Greetings to everyone, the Sheriff Chaplaincy is very glad to be serving alongside this large and wonderful County Team, and are keeping you lifted up in our earnest prayers.
I begin with a story that Dr. Joseph (Joe) Stowell, prior president of Moody Bible Institute, shared on KMBI.
Joe recalled times with his son regarding moments he felt that he may have missed.
He very openly shared about the times when his son was a teenager, and that his yard being kept up was very important to him. Joe wanted his yard to look better than any other yard in the neighborhood.
This impacted the amount of time he invested into mowing the lawn, weeding, and landscaping. To the point where, when his son kept asking him to shoot hoops, he would usually reply “I’m a little busy son let’s do that tomorrow.”
Then, Joe officiated a funeral for a young teenage boy, and upon driving home the loss hit him deeply and he thought about his own son. Upon arriving home, he was looking at his yard and looking at the basketball hoop, yet now through a different perspective; and he realized how important those moments with his son truly were. Joe hoped that he had not missed the moment. He pulled into the driveway and went right up to his son’s room. When he opened the door, and asked his son to go shoot some hoops together, his son said I would love to dad, but I have so much homework, can we do it tomorrow? Joe said, “sure we can son” and shut the door, then he sadly said to himself “I missed the moment”.
I pray we would all get better and better at striving to not miss moments like this, and to meet the moments by being present and engaged every time that it is possible with our kids and family. Amen!
Link to Joe Stoll audio files: Dr. Joseph Stowell | moodyaudio.com
(The rest of this months message is from a very good friend of mine who has since passed away, Ch David Causey, and the JBLM One Year Devotional he put together)
HOW TO INHIBIT YOUR CHILD’S GROWTH
As he expounded on the imitative nature of birds, Isaac Asimov, presents us with a powerful analogy to parenting. He explains: “Many songbirds learn to sing by listening to adult birds of the same species. If separated from the adults, they develop unintelligible warbles rather than normal song patterns. But if taught the song of another species, a bird often can pass the foreign language on to its offspring. In one experiment, a male bullfinch raised by a female canary learned a canary’s song to perfection. When it was later mated to a female bullfinch, its children and later its grandchildren could sing like a canary.”
What is true of songbirds is true of humans regarding our imitative nature and our tendency to learn from our parents – or from those who “fill in” for parents – the television, Rap or Rock and Roll artists, or icons of our popular culture. Children need guidance on how to live and in the absence of good guidance will follow bad guidance.
The great English poet, critic, and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was visited by a man who had a pet theory about raising children. He stated, “I believe children should be given a free rein to think and act and thus learn at an early age to make their own decisions. This is the only way they can grow into their full potential.” Coleridge made no comment but simply led the man to his garden. “Come see my flower garden,” he said. The opinionated visitor took one look at the overgrown garden and remarked, “Why, that’s nothing but a yard full of weeds.” The wise poet declared, “It used to be filled with roses, but this year I thought I’d let the garden grow as it willed without tending to it. I let it have free rein to let it reach it’s full potential. This is the result.”
Children, like gardens, will not automatically flourish. They need our love, attention, and discipline daily. And, like songbirds, children can only learn what is taught and exemplified before them. The Scriptures tell us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). (Adapted from Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts and Raymond McHenry, Something to Think About)
PRAYER: Dear Father in heaven, please give me the courage, strength, and love to train and nurture my children as I should. In Jesus Holy Name, Amen.
Blessings from Above, Ch Robert Kinnune