Rehab Job
Theme of the Week: Boosters
James Osterhus
Sunday, June 1, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength (Proverbs 17:22). Bonus Reading:Hebrews 10:24-25
Taking metal shop was required in junior high school. One project was to make an eight-inch-square box from sheet metal. After we'd finished, the teacher had the class line up by his desk, box in hand. As we moved through the line, he took each box, looked it over, graded it, and handed it back.
The sides of my box didn't fully align, and solder had clumped in a couple of corners. The teacher took one look at it, threw it into the trash, and marked an F in his book. From then on, I thought I couldn't make anything.
Years later, at age 28, I bought an old house that was basically uninhabitable. But my wife and I knew we could make it charming. We didn't have enough money to finish fixing it up. So I was forced to do many things myself.
I still remember friends coming into that house. "You are doing a good job, Jim," they exclaimed. "Keep at it!" As my friends sincerely admired what I was doing, my whole perspective on myself as an incompetent builder changed. I realized that I could work with my hands.
—James Osterhus in Bonds of Iron
Adapted from Bonds of Iron (Moody Publishers, Moody Bible Institute, 1994) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Father God, help me to pass the solid encouragement I've received from You on to others who need it.
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