Consider this

           They thought that they were doing the right thing.   Jesus was busy.   He had important things to do and important people to see.   No one asked these people to bring their children to Jesus, so the disciples let them know that they were not welcome.   In fact, the Bible says that they “rebuked” the parents.   “Rebuke” is one of the harshest words used in the word of God.   The “Merriam-Webster” dictionary says that it means “to criticize sharply”.   However, Jesus turned and said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them” (Luke 18:16).             Later on, as they were entering the town of Jericho, a blind man began calling out to Jesus.   Again, it says that the disciples “rebuked him”.    In those days, people believed that physical problems were the result of sin.   Therefore, either this man or his parents had done something that caused God to punish him, so what right did a “sinner” have to call out to Jesus?   However, “Jesus stopped and ordered t

            A minister was visiting a lady in the nursing home and, in an effort to make conversation, he asked her about her childhood.   She replied, "My Dad was horrible to us!   All he did was yell at us and tell us how stupid we were!"   When the visit was over, the minister reflected, "After 94 years, she still hears the voice of her father.   After 94 years of success, failure and everything in-between, she is still carrying the hurtful label that she was given when she was six years old.   She was told she was stupid and she never forgot it!"             Can you relate to that?   People can be mean and the labels and names that they give us can be hard to forget.   In fact, sometimes we hear labels like “lazy, stupid, worthless, useless, weak, weird, failure” (and the list goes on and on) so often that we start to label ourselves that way.   After a while, the weight of those words can be very hard to bear.             But what if we heard some othe

         “I have made impatience a virtue.   I call it urgency, a let’s-get-it-done attitude… (However) it is not a quality that serves me well.   Most things that matter take time.   They cannot be forced or rushed.   They can only be treasured and savoured, or else missed entirely” – Mark Buchanan.            I probably do not have to convince you that most of us are impatient.   All you have to do is watch people waiting for the train to get through town, or see them in a long line at the grocery store to know that we do not like to wait.   In fact, last week someone in my house complained that the microwave was taking too long.   Think about that for a minute.   We have a device that heats food in three minutes and that is still too long to wait!             While we wish we could hurry things along, especially bad things, the truth is that most circumstances just take time.   Often, pushing and forcing things only makes the issue worse.   I have found that out the hard way w