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Key Bible Verse: We fix our eyes. … on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Bonus Reading: Matt. 13:44-46

Many kids wake up to the smell of coffee brewing or the sound of a rooster crowing. My wake-up call was my father's passionate, praying filtering through the house. Sometimes I'd ease downstairs and join him. One knee was usually raised, so I'd slip in underneath, shielded by his body as he pleaded for my soul.

I never caught Dad praying for our happiness. He realized that the pursuit of happiness for its own sake is a frustrating, disillusioning, often futile effort. Happiness usually hides from those addicted to its sugar, while it chases after those caught up in something more lasting than momentary excitement.

I never heard him pray for a bigger house, car, or bank account. Instead, he prayed that our hearts would be ignited and inspired to do things of eternal consequence. "Turn our eyes from the temporal, the physical, and the menial," he prayed, "and toward the eternal, the spiritual, and the noble."

My father never pressured us toward achievement. He knew that the push had to come from inner reserves, not outward designs. He simply dangled before us the possibilities. Thanks to his example, we sometimes took the bait.

—John Ashcroft in Lessons from a Father to His Son

Respond: What does my family sense my priorities are?

Thought to Apply: Do not have your concert first and tune your instruments afterward. Begin the day with God.

—J. Hudson Taylor (China missionary, 19th century)

Adapted from: Lessons from a Father to His Son (Nelson, 1998)

For your convenience, Lessons from a Father to His Son is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord Jesus, thank You for using the hard times of life to rearrange my priorities.

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