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Key Bible Verse: Fathers, don't aggravate your children. If you do, they will become discouraged and quit trying (Colossians 3:21). Bonus Reading: 1 Chronicles 12:16-18,38

Dan and his two teenage sons, Andrew and Erik, took Dan's dad—"Papa"—out for a round of golf. Erik was in great form, but Andrew's shots and putts were inconsistent.

"Slower on the backswing," Dan reminded Andrew. "Keep your head down, son." Andrew wasn't amused by the uninvited coaching. Hole after hole, the frustration between father and son built.

Papa was quiet but not disengaged. On the tenth green, because Andrew's ball was the farthest from the hole, he was first to putt. Andrew carefully lined up his putt, then stood over it, braced for another piece of advice from his dad. "Come on, Andrew," Papa encouraged; "You can do it!"

Andrew hesitated for a moment, then confidently struck the ball. It caught the slope of the green and bent to his left, exactly as he'd planned. Plunk! The ball dropped straight into the hole. The teenager threw his arms in the air and ran straight toward his grandfather for a high five.

His dad stood speechless a few steps away. "I'd given him every piece of instruction I knew to give," Dan told me. "But I forgot to speak any words of encouragement."

—Robert Wolgemuth in The Most Important Place on Earth

My Response: I'll work to balance every criticism I offer with at least two compliments.

Thought to Apply: People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be.—SCUDDER PARKER (speaker)

Adapted from The Most Important Place on Earth (Nelson, 2004) by permission.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, the pressures of raising a family can make me come across as a policeman more than a loving parent. Please help me to communicate the love I feel.

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