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Special Pre-publication Price until Dec. 31, 1962 $12.95 Available atall Christian Bookstores or K re g e l Pub lica tion s Grand Rapids 6, Michigan
*Rev. Boyles m pastor of the Christ Community Church, Canoga I n e v e r y t h i n g give thank's: for this is the will of God in Christ Je sus concerning you.” Giving thanJks is an art. Paul was superb in expressing thanksgiving. Most of the Bible writ ers were proficient in expressing gra titude, but Paul was truly outstand ing. Christian home life could be greatly improved if family members devel oped themselves in this spiritual art of feeling thankful — and then ex pressing it. There are thousands of people whose steps lag in this world, largely because the people in their lives have no spirit of thanksgiving and appreciation. Every family mem ber receives a lift when someone says “ Thank you.” However, gratitude isn’t the only thing that Christians are to feel. I’m sure that Paul felt other things be sides gratitude. He was thankful while he was in jail, but I doubt if he was thankful for being in jail. Sometimes when people leave my office after a very painful experience of counseling — and they say, “ I’m thankful for your time” — I’m tempted to say, “ That’s too bad.” It rgally is too bad that that’s as honest as they know how to be. They are thankful. Sometimes I can feel their appreciation. But they are feeling oth er things which they don’t admit. They are hurt, disillusioned, scared and often very angry. All they can admit is gratitude. Here’s a man whose wife has com mitted adultery with eight different men in the last year. He is a very self-righteous husband. For hours he tells me how virtuous he has been — what a perfect husband he is. He tells of the two jobs he has kept up, work ing day and night so that he could buy expensive lockets for his wife. Then he discovers that he has never learned to love from his heart. He has given gifts to his family, but never has he given himself. He leaves my office. He says he is thankful. He is still “ being good.” Good people are always thankful. He is thankful but he is also sick to his stomach. He can only admit his positive feelings. If we are going to begin growing, we must sense and admit to ourselves
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Of the best known CHRISTMAS HYMNS
our negative feelings with our posi tive ones. Part of our problem lies in the fact that we have only con fessed the existence of sweetness and light. We deny our negative attitudes, but denial does not solve them. When gratitude is not seen in bal ance with all the other things we feel, then it can become enslaving to us. Children can be made to feel so grate ful to their parents that they never grow up. They have said to me, “My mother nearly died when I was bom and my parents have sacrificed all their lives for me. I owe them every thing. I can never leave them, marry and live my own life.” Sometimes this is just an alibi for not having courage to face life. Sometimes these are real feelings. A young single girl from a very re ligious and proper family felt this. She provided her parents with an op portunity to reject her, so that she could legitimately reject them and stop being grateful. She became preg nant. They rejected her. They said, “ Don’t come home.” She felt relieved. Now she needn’t be restricted to her feelings of gratitude toward them. We should be very thankful for our jobs, but if gratitude is all that we feel about what we do for a living, our working conditions will never im prove. Because many good men felt anger due to injustices between labor and management, the lot of the lab orer is vastly improved. We ought to be very thankful for our homes, our marriages and fam ilies. But if this is all we ever allow ourselves to feel about marriage, we are likely to get into a rut indeed, — if not a rut of complacency, we may turn to bitterness. We cannot de ny to ourselves that we wish our mar riages could improve, without devel oping destructive attitudes. In other words, when we deny to ourselves the right to feel other normal things, gra titude can paralyze us, embitter us or make us complacent with the sta tus quo. Negative feelings may have to be confessed to the Lord and for giveness received, but denying to our selves that they exist is not especially virtuous.
with words and music in one volume. One especially for boys and girls antiphonally or in unison. Several carols in solo, or four-part ar rangement, with music including trumpet. Ideal for home, Church, Sunday school or spe cial Christmas Hymn Sings.
72 pages; size 5 ’/a x 7 % inches. 25 cents each; $21.50 per hundred, delivery extra. Order from your bookstore or Dept. KC62 * AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNTON 1816 Chestnut Street Philadelphia 3 , Pa. N EW O LD FA S H IO N ED Christmas Carols (10) ................... $1.00 Resurrection Songs (6) ........................50 Patriotic Songs (3) ..............................50 Children's Songs — Nursery thru Bible Cam p (21) .... 1.00 Dr. Gordon E. Hooker, editorial advisor. Faith missionaries to Israel, the children, and 'whosoever will.' Write; Louise Johnson, 3 0 3 4 Myrtle Avenue, San Diego 4, California.________
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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