"Be Careful Out There"

As you read the book of Proverbs it becomes increasingly clear that this father is under no lofty illusions when it comes to his children or the world his children are living in. Early on in chapter 1 vs 10 he says to his son, “if sinners entice you do not consent.” This reminds us of a very important principle. We cannot keep our children from temptation. What we are called to do as parents it to prepare our children to be able to deal with temptation when it comes. Our children are going to face temptations. We can home school them, send them to Christian schools, keep them from all the “bad things” which is all well and good, but the bottom line is we cannot isolate our children from temptation.
The prevalent philosophy today, in the world and sadly even in the church to some degree, seems to be “prepare the road for the child” in stead of “prepare the child for the road.” Parents run ahead and try to manipulate all the bad things out of the lives of their children. They never have to experience disappointments or the “mean teacher” or all the other harsh realities of life. Parents just smooth everything over for the child. The child never learns to face hard things, never has to face difficult choices, and eventually when he gets out on his own he is introduced to a world that is harsh, unjust , and filled with temptations and he hasn’t a clue how to deal with it. The task of parenting is to prepare our children for the world. Not by trying to change their circumstances to make it easier but by teaching them and preparing them in their hearts to deal with what the world is going to throw at them.
This is not going to happen in a vacuum. It means we must be teaching our children and spending time with them. We must train them spiritually to know the deceitfulness of their own hearts. We must show them the need of Christ to save them from their sin and then teach them the principles of walking in spiritual victory found in Scripture. Proverbs is written by a father preparing his son for the “real world” but not only that he is teaching his son about his need for a wisdom and a strength outside of himself. He is teaching his son about his need of Christ.
I fear today we are relying to heavily on trying to insulate our Children from temptation instead of preparing them to face it. Certainly we do not want to throw them to the wolves at a young age, but we must be preparing them as they grow up to face some hard things in life, one of which is temptation. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”. Part of that training is training in spiritual warfare, learning how to resist and be victorious over temptation.
When sinners entice our children may they meet a child who has been taught how to handle victoriously such deceitful talk and to turn and listen to the voice of his parents and the voice of his savior Jesus Christ. May our children be found walking in his ways because they know him and love him and want to follow him into the abundant life he has promised to those who obey his word.

"Just a Little More"

Proverbs 25:16 “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

IF you have found honey, something sweet to the taste. What does that mean? Well I think it means if you have found something you like, something that works, something that was pleasurable and enjoyable - show some restraint. Have you found something like that? May, in fact, have been that favorite dessert that was soooooo good. Or it may have been a program that you put on that went really well, everyone enjoyed it and it was a blessing to all who came. Or it may be a special friend. It could be any number of things. What do we tend to do with a good thing? We want more of it. We tend to hoard them, over indulge them, eat to much of them. Consequently that which at one time was a great source of joy has become something we have tired of, or even worse something that is making us sick. That which was soooooo good and we ate so much of we can’t even look at it now without a sense of revulsion. Why? Because we over did it.
Some things are better in little doses. When you hear someone say, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!" They are seldom smiling and if they happen to be smiling with some deluded grin, it won't be for long.
I know in churches sometimes if a particular activity goes very well, maybe it happens twice a year, often people will assume that if it goes well twice a year then we should do it every month and it will be even better. What ends up happening is it becomes to much, to familiar, and people lose interest. We kill it by overdoing it. Sometimes we need to learn that more is not always better.
It may be that special friend. If we could just spent more time with them, but sometimes more is not better. It is those special times, that may not be as often as you like, that keeps the friendship fresh and enjoyable. Many a friendship has ended because it was decided if we are this happy together once a week imagine how great it would be to share an apartment and be together all the time. It starts off great as you would expect, but soon they have their fill of each other and the friendship quickly deteriorates and they wind up on Judge Judy. That is not always the case obviously, but sometimes more is not always better.
If you have found honey, something special, be wise, control yourself. Eat only what is good for you. Sometimes the key to keeping things special is to do them less often not more often. Familiarity breeds contempt. It is better to leave people wanting more than to over do it and have them say “not this again”.
The wise person knows that sometimes more is not always better. We need to teach this to ourselves and to our children.

"Give Thanks"

We celebrate various holidays during the calendar year. These holidays appeal to a wide variety of personality types.

"New Years Day" is for optimists
"Valentines Day" is for lovers
"April Fools Day" is for out of work clowns to strut their stuff
"Christmas Day" is for giving or getting, depending where we are on the maturity meter.
"Thanksgiving Day" is for thinkers

Thanksgiving has rightly been called the thinking mans holiday.

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G.K. Chesterton

The Bible repeatedly calls us to "Give thanks with a grateful heart" a heart that thinks about

God's goodness to us
God's steadfast love that endures forever
God's undeserved blessing
God's faithfulness to all generation
God's mercies that are new every morning
God's forgiveness that sets the captive free
God's Son, Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again that we might have everlasting life.
God's provisions - spouse, children, food, church family, fellowship, friendships,
God gives us freely all things to enjoy
God's peace
God's joy
God's love
God's precious promises
God's Spirit that indwells us and comforts and strengthens us every day and every hour.
God"s prepared place for his children
God's soon return to this world as the undisputed "King of Kings and Lord of Lords"

The Hymn writer tells us to count our blessings name them one by one. Not a bad idea. Think about all the blessings we have in Christ Jesus, blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing.

Thanksgiving means we think about who God is and about who we are and about what we deserve and all we have in spite of what we deserve - all because of God's Amazing Grace.
Only thinking humble people can truly give thanks and mean it.

"From a heart overflowing with gratitude, we will want to honor and glorify God by gratefully offering back to Him the many good gifts He has bestowed on us. We will not go to church to be entertained, to see "what we can get out of it" for our own private gratification, but rather to praise and worship the triune God of grace and glory"

So this Thanksgiving let us thoughtfully, prayerfully and humbly give thanks with a grateful heart.