This Blog -
Moved To:
http://professor-howdy.blogspot.com/

Undoubtedly America’s fastest growing sensation online,
'Thought & Humor' has arrived after winding its way
through the Internet’s highways and byways to your e-mail
address. We welcome all our great readers to another unique
blend of the jocular with provocative rumination for your
weekly entertainment - usually platitudinous & bromidic
but never nefarious, prurient, besmeared, or perfidious
and delivered gratis to offices, homes & dorms ubiquitously....
  .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

"How to Raise Kids Who Stay in Bounds"
Proverbs 29:17

Listen to the audio broadcast!
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/ramhurl?p=pnm&f=/rhm/sounds/awwy/awwy5079.rm

If you watch sports very much, you've no doubt seen some great plays that ended up not counting, because they made that great play out of bounds. Oh, I've seen many arguments over whether or not they actually were out of bounds at the time; many of which have been resolved by video replay. But you don't see arguments over where the boundaries are. No, everybody knows that when they go out on the field or the court, and they know exactly what the penalties are for breaking the rules.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Raise Kids Who Stay in Bounds."

If you don't have clear boundaries and clear penalties, you can't have a game. If children don't have clear boundaries and clear penalties, they can't have a life! Everywhere you look these days, you see kids who are out of control, as if there's no such thing as out of bounds. Guess where they learned that? From parents who never taught or never consistently enforced boundaries.

Disciplining your child is not an option; it is a Biblical mandate for moms and dads. Our word for today from the Word of God, Proverbs 29:17, says, "Discipline your son and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul." How to have a child who gives you peace and makes you happy: discipline them.

Discipline is one of the highest forms of love for your child. It's a love that cares how far they get, and it does something to bring them back when they've gone too far. Proverbs 13:24 says, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." This would be a good time to make the all-important distinction between discipline and punishment. When you discipline your child, you respond thoughtfully in the way from which they will learn the most. When you punish, you're just dumping your anger on them. All they learn from that is that you're out of control.

Here's how seriously Scripture takes our responsibility to help our children learn that "what you sow, you reap." (Galatians 6:7) "Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death." So how do we help our kids learn to stay in bounds and live under control? Just like sports: clear boundaries, clear penalties, consistently and quickly enforced. There need to be clear, unmoving boundaries in your home, stopping them before they go too far but allowing them enough room to make some choices. And there need to be clear penalties that define exactly what will happen if they do go out of bounds.

Too many parents either decide the boundary or the penalty in the heat of a confrontation - "OK, you're grounded for a year!" - or they just keep changing the boundaries or the penalties. Can you imagine the chaos that would cause in a sporting event? It causes that kind of confusion in the life of your child. The boundaries, the penalties need to be discussed in advance; not in the middle of some tense situation. As kids get older, they should even have some input; not the deciding vote, but input into the final decision. Family sanity is based on clear boundaries and clear penalties, decided and discussed in advance, and quick and consistent enforcement. The refs don't blow the whistle when the player is running through the bleachers with the ball. They blow the whistle the second his or her foot touches the line. Take the time to enforce the boundaries early, and ultimately, you'll reap a more peaceful home.

One more thing: the refs need to agree on where the boundaries and penalties are and the calls that are made. Mom and Dad can disagree in private about disciplinary decisions, but never in front of the kids. Not if they want their children to respect their authority! If you've been lax or inconsistent in helping your children understand the boundaries and the penalties, ask them to forgive you. Let them know that, before God, you owe it to them to do a better job "reffing" the game of their life. Clarity, consistency, mutual trust and walking your talk: those are building blocks in authority that a child can respect and build a life on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss today's "A Word With You," post your comments, or encourage others in our discussion forum!
http://forums.gospelcom.net/view/rhm/awwy


To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit YOURS FOR LIFE: HOW TO HAVE LIFE'S MOST IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIP at:
http://www.yoursforlife.net
Or, call 1-888-NEED HIM.

"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft is a daily radio challenge, with slice-of-life illustrations and insights - providing practical help on the issues that matter most. If your local Christian radio station does not air "A Word With You," please let them know how much you value this program. Over six years of transcripts are available online, at http://rhm.gospelcom.net/awwy.php
  .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Enduring History
Jill Carattini

In a special documentary, a major television network investigated the
beginnings of Christianity and the influence of the apostle Paul in
spreading the message of Christ. The narrator noted his fascination with
the historical figure, commenting that if not for the voice of Paul, it is
"unlikely that the movement Jesus founded would have survived beyond the
first century." Yet of the resurrection of Christ he also noted,
"Something must have happened, otherwise it's hard to explain how Jesus's
story endured for so long."

It is a question worth our time: Why has the story of Christ endured?
Has it survived through the centuries because of effective speakers in
antiquity? Has it endured, as Sigmund Freud argued, because it is a story
that fulfills wishes, or as Friedrich Nietzche attested, because it masks
and medicates our disgust of life? Has the story of Christ endured
because something really happened after Jesus' body was taken down from
the Cross or was it only clever marketing of ardent followers?

We live in an age where religion is examined with the goal of finding a
religion, or combination of religions, that best suits our lives and
lifestyles. We are intrigued by characters in history like Jesus and
Paul. We look at their lives and rightly determine their influence in
history--the radical life and message of Christ, the fervor with which
Paul spread the story. But far too often, our fascination stops there,
comfortably and confidently keeping the events of history at a distance.


C.S. Lewis writes of "the great cataract of nonsense" that blinds us to
knowledge of earlier times. He speaks of the common tendency to treat the
voices of history with a certain level of incredulity and inferiority.
Elsewhere, he refers to this as chronological snobbery--the tendency to
concern oneself primarily with present sources. To do so, warns Lewis, is
to walk unaware of the cataracts through which you see the world. Far
better is the mind that thoroughly considers the past, allowing its
lessons to interact with the army of voices that battle for our
allegiance. A person who has lived in many eras is less likely to be
deceived by the errors of his own age.

We must be wary, then, of assuming the earliest followers of Christ
thought resurrection a reasonable phenomenon or miracles a natural
occurrence. Investigating the life of Paul, it seems important to ask why
a once fearful persecutor of Christ's followers was willing to die for the
story he carried around the world, testifying to the event that split
history. Investigating the enduring story of Christ, it is logical to ask
why the once timid and frightened disciples were abruptly transformed into
bold witnesses. What happened that led countless Jews and many others to
dramatically change directions in life and in lifestyle? That something
incredible happened is not a difficult conclusion at which to arrive. It
takes far greater faith to conclude otherwise.

A friend of mine is fond of saying that truth is something you can hang
your hat on. Even as we struggle to see it today, her words communicate a
reality Jesus's disciples knew well. Truth is dependable and enduring; it
is solid and it is real. The disciples and the apostle Paul were
transformed by seeing Christ alive--a phenomenon that would be just as
unthinkable to ancient minds as it would be to us today. Even the most
hesitant among them, and the most unlikely of followers, found the
resurrected Christ an irrefutable reality. Comfort was irrelevant; they
could not deny who stood in front of them. Jesus was alive. And they
went to their deaths proclaiming it.

It seems the story of Christ has endured for innumerable reasons: because
in the fullness of time God sent his Son; because knowingly Jesus walked
to the Cross and into the hands of those who knew not what they did;
because something really happened after his body was laid in the tomb; and
because with great power and God's grace, the apostles continued to testify
of the events they saw. Moreover, the story of Christ remains today
because it is true. Through centuries of lives that have withered like
grass, those who believe in Christ stand on that which is enduring: "And
you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One
and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62).

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

----------------------------
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)
"A Slice of Infinity" is aimed at reaching into the culture with words of
challenge, words of truth, and words of hope. If you know of others who
would enjoy receiving "A Slice of Infinity" in their email box each day,
tell them they can sign up on our website at
http://www.rzim.org/publications/slice.php. If they do not have access to
the World Wide Web, please call 1-877-88SLICE (1-877-887-5423).
  .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}