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I once heard that one of the top things that makes wives irritated is dirty dishes in the sink. So, the other day I was doing the dishes for my wife after dinner. We had cooked london broil in the oven and I was attempting to clean the pan. I tried using hot water and scrubbing hard but some of the residue was stuck to the pan and would not budge. So I filled the pan with water and let it soak for a while. After sitting in the water for a little while I scrubbed again and everything came off easily.
What is the learning lesson? God is trying to clean us up and make us sparkly clean. And sometimes we pray and ask him to remove things that have been stuck to us for a while. In these cases God could give you a really hard scrubbing or he could just put some water on you and let you sit for a while. In Psalm 18:35 David says that God's gentleness made him great. If there is some bad pattern that you have been stuck in God will take a gentle approach with you, which means he...
A few days ago someone gave me a $20 bill. At the time I was talking with some people so I placed the money in my pocket. A few hours later I began to take everything out of my pocket in order to put the money in my wallet, where I had a few other $20 bills. When I emptied out my pockets the $20 bill was gone. I searched and searched but I couldn't find it anywhere. A few hours later a friend came up to me and said " I found this $20 bill on the ground by the door. Did someone lose it?'
When I received the money back I was actually more excited than when I had received it the first time. Later that night in my normal Bible reading I happened to be on Luke 15, which has the story of Jesus leaving to 99 to find the one lost sheep, the woman who searches for the lost coin, and the prodigal son. When I saw these stories I suddenly understood.
There are a few learning lessons in the stories. The first is that there is more joy in things that are redeemed, found, or restored than in...
The other day one of my daughters kept snapping at her sister. This was not her normal behavior and I could tell that something was bothering her. My wife talked to her and sure enough she had a test coming up at school that she was worried about. She likes to do well at school and was putting pressure on herself.
After finding out about this I talked with her and told her that even if she got an "F" it wouldn't change the way we feel about her, and reminded her of a lesson we talk about often, which is that everyone does better when relaxed. We talked about how she should study but when it came time for the test she should relax knowing that God put wisdom in her and that he wanted to help
There are two learning lessons in this story. Number 1 is to take the pressure off yourself. When you take the pressure off yourself you allow God to better flow through you. Just rest in the fact that he wants to help. Lesson number 2 is that if you are interacting with or leading people...
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