"A man bought a talking centipede for a pet and made a little box for its home. The following Sunday he invited the centipede to go to church. When he didn’t come out of the box he repeated the question. When there was still no response, he asked a third time and the centepede repied, “I heard you the first time, I was just putting on my shoes.”
If you’ve ever had a problem getting out the door on time for church or school because of lost children’s shoes, you know how frustrating that can be. Lost shoes put everyone in a bad mood that can hinder worship and cause unnecessary family tensions.
The Bible says a wise man will forsee evil coming and take appropriate action. In this case, that could mean something as simple as making sure everyone has their shoes lined up by the door the night before.
Making a rule that no one goes to bed without shoes in place will produce family harmony and redeem the time.
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"Yesterday, a can of paint spilled on the floor of my car and I can honestly say it didn't stress me one bit. That's because our family car, which is just a little bigger than a roller skate, is 14 years old. It has a cracked windshield and lots of rust. The interior is already so far gone, that a quart of paint on the floor just didn't matter.
You might wonder why I don't buy a better car. My answer is simple. I bought this car four and a half years ago for $850. I've driven it all over the country since then and had only one repair, which was about $50. That means I've spent an average of $200 a year on my car or approximately 1.5 cents per mile.
If I bought a new car, I would have to pay for it, which means spending more of my time earning money to buy the new car. I'd rather put that time into the ministry and drive a ""stress free"" car, which redeems the time.
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"When is it better to fail than to succeed? You might answer, “Never! I’d always rather succeed than fail!” And that might have been my response also, until I came across a quote recently that made me think deeper about failure and success. It read, “I do not fear failure as much as I fear succeeding at what will not matter in eternity.”
That is a great little piece of advice. Many people spend all their time climbing the ladder of success only to discover they leaned it against the wrong wall. They were very successful and they may have even enjoyed the climb, but in the end they only met with disillusion and disappointment.
God has an eternally significant purpose for your life and for your time today. It would be much better to experience a failure while following His plan than to experience success in your own. Being successful at the wrong thing can be very dangerous because it is actually a trap to keep us from redeeming the time.
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"A friend of mine who does air condition repair told me about a lady that kept complaining to her boss that it was always too hot or too cold in her workspace. So my friend mounted a thermostat on the wall in her office. But, he didn’t wire it into the AC system. He just stuck it to the wall. But, since the lady had her own thermostat, she was now happy.
Although she didn’t realize it, what she actually had was a thermometer, not a thermostat. There’s a big difference. A thermometer tells the temperature, but it can’t do anything with the information. Thermostats collect information and produce change.
There’s a lesson here for those who want to be used of God. It’s easy to spend time on “thermometer” activity. That is, gathering information by reading or internet browsing that is interesting, but not applicable.
Try instead to be a thermostat. Look for information you can apply, especially information to help you serve the Lord. That information will redeem the time.
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