Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 18 – No. 3316 August 13, 2016
Thought for the week: "Men have been helped to live by remembering that they must die." – Charles Spurgeon
"The person who never made a mistake never made anything." – Les Smith
"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes." – Hugh Downs
"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital." – Joe Paterno, football coach
"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." – James Matthew Barrie
"The church has been likened to a football game in which thousands of spectators desperately in need of exercise are watching a handful of players desperately in need of rest. Are you a spectator or a player?" – Unknown
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." – Abraham Lincoln
"I know the price of success; dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen." – Frank Lloyd Wright
Last week my wife and I purchased a new computer. We ran into some difficulties while setting it up so we called the customer support phone number we found in the manual.
I picked up the phone and called the number. A man answered the phone and I explained the problem to him.
He began rattling off computer jargon. This confused us even more.
"Sir," I said politely, "Can you explain what I should do as if I were a small child?"
"Okay," the computer support guy said, "Son, could you please put your mommy on the phone?"
A Word...
A Careless word may kindle strife;
A Cruel word may wreck a life.
A Bitter word may hate instill;
A Brutal word may smite and kill.
A Gracious word may smooth the way;
A Joyous word may light the day.
A Timely word may lessen stress;
A Loving word may heal and bless.
"They dwell in caves, have dolphin-like sonar, navigate like a bat, have eyes like a deep sea fish, can hover like a kingfisher, and find food by smell. These birds live in Central and South America. Young oilbirds are able to fly in the dark of the cave from the first flight. They are not taught to do so. The oilbird eye is also very unique. It has three banks of rods, giving it more than any other vertebrate eye. Because of this it has a light gathering capacity greater than any other bird. This helps it when flying at night. Evolution is hard pressed to explain such a creature."1
"So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.' So the evening and the morning were the fifth day" (Gen. 1:21-23).
I recently read an article about some pelicans in California. If you've ever seen pelicans in action, you know they're great fishermen, or fisher-birds, I guess. These pelicans were hanging out near a fleet of fishing boats. The fishermen on the boats would pull into the little harbor, and clean the fish right on the spot, throwing the heads and the rest into the water. The pelicans picked up on this, and began eating the leftovers without having to go out fishing. And if you're a pelican, that's good eating. So for weeks, they just sat by the harbor and waited for the fishing boats to come in.
After a while, the fishermen found out they could sell the fish waste, and so they stopped chucking it into the water. The pelicans were caught unprepared. They continued to sit and wait for the fishing boats to come in and throw free food in the water. And they grew thinner and thinner and seemed able to do nothing about their situation.
Wildlife officials came to check out what was going on, and concluded that the pelicans had forgotten how to fish. So what they did was to bring pelicans in from another area to join the flock and teach the starving birds how to fish again.
I've mentioned before that, despite my great admiration for people who are instinctively and consistently kind, kindness does not come naturally to me. Yet the older I get, the more I agree with Abraham Heschel, who said, "When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people." Henry James was more emphatic when he said, "Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."
In 1994, Dr. Chuck Wall, a professor of human relations and management at Bakersfield College in California, came up with a concept that turned into an influential movement. Weary of hearing about "senseless acts of violence," he began to teach and talk about "random and senseless acts of kindness." The idea was simple: the best response to a world coarsened by selfishness and cruelty was individual acts of kindness.
In 1999, Catherine Ryan Hyde wrote a novel called Pay It Forward (later turned into a movie) that builds on Dr. Wall's initial inspiration. It starts with a teacher's assignment to "THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE, AND PUT IT INTO ACTION." Trevor, the 12-year-old hero, comes up with an idea. If he does something "real good" for three people and asks in return that instead of them "paying him back," they "pay it forward" by doing a good deed for three other people, who are in turn asked to pay it forward, the math quickly shows that he could change the world.
Whether acts of kindness are random or spontaneous as advocated by Dr. Wall or premeditated as proposed by Ms. Hyde, acts of kindness are certainly not senseless. To the contrary, they're the best possible proof of good sense. Every single person can send forth ripples of kindness and compassion simply by being nice.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48, NIV).
When the Bible tells us to be perfect, it has nothing to do with perfectionism. In fact, the word for perfect here means to be complete, whole and/or mature.
In yesterday's Daily Encounter we mentioned that people who are perfectionists or who have perfectionistic tendencies find it difficult, if not impossible, to forgive themselves when they have done wrong even though God and others have forgiven them.
Being made whole and complete are characteristics of maturity—both spiritual and emotional—and are essential for wholesome relationships. Being perfectionistic is neurotic and a sign of immaturity where an individual has a poor self-concept. Perfectionists have totally unrealistic expectations in that they feel they have to be perfect in everything they do in order to feel okay about themselves—a hopeless situation to be in. The reason they can't forgive themselves is because in their mind they weren't perfect. The fact is that we are all a part of this broken world in which we live and will never find perfection until we get to heaven. Overcoming perfectionism is not an excuse to go out and do anything we please. Never. It is learning to accept one's self as God accepts us—warts and all—and learning to act responsibly knowing that we are imperfect beings.
To overcome perfectionism one needs to build a healthy self-concept and learn to accept him or herself as an imperfect person and feel contented therein. With commitment and hard work this can be done. I know because I used to be dreadfully insecure in younger years.
Rather than take the space here I suggest you read the article, "Developing a Healthy Self-Concept." For those who have an extremely poor self-concept I would urge you to see a fine professional Christian counselor who can help you to overcome this problem.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you love and accept me as I am. Please help me to do the same and become whole so I can love and accept myself and others in a healthy sense. When and if needed, please lead me to the help I need to develop a healthy self-concept and therein bring glory to your name. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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Oprah Winfrey: "Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." – Oprah Winfrey
Books:
Books by Dick Innes, Editor of Weekend Encounter You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing How to Mend a Broken Heart I Hate Witnessing—A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications (more than 100,000 copies sold)
Healing, Wholeness & Happiness by Dick Innes
Loving & Understanding People by Dick Innes
I Hate Witnessing by Dick Innes
God's Formula for Success by Dick Innes
Damaged Emotions by David Seamands
Healing of the Memories by David Seamands
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Because the world would die without,
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