One Word At A Time: Kindness

By MAD21

I love Random Acts of Kindness. Not in the humanist way exactly, because I think they do it for different reasons. I think when a Christian practices these random acts, it should be with the motivation that the person on the receiving end of those acts of kindness would see Jesus through them. In other words, the act of kindness is not about you, but is about the other person and what Christ can do for them.

I wonder, however, if acts of kindness shouldn't be... random. As one of the God-given fruits of the spirit, maybe we should look outside of ourselves more often and actually look for times when we can show kindness to others.

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One Word At A Time: Patience

By MAD21

Oooohhh, patience. One of those words that qualifies as a "four letter word" because it implies that it's bad or something no one can attain.

I've always admired people who were able to stay level-headed in stressful situations. As a parent I struggle with being patient with my kids more than I expected I would. I've worked with kids most of my life and never really had a problem with taking my time to help them along. Which is saying a lot since most of the time I end up working or playing with the ones who tend to be more of a challenge.

I get really frustrated at myself sometimes. Honestly, I wonder at times if I used up all of my patience with kids from working so much with them before I had my own. But then I remember the words I often heard when telling a parent how much fun we'd had with their kids. "You just wait until you have your own. Then you will truly appreciate what it means to have someone else take care of your kids for awhile."

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One Word At A Time: Peace

By MAD21

Peace means many things to many people. Wikipedia has a lot of information about where the word came from and what it means stating in its first sentence: "Peace is a quality describing a society or a relationship that is operating harmoniously. This is commonly understood as the absence of hostility..." If you Google it, the first things you'll see are images of a peace sign, and links to the definition; the Peace Corps.; Peace Quotes; and the Nobel Peace Prize to name a few.

The world would have us think that peace is when everything is going our way, but I have to wonder if what they really mean is you can have peace so long as you do as you like and no one or nothing interferes. We all know that couldn't happen for everyone, so does that mean we can't all have peace? I don't believe it. But then, what does peace really mean?

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One Word At A Time: Birds And Bees

By MAD21

Ok. I know. The word for this week's carnival is Lust. But I have to be honest with you and say, I just simply could not figure out what to write about, or what I would be comfortable writing about. I thought of going with the lust for power, either at work or over your child, but I just couldn't make the post work. But it did bring to mind an important topic for families, and that is the dreaded sex talk.

Ever wonder why we all, or most of us, really dread the day we have to explain where babies come from to our kids? I think a lot of it has to do with how we were brought up and how it was all explained to us. However unintentional it was on my parents part, discussing anything related to sex was shameful and embarrassing. I was one of those kids who blushed and turned away at the sight of anyone kissing on TV or anywhere else. My friends will tell you that even today, it doesn't take much to make me blush. I was told by many that this would go away once I had kids. I am here to tell you, it did not.

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One Word At A Time: Love

By MAD21

I read a book a long time ago called Love is a Decision. It had a significant impact on me at the time, and many of it's lessons still stick with me today. I highly recommend the book for everyone, married or not.

It's most important lesson, I believe, is in its title. That love is a decision. Not always a feeling. Many of us have people in our lives that are difficult to have relationships with, but it's important that we get along. Whether they are family, spouses of good friends, people we serve in ministry with, or people we work with, we have to choose to behave lovingly toward them all. Why? Because that's what God does for us. Even with all of our bad choices and behavior, he still chooses to love us. And we must live by his example the best we can.

Sometimes I think the hardest time to make this decision for love is when it's your immediate family. The ones you interact with everyday. I think we have different expectations for them. Emotions run strong in a home, deep love, or deep hurt. Spike Jones once sang, "You always hurt the one you love." Why is that, do you ever wonder? There are things I see my family doing to each other that they'd never do to a co-worker or classmate. Why does it seem to be ok to treat each other so poorly sometimes?

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