"Putting Out Fires"

Posted: Friday, August 28th, 2015

            There is an old saying we all grew up with called "putting out fires." It was often used when referring to problems popping up all around us that needed immediate attention. If you have ever been involved in a forest fire (I was once), fires keep popping up. You think you have stopped the fire in one place, go to another, and it breaks out again in the first place. Well, it would have been best in the first place the fire had been kept under control, and did not break out. Apply this to circumstances in our lives where we feel like, or actually are, putting out fires. This can be experienced financially, in our families, in the church, or in just about any area of life. We have bills everywhere, our children are running us ragged, disorder in our personal lives is on every hand, and it seems like things keep breaking (physically or mentally).

   Let me apply a remedy to the pressure of putting out fires, in particular in our homes and especially regarding our children. I will give you a maxim that is my own that I have learned over the years.  The degree to which I teach my children what is the right or wrong thing to do in light of coming life circumstances, the less forest fires I have to put out. It is that simple. On the other hand, the more I do not teach the child about how they should act and react to coming things in life, the more fires there are that I have to put out.  It is that simple.

Sign into your account to read the rest of this article. »