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
Haug Heaven Wasn't Theme for this Week: Prayer Cover Thursday, May 16, 2002
1 of 1
May/June 200253Haug Heaven Wasn'tTheme for this Week: Prayer Cover Haug Heaven Wasn't Theme for this Week: Prayer Cover Thursday, May 16
Key Bible Verse: In thy presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11, NASB). Bonus Reading:Psalm 42:1–11
We'd been planning our cross-country motorcycle trip for nearly a year. We flew to Mil-waukee, the birthplace of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, where 25 men in our group picked up brand-new Harleys. Five of us, who already owned bikes, trucked them ahead to Milwaukee so we could ride with the group. We rode across Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, through the Black Hills, and on out to Yellowstone. Some days the weather was perfect. On others we rode through thunderstorms and high winds. It was an adventure.
But early in the trip I recognized that I wasn't enjoying it as much as I'd anticipated. I tried to get a handle on why. I began to think about how I'd been regularly "traveling" into the presence of God over the previous few months. I realized that the richness of the hours spent in this inner journey actually eclipsed the excitement of my outer journey.
Fullness of joy is what all men long for. There's only one location in the universe where it's found: in the presence of the Lord. There's one preeminent way to get into the Lord's presence while we're clothed with these mortal bodies—prayer.
—Bob Beltz in Becoming a Man of Prayer
My Response: Have I been depriving myself of fullness of joy?
Thought to Apply: Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other needs; prayer is the beginning of that communion. —George Macdonald (Scottish writer, 19th century)
If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless.
1 of 1
