Mr Potato Head, a Bible Verse, and Our Division Problem

Potato Head

 

Mr. Potato Head has been around a long time.

I remember playing with one way back in my childhood.  Mr. Potato Head could help illustrate a Bible verse that can help us overcome one of our gravest problems.

The Problem

We have a problem today with division.  Not the math kind, but the relationship kind.  Families, churches, and in a greater sense all of society has difficulty solving division problems.

Family members remain at odds with one another because they refuse to take the difficult path to conflict resolution.  Churches split and the cause of Christ suffers because members value their pride more than resolution.  Myriad examples exist of the deep divisions in our society. Never before have I felt pulled in so many directions by others expecting me to “side” with their cause.

Whether a family squabble, church dissention, or societal division, I see a trend that people have lost their objectivity.  Too many try to pull splinters out of the other side’s eye with a huge limb protruding from their own.

The Solution

The BEST Math books provided in the back of the book answers to the the exercises at each chapter’s end.   The answer to all of life’s division problems are not in the back of the book, but in the text. One particular Bible verse, with Mr. Potato Head’s expert illustrative assistance, can provides the answer we need.

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Why We Fail to Listen to God

While not everyone suffers with hearing loss, we all suffer from time to time with “listening loss.”  We fail to pay attention, we miss an important announcement, we disregard a warning siren and all of a sudden we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of an otherwise avoidable mess.  We need to make sure we are listening…ESPECIALLY to God.

listening-dogThe good news is that God speaks to us and personally interacts with us; the bad news is sometimes, we fail to heed His voice. The Bible includes many accounts of persons who either disregarded or ignored God’s instructions and subsequently suffered the consequences.

In His landmark book and Bible study, Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby shares four ways that God speaks to us. Read More

How Your Ears Can Speak Volumes

One of baseball great Yogi Berra’s famous quotes was “you can observe a lot just by watching.”  I like to paraphrase his quote by saying, “you can hear a lot just by listening.”  Listening is a lost art.  We all want to be heard, but no one wants to take the time to genuinely listen.  Yet, listening can make our speaking so much more effective.

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I have a friend who will ask you a question, but before you have the time to answer it completely he asks another – sometimes totally unrelated – question.  Really, a conversation with him can be quite exhausting and usually seems unproductive. Because of this scenario, our conversations are mostly superficial and we never discuss deeper topics and issues.

I believe that God created us with design and intention, and as a result He purposefully gave us 2 ears and one mouth.  How would our conversations be different if we listened TWICE as much as we spoke?  Consider James’ admonition to us: Read More