The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon
- KIDS: “I AM MY OWN AUTHORITY” “There are three parenting styles that play into this authority lie: the Friend Parent, the Absent Parent, and the Inconsistent Parent.
Friend Parents are so devoted they almost worship their kids. They want to be their children’s friends! They allow their teens to do what they want, believe they can do no wrong, and have a hard time saying no. These parents either don’t bother teaching standards for right and wrong, or they do try to establish such standards but in confusing ways. These children don’t experience much authority, if any, and this freedom communicates to them, You don’t need authority. You can do what you want.
The children of Absent Parents draw the same conclusion but for different reasons. These parents just aren’t there for their kids. They’re too busy with work or with personal problems, or they can’t be bothered. They force early independence upon their children and cause them to parent themselves. Essentially these teens become their own authority by default.
Inconsistent Parents might treat children like friends one minute, but not the next. They may be heavy-handed one day, but then lighten up as they feel guilty over the way they just responded to their children. Sometimes they may order their kids around and at other times be completely absent. These children have a warped view of authority and may think, If that’s what authority is and does, I don’t need any. In these situations, the children will be confused, drifting, and argumentative.”
Excerpt From: Koch, Kathy. “Screens and Teens.”
- WE WILL KNOW “We will know one another in heaven. In fact, the Bible says we will be known as we are known. When Peter, James, and John stood with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared before them in their glorified forms and were readily recognized (Matthew 17). No one will have to introduce me to Paul or Peter or anyone else— and these heroes of the faith will know you and me. It is one thing for us to know the president of the United States, but it is quite something different for him to know us, to call us by name. In heaven we will know and be known.
Recently a NASA scientist speculated about the possibility of alien life on other planets. I have news for him. There is alien life on our planet. Those of us who are Christians are aliens in this world for “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). We are citizens of another kingdom. We are simply passing through on our way home.”
Excerpt From: O. S. Hawkins. “The Joshua Code.”
- COLD STAGE “A husband’s reactions to his wife’s colds during the first seven years of marriage: 1ST YEAR: “Sugar Dumpling, I’m really worried about my baby girl. You’ve got a bad sniffle and there’s no telling about these things with all the strep going around. I’m putting you in the hospital. I know the food’s lousy, but I’ll be bringing your meals in from Rozzini’s. I’ve already got it all arranged with the floor superintendent.” 2D YEAR: “Listen, Darling, I don’t like the sound of that cough and I’ve called the doctor to rush over here. Now you go to bed like a good girl, just for Pappa.” 3D YEAR: “Maybe you’d better lie down, Honey. Nothing like a little rest when you feel lousy. I’ll bring you something. Have we got any canned soup?” 4TH YEAR: “Now look, Dear, be sensible. After you feed the kids, do the dishes and mop the floor, you’d better rest.” 5TH YEAR: “Why don’t you take a couple aspirin?” 6TH YEAR: “If you’d just gargle or something instead of sitting around barking like a seal all evening…” 7TH YEAR: “For Pete’s sake, stop that sneezing. What are you trying to do, give me pneumonia?”
Excerpt From: Hodgin, Michael. “1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking.”
- FACEBOOK “Do less Facebook and spend more time with [your] face in a book.” – K. Koch
- PROPRIETY “While it may seem outdated or paranoid, and often is inconvenient, I submit that a married person is wise never to ride—or work, travel, dine, etc.—alone with a member of the opposite sex.
My informal manifesto to our first woman executive ran something like this: “We will never meet alone with the door closed. If at the end of a day we are the last two in the office, one of us goes home. No lunches or dinners alone together. No shared rides to the airport, and no sitting together on the flight” (forfeiting valuable pre-meeting time). “When renting cars out of town,” I said, “we’ll rent two—our client will reimburse us for one, and our firm will pay for
the other.”
Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”
- ALL THERE IS? “My father used to tell the story of a discussion with a law school
student about his future plans. The conversation went something like this:
“Son, tell me about your plans after law school.”
“I hope to get a job with a good firm and start making some money.”
“That sounds fine. And then what?”
“Well, at some point, and hopefully not too late, I want to get married.”
“I hope you do, son. And then what?”
“I want to get a nice house and start a family.”
“Of course, and then?”
“And then I want to raise my kids in good schools and earn enough money to save for a second home.”
“Right . . . right. What then?”
“Then I hope to be making enough money to slow down and take vacations with my wife and children.”
“And then?”
“Well, I guess I’d like to see my kids get married and start their own families. I’d like to see them become independent and financially secure.”
“Good goals, all. But what then?”
“If I’ve taken care of myself, I can hope to live long enough to raise my grandchildren. I hear that’s even better than having children.”
“I hear that, too. Then what?”
“Well, I hope I’ll be healthy enough to enjoy my later years, maybe travel some with my wife and see the world. I want to make the most of retirement and pass along my money to my children so they can benefit as I have.”
“And then?”
The young man paused. “I guess, eventually . . . I’ll die.”
“Yes, you will. And then what?”
The compelling thing about this story is that it chronicles the standard-issue American Dream. Who doesn’t identify with some or most of the scenic overlooks on this young man’s life path? Maybe you’ve long since graduated from college, married happily, are well into your career,
and just bought a vacation home. Maybe you’re already blessed with grandchildren and an investment portfolio Charles Schwab would like to see. But somewhere on the inexorable line of time, every one of us will face the final “and then what?”
What would your answer be?”
Excerpt From: DeMoss, Mark. “The Little Red Book of Wisdom.”
- FAMILLIONAIRE “In the 1980s it was fashionable to put the family aside for the greater good of the family. Accumulate more for their benefit. But this was a myth of the highest order. Families who put financial success ahead of emotional success get shortchanged. A famillionaire is a person who finds his/her fortune in their family by being true to themselves.
Author Joan Peters says that 50 percent of marriages end in divorce when couples do not balance their lives at home with the demands of work.
In the end, the biggest thought about your career has to be what it is and what it is not. It may be your livelihood, but your family is your life. If you’re smart, you’ll never forget the distinction.”
Excerpt From: Reiman, Joey. “Thinking for a Living.”
- “NATURE’S LAW” “Americans know, the Declaration of Independence declared not only the colonies’ independence from Britain, but also a dependence on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” These had been defined by historic legal writers, such as Sir William Blackstone, as the laws that God had established for the governance of people, nations, and nature. Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law, the primary law book of the Founding Fathers, defined “the laws of nature” as the will of God for man. Blackstone explained:
“Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. . . . And consequently . . . it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature. . . . It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this. . ..”
Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”
- PC THINKING “Jesus sacrificed Himself for us because we did NOT deserve it; not because we deserved it, which is what political correctness would say. When a culture and its populace become more self-obsessed, they will do a lot to keep that train rolling. If there’s
truth beyond us, we have to answer to it. Jesus claimed to be that truth. And people did not want to answer to Him then, and they don’t want to answer to Him today.
Our current generation is being raised to believe that there is no moral plumb line (absolute truth), so we do whatever we “feel” is right based on any number of influences we allow into our lives to mold and shape those beliefs. PC thinking opens the floodgates of the dam because of the belief that there are no boundaries. Problem is, if anything goes, you’ll get drowned in the
aftermath.
That’s what we are experiencing today. We are being drowned in the flood of moral decay, and I’m not talking about sex, drugs, or rock ’n’ roll. I’m talking about the decay that comes as a result of deciding there’s no longer “true” truth. And when that happens, the crumbling begins.”
Excerpt From: Battaglia, Joe. “The Politically Incorrect Jesus.”
- WHAT’S IN A NAME? “If you were forced to drink a beaker of dihydrogen oxide, your response would probably be negative. If you asked for a glass of water, you might enjoy
it.”
Excerpt From: Al Ries & Jack Trout. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.”
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