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A s you read this , it’s the month of September and your children are all neatly back in school (if you have school-age children), but as I write this, it’s July, and my children are definitely home, hanging around and hungry. They are completely under foot and asking such questions as, “What are you typing?” (A book, what else?) “ How are you going to use this trim?” (I haven’t the faintest. . . .) “What are we having for dinner?” and “ When?” I have answered so many rather stupid questions I feel like an inexpensive summer edition encyclope dia and I know before the hour is up, I am going to have to ask the Lord to clarify my position on patience. Patience is something none of us have in abundance, and in fact, many of us rather proudly say, “ You know me, I have no patience at all!” If that sentence describes you, then welcome to the club! You are the umpteenth member. You might be like the young mother of four preschool children who said to me, “ I don’t know what’s the matter with me, but I seem to have no patience at all and I lose my temper so quickly.” I reminded her of the fact that until her youngest child turns four or five years of age, it would demand all her energies and physical strength. There seems to be a definite connec tion between our tiredness and our amount of patience. But what about a habitual lack of patience or even this “ summertime” lack when our children are constantly with us? Several years ago, I was the soloist for the Biola conference at the Firs in Bellingham, Washington, and Dr. Henry Brandt was one of the speakers. God used Dr. Brandt in my life that week and especially on the problem of patience. Definitely there was a prob lem, and particularly with our daugh ter. Laurie was about nine years old, and every morning we had this fight. It went like this: “Honey, did you make your bed yet?” “ No, Mother, not yet, but I will.” Ten minutes later, “ Laurie, did you make your bed?” “Just a second, Mother!” “ But Laurie, it’s time for school; have you made your bed?” “ I WILL, I WILL.” (She didn’t.) Each morning after she left for school, I’d sit down at the table to have a second cup of coifee, but my stomach was in knots, my throat was tired from yelling, and I was so furi ously angry at her, the coifee simply wouldn’t go down. “ Dr. Brandt,” I asked, “How can a darling little gal like Laurie turn me into an impatient, angry monster each and every morning?” He never blinked or hesitated a second, but looked me squarely in the eye and said, “Nothing can make you angry if you’re filled with the spirit of love; on the other hand, ANYTH ING can make you angry if you are filled with the spirit of anger and impatience.” I just sat there and stared at him while the truth of what he had said began to
When a first-grade teacher begins training a child to read, she gives the ABC’s over and over again. If she is a good teacher, she doesn’t get angry or impatient with the student; she simply goes over the same ground for a whole year. Piano is taught the same way; over and over again, setting the rules, keeping them and helping them to be carried out. If I am filled with self and the spirit of anger, it won’t take much to make me lose patience, but if I ask God for His Spirit, I can be the most understanding, patient mother in the world. Ephesians 6:4 (Amplified translation) says, “ Fathers, [or moth ers] do not irritate and provoke your children to anger — do not exasperate them to resentment — but rear them [tenderly] in the training and disci pline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord.” Can anybody do this job of raising your children with more love than you? Or more patience? I asked Dr. Brandt how long I’d have to keep telling Laurie to hang up her clothes, brush her teeth, etc., and he answered back, again without batting an eyelash, “ Probably fifteen or twenty years.” Who can do it better? No one but me! "MY QUIET TIME IS ANYTHING BUT QUIET . . Dear Ruth: Yes, and you feel downright hypo critical at times, don’t you? After all, there is little value in rushing through some diluted little package deal, with a happy little “key thought,” just to be able to say, “ There, that does it — I’ve had my quiet time!” Better than nothing? Perhaps, but are we really satisfied with such superficiality? Is God? Satan is unexcelled in his strategy. He never says, “ Don’t pray.” Too many sincere Christians would turn a deaf ear. He. simply says, “ Pray, but HURRY! And while you hurry, you better WORRY. Then SCURRY from one pressing thing to another until you’re almost frantic. Never relax a minute; you have so much to do!” Of course Satan is too subtle to sug gest that we ignore God. We would give him a flat “ No.” So he goads us on to “ serve” laboriously, with every last drop of energy, running all day, rush ing to meetings every night, somehow keeping up the mad pace until we’re completely fragmented. (Dr. A. W. Tozer was terse but correct when he said, “ Much of our effort done in the name of the Lord is as carnal as goats!” ) Too often we’re “ taken in.” Satan gets what he’s after — defeated, de pressed, spiritually-dehydrated Chris tians. We’re tossed and swept by the restless tide of incessant activity. The result? Nothing more than foam and froth. But God is not satisfied. He wants more from us than that! Jesus emphat ically said, “ Seek ye FIRST the king dom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Coffee
by Joyce Landorf sink in. He then gave me three rules for Laurie and the bed bit: 1. Set a rule or limit. (I had done that — make up the bed before school.) 2. See that the rule is carried out and if you are not home, see that someone else follows it up. (I had done that too; in fact, that’s what was about to give me an ulcer.) 3. Give physical help to carry out the rule. (Ah, here was something I wasn’t doing.) The very first morning I was home from the conference, the old conversa tional pattern began; however, after I had asked her three times, I put down my cup of coifee (THAT’S the hard part), took her by the hand and said gently, “ Come with me.” Suspiciously, she asked, “Where are we going?” “We are going to go make your bed and I am going to help you because you need help.” I’ll never forget the stunned look on her face when she shouted up at me, “ I DON’T NEED ANY HELP!” Quietly I said, “ Oh, yes, you do. I’ve asked you several times if you have made your bed and it seems to me you need my help to get it made.” I was very calm and collected (she was furi ous) and as I helped her make that bed, I thought, “ Who could help her make this bed with any more love than I — her mother? Who could train or teach or spank her with any more love than I — her mother?” Absolutely no one! After she left for school, I thor oughly enjoyed my coffee. I wasn’t one bit angry and I was delighted the next morning when I called to Laurie and said, “Honey, have you. . . .” She in terrupted, “Yes, I’ve already made my bed; I don’t need any help.” (One thing down, five million more to go!) You and I may not have any patience at all, but God has a boundless supply, and if we are His children, filled with His Spirit, there is no reason in the world for us to complain about our lack of patience.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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