Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
The Book of Clem Theme for this Week: Putting Purpose in Your Life Thursday, February 28, 2002
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January/February 200251The Book of ClemTheme for this Week: Putting Purpose in Your Life The Book of Clem Theme for this Week: Putting Purpose in Your Life Thursday, February 28
Key Bible Verse: Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work” (John 4:34). Bonus Reading:John 4:4–8, 27–38
In 1996 I left the Coast Guard to go into ministry with Mercy Ships, the sea-going arm of Youth with a Mission. Since this is a volunteer organization, I’d be required to raise my own support. While preparing to leave active duty, my Coast Guard supervisor—who genuinely liked me and cared about what would become of me—asked me all the usual questions: What about tuition for my children’s college? What about retirement?
He wasn’t really asking so much as stating, “You’ll have no money for your kids’ college tuition, no way to retire and settle down.” It was as if he were writing the final chapter of my life!
I answered that the Lord had been faithful to me, that I’ve done some wonderful things—and that The Book of Clem wasn’t finished. God will write the final chapter.
Since that conversation, I’ve been reminded again and again that life in the Lord is dynamic and ever-changing. Yet many Christians set stability and retirement as their goals. What they don’t realize is that realizing stability, or achieving retirement are all just chapters in the book, just ports on the voyage, not the final chapter or destination.
—Clement Ketchum in Command
My Response: To make sure my career plans aren’t so “set in concrete” that God can’t steer me, I’ll …
Thought to Apply: Choose a goal for which you’re willing to exchange a piece of your life. —Source unknown
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