Prioritize Your Priorities

2 Peter 1:10

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁰ Therefore, brothers and sisters, work that much harder to confirm that God has called you and claimed you. If you do this, then you will never fall along the way.

Tom came to the university with a number of Advanced Placement courses. These are classes he took while in high school with special examinations that gave him college credit for them. He also attended two math summer camps where he learned how to reason mathematically, how to prove theorems. He expressed tremendous enthusiasm for doing math and becoming a mathematician. He had learned skills that the average math major learns during his sophomore and junior years in college. Tom wanted to graduate in three years, and we worked out a program that would let him do that. In the middle of his second year at university, he took the very prestigious Putnam examination. He scored better than 80% of the best undergraduate math students in the nation.

[i]

Tom also wanted to earn a major in music. Both majors demand an unusual amount of work and practice outside of class. By the middle of his second year in college, it was becoming evident to me that he was spending a lot more time on his music than he was with mathematics. Because he had tremendous natural ability in math, he was still passing his math classes, but his mastery was slipping. He neglected his homework, which had the gradual result that his abilities to progress in math were slipping and becoming more and more anemic. In the end he graduated with majors in both fields. In music he excelled and went on to one of the most prestigious schools of music in the nation. Meantime, however, he has lost interest in doing advanced mathematics.

In my own life I have a major career in mathematics; I also have commitment to the cause of Christ. I have faith that by the grace of Christ I am saved and will “graduate” into heaven. Peter’s concern is that I run the danger of not putting enough effort into God’s calling in my own life and thereby losing interest in my eternal destiny, to the point that I turn away from my eternal salvation.

Lord, help me invest sufficient time and effort in following You to confirm that You have “called me and claimed me”.

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[i] http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/careers-advice/what-can-you-do-mathematics-degree

Mothers Day and My Good Wife

Proverbs 31:30

The Voice (VOICE)

³⁰ Charm can be deceptive and physical beauty will not last,
    but a woman who reveres the Eternal should be praised above all others.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. Sylvia has been married to me for almost 50 years and a mother for over 45 of those years. She loves the Lord and often spends an hour a day reading his word and meditating on it.

She is widely loved, and her advice and sympathy are often sought. A mother with growing children and living down the street is fighting a battle with breast cancer. She came to Sylvia for support and wisdom. Another woman on our street just lost her job. The first thing she did was to come into our home for sympathy and counsel. Another single mother is seeking answers in her own life, help for an ailing teenage daughter, and watching her beloved grandmother die from advanced liver cancer. Sylvia surprised a homeless former GI in front of the post office the other day by reciting to him his family problems and his desire to help the family. He had opened his soul to her on a previous occasion months ago. He forgot; she didn’t.

While walking around the neighborhood, I often run into people, kids, strangers who will say to me, “Oh, you’re Sylvia’s husband. She is a truly wonderful person.” Often they will proceed to tell me of an incident where her caring love helped them through a bad time.

Sylvia’s influence is not limited to locals. In the past fortnight, she has been on the phone with a widow in Tennessee who has suffered more major health problems than anyone should have. She lost her home in a fire not too long ago. Another widow who is a long time friend phoned from Michigan. This time it was about a grandchild who had to leave church school because of her parents’ financial mismanagement. Sylvia sent a care package to another long time friend who is living with an abusive husband in Canada. Sylvia has the back of our car loaded with her late mother’s clothes to take to a widow in her 70s who is living hand-to-mouth on odd jobs she can find.

Sylvia has her own bank account that she delights in using to help provide, often anonymously, for others in need. She speaks of Adventist Frontier missionaries as though they are her own family members.

Her love for children has led her to produce a CD called Angels by my Bed to bring hope and encouragement to them when their problems loom over their little heads. You can visit her website with the same name.

Thank You, Lord, for a wife who reveres You consistently.

#GOODWIFE #CONCERN #NEIGHBOR #WIDOW #MUSIC #CHILDREN #IE #CALIFORNIA #MINISTRY #BIBLESTUDY