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Key Bible Verse: A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! (Psalm 84:10). Bonus Reading:1 Corinthians 13:1-7

I just know I could be more saintly if I had a little more peace and a little less music. When you mount to our bedroom floor, the first thing you'll hear is my older son playing an album by his favorite emo artist—whatever that means. I don't think the artist's voice will last if he continues to sing that loud. In the opposite corner, his sister is playing Avril Lavigne. I realize she has to sing at the top of her lungs to be heard over the emo. But the thing that makes it hard to adjust to is that their kid brother is playing the local hip-hop station over the top of the other two.

Sometimes I think that if I could just ride over the hill on my Honda I could be more noble and pure. I could write poetry and dream dreams and pray prayers. I could make my own music if I needed any … I'd probably be bored and lonely, too.

I don't think God especially wants me to be pious and saintly 'way over on the back of Comer's farm by myself. What He'd probably really like me to do is treat each of the roomers on my floor with kindness and love mixed with a liberal dose of holiness—even when the music is four decibels above the threshold of pain.

—Bob Benson in "See You at the House"

My Response: A situation in which I find it difficult to be godly is …

Thought to Apply: Standing in a church singing a hymn doesn't make us holy any more than standing in a barn and neighing makes us a horse.

—Eugene Peterson (writer)

Adapted from "See You at the House" (Generoux, 1986) by permission.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Prayer for the Week

Lord, I want to remember the weekday to keep it holy. Teach me how.

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