Trazendo o Amor à Vida

De Maria Fontaine

O outro dia ouvi algo que me emocionou. Uma jovem disse que tinha economizado para fazer um curso que a ajudaria no seu trabalho na missão e também seria rentável, mas o Senhor lhe disse para dar parte do dinheiro para uma outra missionária. Esta última não tinha lhe pedido nada, mas a moça sabia que ela precisava. E não só isso, ela sabia que os missionários precisavam do encorajamento que essa atitude lhes daria.

Todos já ficamos profundamente desencorajados em alguma ocasião em nossas vidas. E por acaso alguma vez o desencorajamento se dissipou por causa de um bilhete de alguém lhe dizendo que se importava, estava orando por você ou iria fazer o possível para ajudá-lo? Ou talvez, em uma grande provação, de repente sentiu uma luz e, inexplicavelmente, aquele sentimento de desespero foi puxado para fora, sua fé foi restaurada e sentiu que o Senhor ia resolver tudo?— Será que foi porque alguém orou por você?

Há pessoas ao nosso redor que estão tendo grandes batalhas e precisando de ânimo, de encorajamento por parte de um amigo ou de alguém com quem trabalha. Será que Jesus está esperando que vocêajude, escreva, seja amigo ou ore por alguém que Ele colocar no seu coração? Faz-me lembrar daquele corinho: “Senhor, traga alguém à minha lembrança e ame essa pessoa através de mim. E que eu sempre faça a minha parte para ganhar essa alma para Você.” Se fizermos o que o Senhor nos pedir, poderemos animar, encorajar e ajudar outros. Não precisa ser muita coisa, pois um pouco com Deus e o Seu amor é muito.

Às vezes podemos nos sentir avassalados pela necessidade ao nosso redor. Logicamente nenhum de nós pode ajudar a todos que gostaríamos. Mas uma coisa que eu, você e todosnós podemos fazer é orar.

A maioria de nós está totalmente ocupada com os desafios do cotidiano. Há muito no que pensar e pelo qual orar. Há muito a ser feito. A pessoa talvez esteja mudando de lugar ou começando um novo empreendimento relacionado à missão; ou procurando emprego; ou matriculando as crianças na escola; batalhando para cuidar de todos os detalhes do dia a dia, ou tentando encontrar tempo para passar com seu cônjuge ou família. Talvez a pressão já seja demais para você, tanto que fique difícil pensar em algo mais além do trabalho que tem a fazer no momento.

Talvez se pergunte como você vai conseguir ajudar se sente que precisa de tanta ajuda! Pode ser que se sinta como a viúva de Sarepta, que nem tem o suficiente para si e os seus. Ver as necessidades de outros e saber que você mal tem o suficiente para si pode ser muito difícil, como quando Elias pediu para a viúva lhe dar o pouquinho que ela tinha.[1]

Muitas vezes eu já pensei nessa viúva e a fé que precisou ter para dar prioridade às necessidades de uma outra pessoa sendo que ela e seu filho estavam passando falta. O pedido de Elias deve ter-lhe parecido absurdo e surreal. No entanto, fico inspirada quando penso na imensa bondade de Deus com as pessoas que dão passos de fé como ela deu. O princípio de dar o que se pode, mesmo tendo pouco, e as recompensas que se recebe de Deus continua tão verdadeiro como sempre foi.

O Senhor não pede o impossível. Ele só quer que façamos o que estiver ao nosso alcance para amar, cuidar e apoiar os outros, mesmo quando exige muita fé e amor. O Senhor vai nos abençoar se passarmos alguns minutos orando por alguém, ou encorajando a pessoa ou ajudando alguém em necessidade. Ele não pede para dedicarmos um tempão ou doarmos uma grande quantia de dinheiro. Fica feliz quando damos o que podemos. Podemos não ter muito, mas o coração cheio do amor de Jesus sempre tem algo para dar.

Temos o privilégio de cumprir a Sua missão, que, na realidade, está totalmente relacionada a colocar o amor em ação. A missão é em parte ensinar as pessoas a viverem segundo as palavras de Jesus e refletirem o Seu amor. Sabemos que uma das maneiras mais eficientes de ensinar alguém a amar é sendo um exemplo de amor. Como diz o velho ditado, a caridade começa em casa. Podemos provar que é possível viver o que Jesus disse e que o Seu amor pode estar vivo no nosso coração e na nossa vida por meio de nossas decisões de apoiar outros, ajudar e de levar as cargas uns dos outros.

Teremos deixado Jesus viver em nós se ajudarmos alguém necessitado que talvez tenha a saúde fraca, e outros verão uma manifestação do amor de Jesus. Se tivermos um certo dom, podemos manifestar o nosso amor ensinando o que sabemos a outros. Se estivermos atentos à orientação de Jesus com relação às necessidades dos outros, creio que Ele derramará Suas bênçãos e, por Sua vez, suprirá o que precisamos na nossa situação.

Imagine o que pode ser realizado se cada um de nós parar para dar atenção aos outros presentes em nossas vidas e que estão precisando de algo, e perguntarmos ao Senhor o que podemos fazer para ajudá-los. Talvez possamos orar por aqueles que precisam de ajuda, seja ela qual for, ou escrever um bilhete ou dizer algo que encoraje os que estão desanimados. Podemos talvez ensinar algo para ajudar a pessoa no seu trabalho missionário. Talvez alguém precise de um lugar para ficar e temos um quarto extra para oferecer. Ou uma família talvez precise de ajuda com as crianças para poder arrumar sua mudança. Este tipo de ajuda vai longe.

Se fizermos o que estiver ao nosso alcance nossas necessidades também serão supridas. O Senhor prometeu, “Dai, e ser-vos-á dado; boa medida, recalcada, sacudida e transbordando vos darão; porque com a mesma medida com que medirdes também vos medirão de novo.”[2] “Porquanto qualquer que vos der a beber um copo de água em Meu nome, porque sois discípulos de Cristo, em verdade vos digo que não perderá o seu galardão.”[3]

Sei que Deus é fiel e cuida dos Seus. Ele nos deu o privilégio e a bênção de ajudá-lO a cuidar dos outros sendo Seus representantes no físico, Seus olhos, pés e mãos. Que tal pedir a Ele para lhe mostrar hoje o que pode fazer para cuidar dos outros em necessidade, como transmitir o amor e encorajamento de Jesus para essas pessoas?

Publicado originalmente em outubro de 2010. Adaptado e republicado em janeiro de 2014. Tradução Denise Oliveira. Revisão H.R. Flandoli.


[1] 1 Reis 17:10–16.

[2] Lucas 6:38.

[3] Marcos 9:41.

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The Spiritual Disciplines: Bible Intake

by Peter Amsterdam

Christians who desire a flourishing relationship with God and who are interested in spiritual growth recognize that spending time taking in and absorbing God’s Word is of utmost importance. It is within the pages of the Bible that we learn about God and His love for humanity, about Jesus and His message, about how to live in harmony with God and our fellow human beings.

God is the Creator, and He wants to be in relationship with His creation. In order to make that possible, He has revealed Himself to us through the Bible. In it, He tells of His love for us and of the actions He has taken to make it possible for us as imperfect and finite beings to be in relationship with Him. The more we abide in His Word and let His Word abide in us, the more we understand how to live our lives in alignment with Him, in accordance with His will, and in a manner that reflects Him and His love, especially in our interactions with others.
Reading God’s Word

Setting aside time daily to read the Bible provides the opportunity to connect with God each day. It opens us up to letting Him speak to us through what we read, to His instruction and guidance, to His help through life’s problems and difficulties. Regular reading of God’s revelation to us reminds us of the moral code which we are meant to fashion our lives around, and provides us with guidance when we are faced with decisions. It is a key element for those who seek to be like Jesus, because it is in the Bible that we hear His teaching, see the example of His love, and are introduced to the relationship with His Father that His sacrifice has opened up for us. As we abide in His Word, we become more and more aware of the value He places on each individual, and the love and compassion He has for every human being. As we begin to absorb the truth contained within these pages, as we ponder and pray about those truths, and as we apply them to our daily living, we begin to anchor both our inner and outer lives on the foundation of Christlikeness, on godliness, and on the truth of God.

Each day we are flooded with a barrage of input from a wide variety of delivery systems which influences us in one way or another. Taking time daily to read what God has said to us provides a way to navigate through the maelstrom of information and input that we are faced with. It enhances our spiritual ability to discern truth and falsehood. It makes it easier to keep our hearts centered on those things which are important to living lives of true happiness, inner peace, and alignment with God and His will. It helps us to survive and overcome all that life brings our way. As Jesus said: Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.[1]Abiding in God’s Word brings us in regular contact with His Spirit. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.[2] Part of having that contact with the Lord, of having that promised peace, is spending time reading His Word.

Carving out the time to read daily is no easy task—it requires self-discipline, as does each Spiritual Discipline. Like the workouts and training that athletes must do daily to maintain their conditioning and excel in their performance, taking regular time to read Scripture will strengthen your spirit and make you a stronger Christian—one who is grounded in God’s truth and love. The connection with God, that savoring of His Word, helps you to be Spirit-led in your daily interactions with others, in your decision making, and in your ability to stay strong in the face of daily temptations.

There is no specific formula for how much you need to read daily or what portions of the Bible you should read. The key is setting aside the time to do it and then sticking to it. It helps to have a good contemporary translation. The English Standard Version (ESV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and the New International Version (NIV) are known to be good and accurate contemporary English translations.

It helps to commit to reading a certain number of chapters per day, as having a realistic goal can motivate you to stick with your reading even on busy days. The book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life makes the observations that reading 15 minutes a day will take you through the entire Bible within a year, and that reading three chapters a day and five chapters on Sunday will accomplish the same. It also points out that since the Bible contains 66 different books, for variety’s sake you might want to consider starting to read in three places—Genesis, Job, and Matthew—as this divides the Bible into three sections that are equal in length, so by reading the same number of chapters in each section each day you will finish the three sections, and thus the entire Bible, at roughly the same time.

Finding and following a Bible reading plan of some kind can help you stick with your reading and forge ahead when you find yourself in the more difficult portions of Scripture. There are a variety of apps for electronic devices which can help you design your reading plan, including some that provide the reading program and the text. Some people prefer to read from the pages of their Bible in book form. Whether you read from a Bible or on your computer or use a mobile app, what’s important is that you read it.

Information about apps:

http://thecripplegate.com/three-must-have-bible-apps/

http://appadvice.com/appguides/show/best-bible-apps-for-the-ipad

http://rachelwojo.com/4-fabulous-bible-apps-i-recommend/

Information about Bible reading programs:

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/bible-reading-plans/

http://www.navpress.com/dj/content.aspx?id=138

Ideally, you should read in a situation free from distractions, perhaps in a quiet spot early in the morning before your day begins or late at night when all is winding down. The quietness and absence of activity around you facilitates meditating on what you are reading. If early morning is not possible, try to find another time of day when it is. But even if you can’t carve out some quiet time, then read on the run, in whatever time opens up for you—or listen to it in audio form as you go. It’s a fight to keep your commitment to read/study the Bible, but doing so will make a difference in your life.
Hearing about God’s Word

Along with personally reading God’s Word, it can be beneficial to hear His Word spokenabout as well. This would entail reading, listening to, or watching sermons, talks, discussions, and posts which pertain to the Word and godly principles. Anchor, Directors’ Corner and Just One Thing can help with this, and there are other very good sites where men and women of God speak about and teach God’s Word.

I’ve found that there are some teachers I like to hear, whose style and what they speak about resonates with me more than others. But other people I know love to listen to someone who doesn’t appeal to me. We’re each different, but the point is that it can be helpful to watch or listen to those who share God’s words in a manner which speaks to you and helps strengthen your connection and relationship with the Lord.

It’s often much easier to listen to someone else speak about the principles and teachings of God’s Word than it is to take the time to read the Word yourself and to think about and meditate on what you have read. While it’s spiritually feeding and beneficial to listen to sermons and read articles about the Word, it shouldn’t replace your time reading the Bible and benefiting from what the Lord Himself has to say to you personally through His Word.
Meditating on the Word

When you read the Bible or listen to others expound on it, it’s important to ask yourself what God is speaking to you about through what you’re reading or hearing. Take time to think about what you’re reading. If a passage stands out to you, read it again. Think about it; ask yourself why it stood out to you and what the Lord might be trying to tell you through it. If a part of a sermon you listen to speaks to your heart, listen to it again, and think and pray about it. Remember, the reason for reading or listening isn’t to get through the material as quickly as possible, or to cram in as much as you can in the allotted time, but rather to absorb it, and to let it speak to you and become part of you. It’s a time to let the Lord communicate with you through His Word.

Focusing on what you read or hear, and thinking more deeply about it, is part of meditating on God’s Word. Our lives are so busy, and we often feel we need to rush from one thing to the next, so it’s difficult to take the time to truly think about what we’ve read and how to apply it, but it’s important to do so if we want it to affect us.

In the Psalms we hear David speak of meditating on God and His Word:

I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.[3]

Hundreds of years earlier, God spoke to Joshua about the importance of continually meditating on the Word of God.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.[4]

The great prayer warrior George Mueller wrote regarding meditating on God’s Word:

What is food for the inner man? The Word of God, and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it and applying it to our hearts.[5]

Donald Whitney wrote:

The tree of your spiritual life thrives best with meditation because it helps you absorb the water of God’s Word. Merely hearing or reading the Bible, for example, can be like a short rainfall on hard ground. Regardless of the amount or intensity of the rain, most runs off and little sinks in. Meditation opens the soil of the soul and lets the water of God’s Word percolate in deeply. The result is an extraordinary fruitfulness and spiritual prosperity.[6]

Reading, listening to, and meditating on the Word of God brings His blessings into our lives. As Psalm 1 says: Blessed is the man … [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.[7]

Reading God’s Word and meditating on it brings us into personal communication with God. As we meditate on what we’ve read, we create the opportunity for His Word to speak to our hearts because we put ourselves in the position of being willing to listen to Him. In meditating on His Word, we enter into His presence, hungering to learn, to grow, to change, to draw close to Him, to do His will. He desires to speak to each of us directly. However, if we aren’t listening or meditating on Him and His Word, if we are so busy reading what He’s said that we don’t give Him room to speak to us personally about what we’re reading, then we are truly missing something important.

Many Christians are happy to listen to what this or that speaker or preacher has to share, to be inspired by someone’s sermon, yet are much less inclined to have that one-on-one communication with the Almighty that comes when we discipline ourselves to read, study, and meditate on Scripture. Richard Foster addresses this point:

Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them. The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. That is why meditation is so threatening to us. It boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God for ourselves. It tells us that God is speaking in the continuous present and wants to address us … All who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord are the universal priesthood of God, and as such can enter the Holy of Holies and converse with the living God.[8]

Of course, meditating on what you’ve read or listened to takes time, and if you find you don’t have the time to stop and listen, then you might want to consider reading a little less to free up time to meditate on what you’ve read. Author Maurice Roberts wrote:

It is not the busy skimming over religious books or the careless hastening through religious duties which makes for a strong Christian faith. Rather, it is unhurried meditation on the gospel truths and the exposing of our minds to these truths that yields the fruit of sanctified character.[9]

If we want godliness in our lives, if our desire is to emulate our Savior, if we want the light which shines through us to be the light of God and His love, then we need to take time with Him and His Word. Disciplining ourselves to take this time daily is a key component of Christlikeness. Of all the Spiritual Disciplines, this is the most important, as God’s Word—the Bible—is His revelation of Himself to humanity. Reading and meditating on it, applying it to our inner being and to our outer actions is vital to being like Jesus. It is through the regular deep absorption of the water of His Word in our hearts that we are gradually renewed and transformed to become more like Him. It is through the application of what we read and meditate on that we have the grace to live lives that are in alignment with His will. For His Word is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path.[10]

Take the time to commune deeply with God through His Word. It will change your life.

[Jesus] said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”[11]

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”[12]

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.[13]

You have exalted above all things Your name and Your word.[14]

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word.[15]

I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.[16]

I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.[17]

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.[18]
Note

Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Matthew 7:24–25.


[2] John 6:63.


[3] Psalm 119:15–16.


[4] Joshua 1:8.


[5] Roger Steer, Spiritual Secrets of George Mueller (Wheaton: Harold Shaw, 1985), 62, quoted in Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1991), 76.


[6] Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines, 49–50.


[7] Psalm 1:1–3.


[8] Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (New York: HarperOne, 1998), 24.


[9] Maurice Roberts, “O the Depth!” The Banner of Truth, July 1990, 2, quoted in Whitney,Spiritual Disciplines, 55.


[10] Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105).


[11] Luke 11:28.


[12] John 14:23.


[13] John 15:7.


[14] Psalm 138:2.


[15] Psalm 119:9 NIV.


[16] Psalm 119:11.


[17] Psalm 119:15–16.


[18] John 17:17.

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How I made sure all 12 of my kids could pay for college themselves

By Francis L. Thompson, Quartz, January 12, 2014

My wife and I had 12 children over the course of 15 1/2 years. Today, our oldest is 37 and our youngest is 22. I have always had a very prosperous job and enough money to give my kids almost anything. But my wife and I decided not to.

I will share with you the things that we did, but first let me tell you the results: All 12 of my children have college degrees (or are in school), and we as parents did not pay for it. Most have graduate degrees. Those who are married have wonderful spouses with the same ethics and college degrees, too. We have 18 grandchildren who are learning the same things that our kids learned—self respect, gratitude, and a desire to give back to society.

We raised our family in Utah, Florida, and California; my wife and I now live in Colorado. In March, we will have been married 40 years. I attribute the love between us as a part of our success with the children. They see a stable home life with a commitment that does not have compromises.

Here’s what we did right (we got plenty wrong, too, but that’s another list):

Chores. Kids had to perform chores from age 3. A 3-year-old does not clean toilets very well but by the time he is 4, it’s a reasonably good job.

They got allowances based on how they did the chores for the week.

We had the children wash their own clothes by the time they turned 8. We assigned them a wash day.

When they started reading, they had to make dinner by reading a recipe. They also had to learn to double a recipe.

The boys and girls had to learn to sew.

Study time. Education was very important in our family.

We had study time from 6 to 8 pm every week day. No television, computer, games, or other activities until the two hours were up. If they had no homework, then they read books. For those too young to be in school, we had someone read books to them. After the two hours, they could do whatever they wanted as long as they were in by curfew.

All the kids were required to take every Advanced Placement class there was. We did not let entrance scores be an impediment. We went to the school and demanded our kids be let in. Then we, as parents, spent the time to ensure they had the understanding to pass the class. After the first child, the school learned that we kept our promise that the kids could handle the AP classes.

If children would come home and say that a teacher hated them or was not fair, our response was that you need to find a way to get along. You need find a way to learn the material because in real life, you may have a boss that does not like you. We would not enable children to “blame” the teacher for not learning, but place the responsibility for learning the material back on the child. Of course, we were alongside them for two hours of study a day, for them to ask for help anytime.

Picky eaters not allowed. We all ate dinner and breakfast together. Breakfast was at 5:15am and then the children had to do chores before school. Dinner was at 5:30pm.

More broadly, food was interesting. We wanted a balanced diet, but hated it when we were young and parents made us eat all our food. Sometimes we were full and just did not want to eat anymore. Our rule was to give the kids the food they hated most first (usually vegetables) and then they got the next type of food. They did not have to eat it and could leave the table. If later they complained they were hungry, we would get out that food they did not want to eat, warm it up in the microwave, and provide it to them. Again, they did not have to eat it. But they got no other food until the next meal unless they ate it.

We did not have snacks between meals. We always had the four food groups (meat, dairy, grain, fruits and vegetables) and nearly always had dessert of some kind. To this day, our kids are not afraid to try different foods, and have no allergies to foods. They try all kinds of new foods and eat only until they are full. Not one of our kids is even a little bit heavy. They are thin, athletic, and very healthy. With 12 kids, you would think that at least one would have some food allergies or food special needs. (I am not a doctor.)

Extracurriculars. All kids had to play some kind of sport. They got to choose, but choosing none was not an option. We started them in grade school. We did not care if it was swimming, football, baseball, fencing, tennis, etc. and did not care if they chose to change sports. But they had to play something.

All kids had to be in some kind of club: Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, history, drama, etc.

They were required to provide community service. We would volunteer within our community and at church. For Eagle Scout projects, we would have the entire family help. Once we collected old clothes and took them to Mexico and passed them out. The kids saw what life was like for many families and how their collections made them so happy and made a difference.

Independence. When the kids turned 16, we bought each a car. The first one learned what that meant. As the tow truck pulled a once “new” car into the driveway, my oldest proclaimed: “Dad, it is a wreck!” I said, “Yes, but a 1965 Mustang fastback wreck. Here are the repair manuals. Tools are in the garage. I will pay for every part, but will not pay for LABOR.” Eleven months later, the car had a rebuilt engine, rebuilt transmission, newly upholstered interior, a new suspension system, and a new coat of paint. My daughter (yes, it was my daughter) had one of the hottest cars at high school. And her pride that she built it was beyond imaginable. (As a side note, none of my kids ever got a ticket for speeding, even though no car had less than 450 horsepower.)

We as parents allowed kids to make mistakes. Five years before the 16th birthday and their “new” car gift, they had to help out with our family cars. Once I asked my son, Samuel, to change the oil and asked if he needed help or instruction. “No, Dad, I can do it.” An hour later, he came in and said, “Dad, does it take 18 quarts of oil to change the oil?” I asked where did he put 18 quarts of oil when normally only five were needed. His response: “That big screw on top at the front of the engine.” I said “You mean the radiator?” Well, he did not get into trouble for filling the radiator with oil. He had to drain it, we bought a radiator flush, put in new radiator fluid, and then he had to change the real oil. We did not ground him or give him any punishment for doing it “wrong.” We let the lesson be the teaching tool. Our children are not afraid to try something new. They were trained that if they do something wrong they will not get punished. It often cost us more money, but we were raising kids, not saving money.

The kids each got their own computer, but had to build it. I bought the processor, memory, power supply, case, keyboard, hard drive, motherboard, and mouse. They had to put it together and load the software on. This started when they were 12.

We let the children make their own choices, but limited. For example, do you want to go to bed now or clean your room? Rarely, did we give directives that were one way, unless it dealt with living the agreed-upon family rules. This let the child feel that she had some control over life.

In it together. We required the children to help each other. When a fifth grader is required to read 30 minutes a day, and a first grader is required to be read to 30 minutes a day, have one sit next to the other and read. Those in high school calculus tutored those in algebra or grade-school math.

We assigned an older child to a younger child to teach them and help them accomplish their weekly chores.

We let the children be a part of making the family rules. For example, the kids wanted the rule that no toys were allowed in the family room. The toys had to stay either in the bedroom or playroom. In addition to their chores, they had to all clean their bedroom every day (or just keep it clean in the first place). These were rules that the children wanted. We gave them a chance each month to amend or create new rules. Mom and Dad had veto power of course.

We tried to be always consistent. If they had to study two hours every night, we did not make an exception to it. Curfew was 10pm during school nights and midnight on non-school nights. There were no exceptions to the rules.

Vacation policy. We would take family vacations every summer for two or three weeks. We could afford a hotel, or cruise, but did not choose those options. We went camping and backpacking. If it rained, then we would figure out how to backpack in the rain and survive. We would set up a base camp at a site with five or six tents, and I would take all kids age 6 or older on a three- to five-day backpack trip. My wife would stay with the little ones. Remember, for 15 years, she was either pregnant or just had a baby. My kids and I hiked across the Grand Canyon, to the top of Mount Whitney, across the Continental Divide, across Yosemite.

We would send kids via airplane to relatives in Europe or across the US for two or three weeks at a time. We started this when they were in kindergarten. It would take special treatment for the airlines to take a 5-year-old alone on the plane and required people on the other end to have special documentation. We only sent the kids if they wanted to go. However, with the younger ones seeing the older ones travel, they wanted to go. The kids learned from an early age that we, as parents, were always there for them, but would let them grow their own wings and fly.

Money and materialism. Even though we have sufficient money, we have not helped the children buy homes, pay for education, pay for weddings (yes, we do not pay for weddings either). We have provided extensive information on how to do it or how to buy rental units and use equity to grow wealth. We do not “give” things to our children but we give them information and teach them “how” to do things. We have helped them with contacts in corporations, but they have to do the interviews and “earn” the jobs.

We give birthday and Christmas presents to the kids. We would play Santa Claus but as they got older, and would ask about it, we would not lie. We would say it is a game we play and it is fun. We did and do have lists for items that each child would like for presents. Then everyone can see what they want. With the internet, it is easy to send such lists around to the children and grandchildren. Still, homemade gifts are often the favorite of all.

The real world. We loved the children regardless of what they did. But would not prevent consequences of any of their actions. We let them suffer consequences and would not try to mitigate the consequences because we saw them suffering. We would cry and be sad, but would not do anything to reduce the consequences of their actions.

We were and are not our kids’ best friends. We were their parents.

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Pastor Rick Warren: Fighting Obesity with Faith

By Alexandra Wolfe, WSJ, Jan. 17, 2014

‘If you’re not following me on Twitter, you’re going to hell,” says megachurch pastor Rick Warren, before cracking up. Mr. Warren—or Pastor Rick, as his teeming staff calls him—is leaning back in a red leather chair with his sneaker-clad feet up on the coffee table in one of his many offices on the 120-acre Saddleback Church campus in Lake Forest, Calif. He’s only joking. He has plenty of followers already: Almost 1.3 million keep up with him on Twitter, and around 30,000 attend his sermons.

Mr. Warren’s popularity soared after the release of his 2002 best seller, “The Purpose Driven Life,” a self-help book about discovering and exploring a relationship with God that has sold about 40 million copies. “All of a sudden, people are calling me, well-known people are calling me, and I’m saying, ‘Why are you calling me? I’m just a pastor,’ “ he recalls. Now he has come out with “The Daniel Plan,” a diet book—though he says it is more than just a diet book—written with two doctors. It’s already a best seller, and Mr. Warren, 59, plans to turn it into as much of a brand as “The Purpose Driven Life,” which thousands of churches, corporations and even sports teams adopted as a 40-day plan.

Mr. Warren came up with the idea for “The Daniel Plan” a few years ago while doing baptisms “the old-fashioned way”—by physically raising and lowering people into the water. That day he baptized 850 people. “That’s about 150,000 pounds, which is why I’m so buff,” he says with a chuckle. “But as I’m lowering people, I literally felt the weight of America’s obesity problem,” he adds. “I thought, good night, we’re all fat!” Then he says he realized, “Good night, I’m fat!”

He didn’t think he could ask his congregation to get healthy without doing so himself. The following weekend, he declared he would set out to lose 90 pounds (at 6-foot-3, he weighed nearly 300 pounds) and asked if anyone wanted to join him. Mr. Warren says that he thought he might get 200 people, but by the end of the week, 15,000 people had signed up on Saddleback’s website.

Next he recruited three friends in the medical field, including Mehmet Oz, the surgeon and television show host, to come up with a system for how they would do it. Along with fitness and nutrition, Mr. Warren says he added the “special sauce” of “focus, friends and faith”—in other words, help from a higher power and from friends and community.

Named for the Biblical prophet Daniel, who challenged himself to eat only vegetables and water, Mr. Warren’s Daniel Plan instructs people to rely on “God power” rather than just willpower to eat healthily. His theory is that guilt only motivates people to follow diets in the short term, but “grace” lasts longer.

The book, released in December, provides a meal plan that includes lean protein, fruit, vegetables and whole grains, and it encourages regular exercise. The day after a two-hour rally to kick off the plan at Saddleback, he says local grocery stores were out of vegetables. “That’s the power of a congregation,” he says. “When an elephant is walking, it shakes the ground, and that’s a congregation—it shakes the ground.”

His book follows upon a rough period for Mr. Warren. He says, “2013 was the worst year of my life.” In January, he had severe back problems that put him in the hospital for weeks, and in April, his 27-year-old son committed suicide. “That was the worst day of my life, of course,” he says.

He could not sleep for the next six months. “You know what happens when you don’t sleep?” he asks. “Your cravings go crazy, you don’t exercise, and on top of that, I had a church family that loved me bringing me casseroles.” After losing 65 pounds in his first year and a half on the Daniel Plan, he gained 35 pounds back. In October, he went back on the diet and lost 35 pounds before the book’s release in December. He still has 25 pounds to go. “I’m the first guy who lost weight on the Daniel Plan twice,” he says. “I tell that story because I want my failings to encourage people.”

With his new book, Mr. Warren aims to make health a form of worship. “The Bible says…God made your body, Jesus died for your body, and He expects you to take care of your body,” the pastor says. “We are repositioning health as a spiritual stewardship.”

He thinks our culture sees the body in one of two extreme ways. “We either idolize the body, and there are people who do that and it’s all about how you look, or we go to the other extreme and we say, ‘We don’t care about that,’ “ he says. It’s health’s higher purpose that Mr. Warren says distinguishes his plan from other diet books. “It’s not so much what you eat; it’s what eats you,” he says. “It’s the stresses, the unreached goals, the broken heart and the grief.”

Mr. Warren thinks he knows more about these psychological concerns—and about health care—than any government or counseling system. “The church has been in the health-care business 2,000 years longer than the government, so the audacity of the government trying to tell the church what they should do with health care is—are you kidding me?” he exclaims.

Mr. Warren gives the church credit for inventing the hospital and says that one of Jesus’ three key tenets was “healing.” “One-third of his ministry was health care,” he says. “We believe the Daniel Plan is really taking the church back to what it has done for 2,000 years, because only in the last 75 years have we abdicated education and health care to the government.”

He feels the same way about poverty and unemployment: “Churches know more about poverty than any government will ever know, because we’re dealing with the poor every day.”

Mr. Warren aims to continue to expand Saddleback beyond the U.S. He and members of his congregation have traveled to every country around the world as part of his nonprofit P.E.A.C.E. Plan, an initiative to “assist the poor and care for the sick.” With branches already built in Berlin, Buenos Aires and Hong Kong and plans to create over a dozen other locations in strategic “hub” cities from Tokyo to Mexico City, his hopes for Saddleback are increasingly global.

And what’s his personal purpose? “My ultimate goal…is for you to live the life you’re intended to live,” he says. “You drift through life and let things happen to you, or go by design and say, ‘This is what I’m intended to do.’ The Bible is very clear that God has a purpose. But even if I know that purpose, I can’t fulfill it if I’m out of shape.”

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She’s Doing An Elite MBA For Under $1,000

John A. Byrne, LinkedIn, January 17, 2014

If everything goes according to plan, Laurie Pickard, 32, will earn her MBA in three years for less than $1,000. She’ll take classes from Stanford, Wharton, and Yale, among other top-tier schools. And she’ll tackle it with $0 opportunity cost by keeping her full-time job as a rural enterprise development and entrepreneurship specialist at USAID. She’ll accomplish all of this from Kigali, Rwanda.

It’s a premise that sounds too good to be true, writes Poets&Quants’ news & feature editor Lauren Everitt. But Pickard is determined to pull it off. If successful, she’ll be one of the first students in the world to cobble together an MBA program from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), free or low-cost classes accessible to anyone with Internet access.

Pickard didn’t plan to pave the way for earning a dirt-cheap business education. In fact, she initially had her sights set on a more conventional path–and she boasts the background to get into an elite program: a B.A. in politics from Oberlin College, an M.A. in geography and urban studies from Temple University, and stints with the Peace Corps and the International Finance Corporation in Nicaragua.

“I was looking at traditional, U.S.-based, high-end, expensive MBAs, and then I kind of dropped that idea in favor of shorter, European-based MBAs … that take half the time and cost a quarter as much,” she says. By her own admission, Pickard was “not an early adopter” of the MOOC movement. But after a friend enrolled in a finance course with MOOC provider Coursera, she reconsidered the traditional MBA. “I was thinking, ‘I could do that.’ And so I started looking into what was out there, and that’s when I got this idea that I should just do an MBA out of free courses,” she says.

Only a year ago, it would not have been possible to even consider getting the equivalent of an MBA via MOOCs. But in the space of just nine months in 2012, from February to November, the number of institutions offering free online business courses has doubled to 51 from 26, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International. The number of business faculty teaching MOOC courses has more than doubled in the same timeframe to 83 from 39.

Pickard developed her program by reviewing the B-school curriculums at top schools. She designed it to be flexible because MOOC courses are not guaranteed: “You have no idea when they’ll be offered and if they’ll ever be offered again,” she points out. Rather than setting a strict course list, she organized her degree path by themes.

Four months in, Pickard has completed five courses. Initially, she planned to complete 16 courses over two to three years, but she’s enjoying the process so much, she’ll likely keep going and exceed the credits required by most MBA programs. “There are so many course offerings out there, that it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure story,” she says. “I loved school, so it’s kind of like that excitement you get when you first get the course catalog for the semester, and you’re looking through it like, ‘Oh, I want to take that, I want to take that, I want to take that course,” she says. Although the courses vary in terms of quality and difficulty, Pickard points out that the same problem affects bricks-and-mortar programs.

Pickard also doesn’t seem to mind the virtual component. Given that her husband, a foreign service officer, is stationed in Rwanda for the next four years, the online aspect is actually a boon. “My mind is changing, and my thinking about business is really expanding and growing,” she says. “I feel the same way that I felt at other times in my life when I was really immersed in an education experience. So from that standpoint, there’s a true benefit to MOOCs.”

If you’re interested in taking MOOC business courses, check out PoetsandQuants.com.

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Aldrich Lloyd Talonding & James Bucong Live @ The Ellen Degeneres Show = 9/12/13

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Aldrich Lloyd Talonding with Ellen Guesting

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How great Thou art! (Aldrich and James)

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Rooftops by Jesus Culture (Aldrich & James)

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Be Perfect - What did Jesus mean?

A compilation

Be perfect,* therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.—Matthew 5:48 NIV

If someone told us we have to be perfect … yikes! How do we do that? But that is what Jesus is telling us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” With the exception of Jesus, no one is perfect, nor will ever be perfect, so what does Jesus mean?

To be perfect in what Jesus is saying doesn’t mean to be flawless as we would use the word “perfect” today. It means that we fulfill the purpose for which we were created. For example, if I take my pen and begin writing a letter, you may ask me, “How is the pen?” I would say, “It’s perfect.” What I mean is that the pen does what it’s supposed to do. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a cheap pen or an expensive one. It may be chipped, bitten, and half full of ink, but it’s perfect for the purpose for which it was made. It only matters that it works.

When Jesus says, “Be perfect,” He is asking us to be what God created us to be. We were created to be in the likeness of God’s moral image, so that our lives express something of the moral character of God.

We are perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect only to the measure in which His character is being displayed in us. We cannot do this by imitating God, but only by expressing [Him] in us and through us. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul says “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” In other words, in this life we will never fully achieve the moral character of God, but that is the end purpose for which the Spirit of God is at work in our lives.

Perfection is about being what God created us to be, and when Jesus said, “Be perfect,” He is saying that despite our failures, sin, and brokenness, we allow God to manifest His character in us, bringing us to an ever-increasing likeness of His moral image.—Charles Price

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.—Psalm 18:30 NIV

I am involved in each moment of your life. I have carefully mapped out every inch of your journey through this day, even though much of it may feel haphazard. Because the world is in a fallen condition, things always seem to be unraveling around the edges. Expect to find trouble in this day. At the same time, trust that My way is perfect, even in the midst of such messy imperfection. … As you trudge through the sludge of this fallen world, keep your mind in heavenly places with Me. Thus the light of My presence shines on you, giving you peace and joy that circumstances cannot touch.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy1

I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.—Isaiah 41:13 NIV

The whole of the Sermon [on the Mount] is framed within Jesus’ announcement that what his fellow Jews had longed for over many generations was now coming to pass—but that new kingdom didn’t look like they had thought it would. Indeed, in some ways it went in exactly the other direction. No violence, no hatred, no anxious protection of land and property against the pagan hordes. Rather, a glad and unworried trust in the creator God, whose kingdom is now at last starting to arrive, leading to a glad and generous heart toward other people, even those who are technically “enemies.” Faith, hope and love. They are the language of life, the sign in the present of green shoots growing through the concrete of this sad old world, the indication that the creator God is on the move, and that Jesus’ hearers and followers can be part of what he’s now doing.

That is the context within which Jesus says perhaps the most remarkable thing of all: be perfect, because your heavenly Father is perfect. The Greek is teleios [completeness]. You must be people of the goal, people of genuine humanness, people who are “complete.” It’s the same word which, in Matthew’s version of the story of the rich young ruler,2 Jesus said to the young man: in effect, “If you want to be ‘complete,’ teleios, then go and sell your possessions, give to the poor, and come and follow me.” … And we note that in each case the “perfection” in question consists not of a long list of hard moral commands dutifully obeyed but of a character formed by overflowing generous love.—N. T. Wright

This life will never be perfect. You’ll never be perfect while you’re in this life. The only things that can be perfect are the things I give: perfect peace as you let go of concerns about yourself and hang on to Me; perfect fulfillment as you express your trust in Me by letting Me do through you whatever I know is best; and perfect faith that even though you falter and fail, you trust in My unconditional love that will never fail to hold you close and turn everything for good.

Perfection in this life is an impossibility. If you could be perfect, you would have no need of a Savior. Like a child depends on his father to do what he cannot, this very lack of perfection draws you to Me and Me to you in love.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy

When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part will be done away.—1 Corinthians 13:10

“For by grace are ye saved through faith.”3 But it's all by faith. “Now we see in part, then we will know even as also we are known.”4 Now we know in part, then we will know completely.

By faith you’re saved, and it's as good as done. In fact, it was finished on the cross. In fact, it was finished before the world was ever founded, before creation, by Christ “slain before the foundation of the world.”5 Preordained by God, foreordained, predestinated that you’d be saved if you'd believe by faith. But if this were your full salvation, if your salvation were really complete now, it would not be true salvation, because you’re still on this earth and your body still suffers from the Curse and sickness and hunger and weariness and even death.

We’re talking now about the full salvation, the complete salvation, and you won’t becompletely saved, physically as well as spiritually, till Jesus returns. You’re saved now only by faith and you’re certainly saved spiritually, although even spiritually you’re not perfected yet. Even in spirit today you have your problems and ups and downs with your wife or your husband or your children or your father and mother, and you have problems. So you’re not perfected yet.

But the time’s coming when “the spirits of just men will be made perfect.”6 You haven’t been perfected yet in either spirit or body. So you’re really only saved by faith. Butlook up, for your redemption draweth nigh!7 Then you’ll be totally saved, not only by faith but in body, soul, and spirit, completely perfected, and whole and redeemed, redemption of the body as well as the spirit! “The spirits of just men made perfect.”—Bodies made perfect and eternal and no longer subject to the Curse or the ravages of disease or weariness or hunger or faintness or needing sleep.

That’s the kind of redemption He’s talking about! “Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.” He is saying that your real final redemption is drawing nigh.—David Brandt Berg


* Following are the definitions of the word teleios used in the New Testament forperfect:
to make perfect, complete; a) to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end
to complete (perfect); a) add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full, b) to be found perfect
to bring to the end (goal) proposed
to accomplish; a) bring to a close or fulfillment by event (of the prophecies of the scriptures)

Published on Anchor January 2014. Read by Bryan Clark. Music by Michael Dooley.


1 Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (Thomas Nelson, 2004).

2 Matthew 19:21.

3 Ephesians 2:8–9 KJV.

4 1 Corinthians 13:12.

5 Revelation 13:8.

6 Hebrews 12:23 KJV.

7 Luke 21:28 KJV.

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