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Key Bible Verse: His father had never interfered with him by asking "Why do you behave as you do?" (1 Kings 1:6).
Bonus Reading:2 Samuel 14:23-33

A couple of days after I took a job as a divisional president with a publisher, I met with Douglas Bryant, the director of marketing for one of my new departments. I'd met Douglas several years be fore, had been impressed with his people skills, and told him I looked forward to working with him. But in the months that followed, Douglas's unwise investment of his dollars and overspending of his budgets became painfully apparent.

My solution to the problem was to distance myself from Douglas. A fairly regular habit of dropping in on him was replaced with avoiding his office. Unhappy with Douglas's performance, I opted to look the other way rather than risk a dent in the company's peaceful appearance. The silence that I thought would mercifully preserve peace actually became a festering wound. It destroyed my friendship with Douglas and the creativity he contributed to our company.

Years after Douglas had cleaned out his desk, I remembered the exhortation Bobbie and I'd heard early in our marriage from John Powell. "There's no such thing as no communication," he said. Even when we're not talking, we're communicating. Fr. Powell had concluded with this gripping comment [today's Thought to Apply]:

—Robert Wolgemuth in Daddy@Work

Are you "communicating" to your family with silence? Take time this week to air things out with you wife and children.

People who destroy their relationship usually destroy it with things that are not said, not with things that are said.

—John Powell (Jesuit priest, author) Adapted from Daddy@Work (Zondervan, 1999).

NOTE: For your convenience, Daddy@Work is available in the ChristianityToday.com Shopping Channel.

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Prayer for the Week

Jesus, show me the ways I need to grow as a communicator. Give me courage and discernment as I speak.

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