Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

It is impossible to know the future.  So why do we plan for it?

I think that God laughs at our plans for the future, since He can see beginning from end.  So how do we plan for the future when we don’t know it, and try to be in God’s will?

I think that there’s a way where we can have the comfort of a plan while allowing for God to work consistent with the way He’s been at work in our lives. It just takes some more work, and emphasis on what’s really important.

Come with me as we explore planning with God in mind.

I have come across a wonderful devotion that will strengthen your marriage. It is written by one of my favorite ladies, Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies. It is rather lengthy so I am going to split it up a bit. The title is Seven Secrets For Wives. Today I will give you the introduction and I will periodically post one of the seven secrets. I think you will be blessed. Please stop by and learn about each of these seven secrets, take them to heart, look to the Word of God, and be prayerful concerning them, and may your marriages be strengthened, blessed, and honoring to the Lord.

On the 2nd March 2000 Colin and I celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary. Where has the time gone? Colin was 60 years old on the 1st April 2000 (yes, April Fool’s Day!) and I follow next year. In the early years of our marriage I remember attending a silver wedding anniversary of a couple in our church, and I thought they were old! When I planned a Ruby Wedding anniversary (40th) for my parents years ago, I thought they were getting very old! Now it won’t be long before we celebrate our ruby anniversary. But age is more a matter of the mind than years, isn’t it? I feel younger than I ever have in my life. However, I do trust that I have become a little wiser and more mature as the years have gone on.

Colin and I have been blessed with a faithful and committed marriage. I can remember thinking before I married, “What on earth it would be like to live with a person for all your life?” Wow, these years have seemed like one day – and now we’re ready for another 37 years! The following are some of the secrets I have learned over the years. They are all biblical concepts. I am sure you must be getting used to the fact that I always resort to the Word of God for the foundation of my life, so back to the Word we go. Here are seven “S’s” for you.

~Nancy Campbell~

Make sure you check back often for the entire series and please leave your comments. Hopefully we can encourage one another to make our marriages stronger.

I wrote this series to try to give you some background into what has happened to me in the past, with the acknowledgment that this is something that the Lord is continuing His work on me in the present.

It would be one thing if this happened way back when and did not recur, but the fact that I’ve come into many different circumstances where I the underling was placed into a position where I was in charge, only to train someone to replace me and then feel as if the person replacing me is micromanaging me or I have a feeling of superiority where they shouldn’t be one… this prompted me to write of my experience with a look back (and forward) of some bits of advice that I could offer someone going through a similar circumstance, with the hopes that we’ll get it right the next time it happens.

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So what do you do if you have a boss that’s making girls cry, that’s making your life frustrating, and is micromanaging your time together?

If you’re this creative guy you try to make it fun.

So, one day a friend of mine and I—on the same crew—are talking about what’s going on and we ask ourselves:

What would happen if we told our boss that tonight was our last night?

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It’s always difficult to train someone new.  First of all, they may or may not be aware of your culture.  The nomenclature is different, and sometimes you have a propensity to use big words or jargon that you have to define for the new person.

And then there’s training your future manager.

You see, as you probably cannot imagine, I’m a creative guy that sees things in the big picture and can organize activities to come to a logical end.  I like to think I’m a vision guy.

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It was pretty nerve wracking.  I only worked a part time job in my final year of high school, so when I went to college and knew that I would have to work to help pay my college bill, I was hoping to get a position doing Database entry.  The night that they announced the positions, I found that I was going to be placed in the Dining Common at BJU, and I was not looking forward to it.

Fortunately, I was placed in the serving area—as one of the guys that brought the food out of the warmers and placed it in the area to be served.  A job that gave me access to people as well as a chance to demonstrate my ability to get things done.

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I’ve received a number of positive comments on my post “A Life of Doing: Do the Right Thing,” and realized this is exactly the type of post that would work well on Weekend Kindness.

I’m not writing this to make myself look good, but because I’m feeling a new confidence in doing the positive, whether it’s for friends, family, or acquaintences who would be encouraged by knowing they are being thought of and are important to me.

I found the quote below in Reader’s Digest and it has many implications for how we treat the people in our lives.  Too many times we think there is a “window of opportunity” for certain actions, when, in fact, doing the right, or positive, thing has no statute of limitations.

Did your new neighbors move in two months ago and you haven’t met them yet?  Bake some brownies and take them over as soon as you can.

Has it been more than three weeks since an acquaintance’s funeral and you think it’s too late to send a sympathy card to the family?  Send it anyway.  There is no time limit on comforting someone who is grieving.

Did you just find out that guy you see regularly and chat with casually on the golf course had surgery a month ago?  It’s not too late to send a get well card.

Did a niece’s award at school go unnoted?  Send an “I’m proud of you” card to her today.

Take a few minutes to think about what events in the lives of those around you you want to commemorate but thought it was too late – then act on them today.  Everyone likes to know they are are important to someone else.

When in doubt, do the positive. Can’t decide whether you should get all dressed up and go to that party? Don’t know if you should “intrude” on a new neighbor with a homemade welcome cake? Worried that an old lady would find you rude for offering to help her with her grocery bags? Do the positive! Go to the party, bake the cake, help the old lady. A life of doing is better than one of regretting what you didn’t dare to do.