Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (p. 43). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And it is the little things in life that really can make the difference. Mark says, “And that little hyphen makes all the difference in the world. There is no situation under the sun in which your ability to respond can be taken away from you. You may not control your circumstances, but you control your reactions to them.” He goes on, “Taking response-ability doesn’t mean admitting fault. It means making the most of any and every situation you find yourself in. And that requires tremendous willpower in difficult circumstances.” He asks, “What do you do when your marriage is falling apart at the seams? When your work environment goes from bad to worse? When an addiction spins out of control?" He says, “First of all, take heart.” John 16:33 says, “In t

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (p. 19). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark says, “Teddy Roosevelt was a fighter, no doubt. But he was also a thinker. And that’s part and parcel of playing the man— brains, and brawn. Roosevelt was a gentleman and a scholar, modeling the second virtue of manhood. He knew more about more things than perhaps anyone of his era. But the more you know, the more you know how much you don’t know! True knowledge results in profound humility, which fuels childlike wonder. Mark goes on, “This virtue certainly isn’t exclusive to men, but I find it more lacking in men than in women. At some point, most men lose their childlike sense of wonder. That’s the day we stop living and start dying. And while that may sound somewhat sentimental, it’s actually a stewardship issue. Later Mark says, “A big man knows how small h

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (p. 13). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) That is so true, isn’t it? Mark says, “One of my annual rituals is choosing a verse of the year. The verse I chose a few years ago was Proverbs 19: 11: ‘It is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.’ It was the same year I released a book, The Circle Maker , which has sold more copies than any of my other books but has also garnered its fair share of criticism. It’s no fun being falsely accused of false teaching or false motives. And I could have swallowed that pill and let it poison my spirit, but I made a decision to overlook the offense. My goal that year was to be unoffendable . “Don’t let an arrow of criticism pierce your heart unless it first passes through the filter of Scripture. (I first heard this idea from Erwin McManus. So good. So true.)   No one is abov