If you happen to be married, are you ever tempted to wonder what your life would be like if you had married someone else? When things aren’t going well in your marriage such thoughts may be tempting, but they won’t solve your problems.
When a Christian couple is faced with such questions, they may agonize over the absence of clear counsel in the Bible on the subject, while ignoring the counsel that is there. Maybe the issue isn’t whether or not they married the right person.
This was greatly impressed upon me some years ago by a couple who were considering marriage. There was a significant difference in their ages and family members were concerned that it wasn’t a wise idea. The man and woman were both committed Christians and diligent students of the Bible. They painstakingly researched what the Bible had to say about marriage and reached a significant conclusion. They determined that the Bible said comparatively little about who you marry, but a great deal about the way you treat one another once you are married.
I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter who you marry, obviously it’s a very important decision. But once it’s made, don’t fantasize about what life would be like if you had married someone else. Start demonstrating Christian love to the person you married.
When we ask ourselves, “Did I marry the wrong person?” we are asking the wrong question. We are wondering if we married the wrong person, while God is asking us if we are loving the person we married.
Related Scripture: Ephesians 5:28, 33
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The Road Less Traveled
All of life is a journey filled with decisions. The poet Robert Frost reflects on the impact of those decisions in his poem, The Road Not Taken.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
There is hardly a one of us who has not wrestled with “what if?” What if we had chosen a different road? We are prone to mope around in regret over choosing the wrong road or getting off course. But God is more concerned about the way we walk than the route we take. He cares more about what we do when we recognize the need for a correction, than he does with the fact that we got off course.
The Bible provides direction for our lives. It says, “[God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” You see, it’s not so much which path we take, it’s letting God’s word light our way along that path.
Related Scripture: Psalm 119:105
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
There is hardly a one of us who has not wrestled with “what if?” What if we had chosen a different road? We are prone to mope around in regret over choosing the wrong road or getting off course. But God is more concerned about the way we walk than the route we take. He cares more about what we do when we recognize the need for a correction, than he does with the fact that we got off course.
The Bible provides direction for our lives. It says, “[God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” You see, it’s not so much which path we take, it’s letting God’s word light our way along that path.
Related Scripture: Psalm 119:105
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Power of Purpose
We tend to admire individuals who have a strong sense of purpose in their lives. They seem more confident, their direction is set and at the end of their lives there is a tangible way to measure their success – did they achieve their purpose?
No one better demonstrated the power of purpose than Jesus. The Bible clearly identifies his purpose: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It also says, “[Jesus] came to seek and to save what was lost.” All of Jesus’ decisions and actions were determined by his purpose, not chance. He was born in Bethlehem rather than Baltimore, in the first century rather than in the fifth century. He determined who he would heal, where he would preach and which disciples he would pick. Even the circumstances of his death were determined on the basis of this stated purpose. That is why on the cross, with his arms outstretched, he was able to shout out, “It is finished.” His purpose was fulfilled. He had achieved the mission that he had set out to do.
Major corporations and institutions invest considerable time and money in identifying the purpose of their organization. They recognize the power of purpose. A carefully determined and clearly stated purpose becomes the compass by which everything is directed and the standard by which everything is evaluated. They realize that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
And so it is with our lives. We must decide on our purpose and then live it!
Related Scripture: John 3:17 & Luke 19:10
© 2007 Leith Anderson
No one better demonstrated the power of purpose than Jesus. The Bible clearly identifies his purpose: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It also says, “[Jesus] came to seek and to save what was lost.” All of Jesus’ decisions and actions were determined by his purpose, not chance. He was born in Bethlehem rather than Baltimore, in the first century rather than in the fifth century. He determined who he would heal, where he would preach and which disciples he would pick. Even the circumstances of his death were determined on the basis of this stated purpose. That is why on the cross, with his arms outstretched, he was able to shout out, “It is finished.” His purpose was fulfilled. He had achieved the mission that he had set out to do.
Major corporations and institutions invest considerable time and money in identifying the purpose of their organization. They recognize the power of purpose. A carefully determined and clearly stated purpose becomes the compass by which everything is directed and the standard by which everything is evaluated. They realize that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
And so it is with our lives. We must decide on our purpose and then live it!
Related Scripture: John 3:17 & Luke 19:10
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Monday, June 25, 2007
What's the Point of it All?
I have a riddle for you. What can be absolutely empty when it is completely full? The answer is “life.” Life can be so full of busyness that we are booked weeks in advance. It can be filled to the brim with things to do, places to go and promises to keep, yet be painfully empty on the inside.
Centuries ago King Solomon, the wisest, richest and most married man in history, wrote these words: “Meaningless! Meaningless!…Everything is meaningless.” Solomon had an abundance of money, of insight and of relationships, yet he was overwhelmed with the emptiness of his life.
Many suffer from a lack of purpose in life. You see it in the teenager who doesn’t know where to go to college or what to major in. You see it in the individual who finds no fulfillment in spite of a successful career or the homemaker who manages the house and raises the children yet wonders, “What’s the point of it all?” We’re talking about one of the most significant issues facing each one of us. It’s the question, “What am I supposed to do with my life?”
In the English language our questions begin with the interrogatives, “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?” “how?” and “why?” The crucial one is “why.” It’s in answering the “why” question that you discover your purpose in life. Identifying your life purpose focuses your options. Then, instead of making random selections, you choose your college, your career and your mate on the basis of fulfilling your life purpose.
Related Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-2
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Centuries ago King Solomon, the wisest, richest and most married man in history, wrote these words: “Meaningless! Meaningless!…Everything is meaningless.” Solomon had an abundance of money, of insight and of relationships, yet he was overwhelmed with the emptiness of his life.
Many suffer from a lack of purpose in life. You see it in the teenager who doesn’t know where to go to college or what to major in. You see it in the individual who finds no fulfillment in spite of a successful career or the homemaker who manages the house and raises the children yet wonders, “What’s the point of it all?” We’re talking about one of the most significant issues facing each one of us. It’s the question, “What am I supposed to do with my life?”
In the English language our questions begin with the interrogatives, “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?” “how?” and “why?” The crucial one is “why.” It’s in answering the “why” question that you discover your purpose in life. Identifying your life purpose focuses your options. Then, instead of making random selections, you choose your college, your career and your mate on the basis of fulfilling your life purpose.
Related Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-2
© 2007 Leith Anderson
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