Don’t Tell Your Children They’re Great; Teach Them to Work Hard

In this post, Casey McCall notes, “For Paul grace and hard work were never in conflict. He worked harder because of grace. Grace produced his energy to toil. When he was critiqued by those who boasted in intellectual gifts and rhetorical skills, Paul responded by sarcastically boasting in his labors and sufferings (2 Cor. 11:23-29). He would rather boast in the things that showed his weakness (2 Cor. 11:30) because those things reminded him and everyone around him that he needed the grace of God.”

Fruitfulness and Usefulness

Tim Challis makes the case that fruit that is not useful is not really good fruit. He writes, “There are a number of ways in which a tree and a Christian bearing fruit are similar, but perhaps most notably this: Though fruit is beautiful, it is not meant to be looked at or admired, but given to others. An apple tree heavy with perfect fruit is a wonder to behold. But it does a starving person no good if he cannot reach out and take its fruit and be nourished by it. A sunflower is one of the most beautiful of all flowers, especially when in a field surrounded by millions of others. But they do our hungry bodies no good if we cannot pluck the seeds and eat them. And in much the same way, the Spirit does not cause us to bear fruit so we can look spiritually beautiful while keeping all the good of it to ourselves. He causes us to bear fruit so we have something to give to others, some way to bless them, some way to nourish them as they walk the weary road of life.”

Assume the Best of Others

Cynicism can be come a creeping infection that will destroy. The author of this post, “Cynicism and suspicion, I know firsthand, crawl into our minds and make us traitors to ourselves, dangers to our families, and toxins to our churches. Our suspicions can make us strike at those dearest to us. They contain a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more we suspect, the more reasons we find to suspect; the more we distrust, the more reasons we find to distrust. Every creak of the floor becomes a burglar.”