David’s Blog

Take this lightly…but it is interesting.

 The other day my son was looking through his Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine and began tearing out the trading cards. There was a "wow, here is Lebron James" and "ooh, look at this, Peyton Manning" and on and on. 

My wife then noticed something peculiar as she read the back of each card. On the back one can find the stats and interesting facts along with hometown and athletic descriptions. However, on the girl's sports cards something was missing. There was "height" listed but not "weight." So we looked back at one of the guys and we found "6' 6" 230lbs then back to the women's card,  6' 1" _______. 

I don't tend to make issues out of equality or inequality between the genders and this is no different. God made male and female so at some levels we are very different. In fact, I would be kind of scared to know that some of those ladies could probably beat me up. Anyway in today's age of equality and information saturation it made me wonder and that is what a blog is about. 

Remember when you were in elementary school and you gave Valentines to everyone? I didn't either until my kids had theirs out the other night. Maybe I had blocked it all out or I've found my lifelong Valentine.

We were all sitting around the table when our oldest said he couldn't send some of the cards he had picked out because the card was too "revealing." He seemed to think that if he gave one of these cards the girls would think he was in love with them, "you're a hit!" "go for the goal!" "shoot straight!"(all sports related phrases), . And I thought only females thought about such communication implications. I was thinking, "There's no way they are going to think that!"

However, thinking and communicating clearly and correctly are crucial in relationships. This is especially true when it comes to love since there are so many lessor definitions such as "I love ice cream or I love that hot, new band…" Speaking your message and then having it truly heard are clearly the most basic pieces of communication. Admittedly that is probably one of my biggest challenges. I may say one thing and do another or I may say something and assume the other knew what I meant.

One of the keys to love is communicating. Picking the "right" Valentine day card is important but communicating  love clearly and over a length of time will improve the translation of your words. Speak it this week to those you love and demonstrate it every chance you get. It's okay to worry about the card; just be sure you get her/him one.

I think I laughed out-loud when the news anchor made that statement. Duh, I thought. The story went on to mention this "side effect" occurred as a result of a treatment for another condition or illness. The doctors reported that one effect of the treatment actually killed cells in one part of the brain and those that were smokers lost their desire to smoke immediately.

Yep, I jumped to the spiritual side of that one in a hurry however, I don't think I would call it brain damage or a side effect. Paul calls it the renewing of the mind in the book of Romans. Just reading through the scripture you can't help but find passages that highlight the importance of the mind in the life of faith. Just a few…Love the Lord your God with all your…mind; I will put my law in their mind; they will know Me; Consider the heavens…; Reckon yourselves dead to sin…; consider it all joy when you encounter various trials…; I pray that you…may have the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

This renewing of the spiritual mind or way of thinking is critical in a world where ideas are persecuted as much as faith is. Tolerance is the cry of a culture that has lost any moral foundation. Unfortunately, almost any idea or way of life contrary to "freedom" is frowned on. But God was well aware of our condition and tendency so he prescribed for us His "w"/Word in more ways than one. Any and every thought taken captive to Him can now result in a side effect that is eternal. So, more important than any medicine is the daily dose of God's word placed in your mind. The mind is a terrible thing to waste and even more so as we live for His glory and Kingdom.