standards. I disappoint myself a lot of the times.”
So because we’re all imperfect, we’re going to hurt other people and other people are going to hurt us in life: intentionally and unintentionally. What’s more important is this: What do we do with that hurt?
What we do with it is more important than the hurt. Are we going to allow it to make us better? Or are we going to allow it to make us bitter, resentful, and carry a grudge?
Now often, it’s not the big things in life that make us resentful. Those can obviously and they do but it’s also a lot of little things that just pile up. And a lot of little things can break the camel’s back. So we get irritated. And those irritations when we hold on to them turn into resentment.
No matter what we do as parents if it is not done in love it means nothing. Recently I came across a poem for moms that expresses this beautifully. I think Dad’s can relate to this poem too!
Gas station karaoke has made it’s debut and pumping gas will never be the same!
In a recent episode of ’Pumpcast News” (a sketch from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where a fictional cable news reporter interacts with customers at gas pumps – sometimes completely taking people off guard) we meet a falsetto-wielding, Bon Jovi-crooning, average dude-turned-superstar who sings “Living on a Prayer”. It is awesome!
His wife eventually joins in and rocks out to the Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams.” It is definitely a must see!
Who is the better gas station karaoke singer, the husband or the wife?
If you’ve failed, I’ve got great news. You’re still a candidate for God to use because God loves to use the failures. In the New Testament, we see what I call the most successful failure in the Bible, and that was a guy named Peter.
If you know anything about Peter, Peter loved to run his mouth and it often got him in trouble. He was the guy that bragged about his faithfulness to Jesus. The night before Jesus went to the cross Peter said to Jesus:
“Hey, you know these other guys. There’s a bunch of losers. They’re not going to be there for You, but I got your back, man. When everyone else denies You, I’m going to be there.”
Well, Jesus saw through this and knew what would really happen. He said,
“Peter, I’ve got bad news for you. Tonight you are going to deny me, not once, but three times, and when you do, you will hear the rooster crow.”
And so, Peter’s like, “No, you don’t understand. I’m with You.”
Well, later that night after Jesus was arrested what happens? Peter denies Jesus 3 times. Let’s look at his last denial. Luke 22:60-62 says this:
“Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter…And (Peter) went outside and wept bitterly.”
Now, I don’t know for sure what was going through his mind, but let me tell you what would have gone through my mind. I would have been thinking:
“I just screwed up big time. Jesus called me a rock, and I’m more like Silly Putty. He believed in me, and I let Him down. I’ve destroyed our relationship. My credibility is blown. I’ll never be called on again. If He does have unconditional love, I’ve pushed it to the limit. I’ve messed up. He will never trust me ever again. I’ve failed too big.”
What’s humbling to me about Peter is that Jesus came back to him, forgave him, and immediately used him to do, perhaps, the greatest thing that happened in the New Testament besides the resurrection, and that was help birth the New Testament church.
