Run Over By Good Intentions

RUN OVER BY GOOD INTENTIONS

"Rush through breakfast . . . hurry out the door . . . speed to work .. . punch the clock. Deadlines and demands, busyness and bustle. More productivity needed, higher efficiency demanded. Ratchet up another notch, ricochet off the walls. Finally, saved by the bell. Run to the car. Tear through traffic. Dash in the door. Lunge for the sofa. Collapse in exhaustion.

Speed. Too much speed. We are wheezing and worn out. Our relationships have been starved to death by velocity. Our children lie wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions. Our nanosecond culture is toxic to relationships, as nearly every family knows. Surveys and studies reveal time pressures to be at the top of our relational complaints. No one has the time to listen, let alone love.

Fast-lane families are headed for head-on collisions. They don't have the opportunity to eat together. Shared, unstructured leisure time disappears. Communication suffers, problems multiply, tempers flare. But it takes time to make up. Stress flows downstream. When parents are hurried, children are hurried.We MUST have some room to breathe.

In a slower era, every day and any place, people had time for each other. At the store, the gas station, or the church there was time to visit. At the breakfast table and the dinner table, there was time to visit. Marginlessness, however, finds everyone overcommitted, self-protective, late, and in a hurry. It is time for a change. For the sake of our families, it is time, perhaps, for a slowdown crusade, or a campaign of mellowness. It is time to rediscover the fine art of relational dawdling." from A MINUTE OF MARGIN by Dr. Mark Swenson

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 14; Psalm 89-90; Romans 14

Great Quote: We can be certain that God will give us the strength and resources we need to live through any situation in life that he ordains. The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us. Billy Graham

PLEASE WATCH FOR THE GRAND OPENING OF THE KESWICK THINK VICTORY ONLINE BOOKSTORE THIS WEEKEND -- www.americaskeswick.org