ODB: details, details
October 12, 2009
READ: Philemon 1:4-16
In everything give thanks. —1 Thessalonians 5:18
Details make a difference. Ask the man from Germany who planned to visit his fiancée for Christmas but ended up in snowy Sidney, Montana, instead of sunny Sydney, Australia.
Prepositions in our language seem like insignificant details, but they can make a big difference. The words “in” and “for” are an example.
The apostle Paul wrote, “In everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18). That doesn’t mean we have to be thankful for everything. We need not be thankful for the bad choices someone makes, but we can be thankful in the circumstances because the Lord can use the resulting difficulties for good.
The letter to Philemon illustrates this idea. Paul was imprisoned with Onesimus, a runaway slave. He certainly didn’t have to give thanks for his bad situation. Yet his letter is full of gratitude because he knew that God was using it for good. Onesimus had become something more than a slave; he was now a beloved brother in the Lord (v.16).
Knowing that God can use all things for good is more than enough reason to give thanks in everything. Giving thanks in difficult circumstances is a small detail that makes a big difference. — Julie Ackerman Link
God has not promised to keep us from life’s storms, but He will keep us through them.
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Loading ...ODJ: gentle answers
A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare (v.1).
READ: Proverbs 15:1-5
Feeling anger emanating from every place inside me, I reached in the drawer for a folder and slammed it on the desk. The loud noise satisfied my irritation, but only for a moment. My frustration only deepened as I realized how emotionally intense I had become. All because of my daughter’s grade school party. Disappointed that she was going to miss the party because of another school event, my 9-year-old had disrespectfully expressed her frustration to me. She was angry that I was requiring her to keep her initial commitment. All my efforts at teaching character suddenly dimmed in light of my own behavior.
No one can incite fury in us faster than our own flesh and blood. As godly as we strive to be, every parent has moments when our words are anything but wise or kind (Proverbs 31:26). Parenting is hard work, as much in learning to crucify our own flesh as in teaching our children to crucify theirs.
As parents, we want our children to receive our correction (Proverbs 15:5) but, as children of the Lord, parents must respect the correction He brings us through His Word (Hebrews 12:6). Because of our sin nature, gentleness is rarely our default response to situations that don’t go our way. Rather, it is a behavior we must allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23).
A sure-fire way to walk in the flesh is to allow a conflict with our children to become a struggle for power. A gentle answer may not turn away our children’s anger, but it is sure to waylay the anger within us. We can allow our emotions to rule or we can walk in the power of the Holy Spirit by adhering to the precepts of His Word, even when our flesh is demanding otherwise (Galatians 5:17).
—Regina Franklin
Why is it difficult for us to follow God’s instruction when it comes to giving a gentle answer? How is gentleness related to the heart of what we’re saying and not just the volume of our voice?
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By Angela Ow
“If you don’t want to trust me, I cannot help it.”
I heard voices being raised and was woken up from my short nap onboard a double-decker bus. Looking up, I saw a mother and her teenage son, sitting one seat before me, in a rather tense conversation with each other. It was not usual to see a mother and son together on a bus trip in an early afternoon on a weekday of a Singapore school term. As the conversation continued, the picture became clearer.
The mother had met up with her son’s counsellor and now, she was asking her son if the class teacher had returned him his school work. The teenage son replied he had not. The mother became puzzled. She claimed she was informed by the counsellor that the teacher had returned the school work. At this point, the conversation became difficult. She said in Mandarin, “Why did the teacher say the work was returned then?” Sensing that his mum doubted him, the son explained that he had indeed not received his work back. After a few attempts, he exclaimed, “If you don’t want to trust me, I cannot help it.” And silence took over while both of them tried to calm down.
I was never able to find out the actual situation. The mother and son alighted earlier than I did. What struck me was something more profound. It is the picture of Creation played back, isn’t it? Trust had been broken and it was difficult to restore it. When man sinned against his Creator God, his perfect relationship with Him was broken. Trapped in sin, his relationship with fellow men has also been broken – mother and son, and many more. Broken relationships, a disorderly world caused and worsened by men’s selfish behaviours, pain in childbearing, and painful toil had taken place. And eventually, death will overtake all of us. Who can lift up this curse from man and this world?
(This article is first published in Power Up With The King,
a Bible-study material printed and produced by Singapore Youth For Christ)
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