Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Max Lucado from his book, How Happiness Happens (p. 24). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We all need to be praised, don’t we? Max says, “Biblical encouragement is no casual, kind word but rather a premeditated resolve to lift the spirit of another person. ‘Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds’ (Heb. 10:24 NIV). The verb consider means ‘to perceive clearly . . . understand fully, consider closely.’ 1 ” Max goes on, “John Trent recalls a story about a young father whose daughter was going through the ‘terrible twos.’ She was cute but strong-willed and almost more than he and his wife could handle. The father decided to take the child out for breakfast and tell her how much they valued and loved her. Over pancakes he told her, ‘Jenny, I want you to know how much I love you, and how special you are to Mom and me. We prayed for you for years, and now that you’re h

A thought by Max Lucado from his book, How Happiness Happens (p. 22). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I did that this morning.   It messed up my routine, but I needed to stop during my walk and let a guy I wave to every morning stop and tell me his story.   And Jesus did that. Max said, “A desperate woman once came to see Jesus. She was out of doctors, money, and hope. But worst of all she was out of friends. Her sickness rendered her ceremonially unclean, cut off from her family and any house of worship. For more than a decade she’d been ostracized from people. Then Jesus came to town. He was on his way to treat the daughter of the synagogue leader. The crowd was thick, and people were pushing, but she was desperate. Threading her arm through the crowd, she reached the hem of his garment. And when she touched the hem of him, the bleeding stopped. ‘“Who touched me?’” Jesus asked’ (Luke 8:45 NIV). The woman shrank

A thought by Max Lucado from his book, How Happiness Happens (p. 21). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) That is so true. Right before this Max said, “If a soccer coach wants to increase the odds of a player missing another goal, he should get angry and shout at her. If the coach wants the player to return to the game with better vision, he should give her a word of affirmation. ‘People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be.’ 1 “A little boy said these words to his father: ‘Dad, let’s play darts. I’ll throw, and you say “‘Wonderful!”’” Max then says, “Every person needs to hear a ‘wonderful.’ Here is why. A dis couragement conspiracy is afoot. Companies spend billions of dollars to convince us that we are deficient and inadequate. To sell face cream, they tell us that our faces are wrinkled. To sell new clothes, they pronounce that our clothes are out of fashion.