On Azimuth

  23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24 English Standard Version                Before I start today, I want to take care of a couple of housekeeping issues. First of all, please do not think that I’m particularly good at the things that I’m sharing. Though Christy and I enjoy what I consider to be a very good marriage, I’m far from the model husband. Before we married, I would have described myself as unselfish and easy-going. Once we started keeping house, after the honeymoon, I discovered that I was actually quite selfish and prone to demanding that things go my way. Through the years with help from the Lord and a loving patient wife, I’ve grown and become better; but, I still have rough edges t...

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:22 English Standard Version                Kindness was one of the character traits that made more than one appearance on the input I got from women. Sadly, 0ur current culture does not value kindness. As an officer in the Army, my Officer Evaluation Reports listed dedication, responsibility, loyalty, discipline, integrity, moral courage, selflessness, and moral standards as the character traits my superiors were to evaluate in me. A later revision listed honor, integrity, courage, loyalty, respect, selfless service, and duty. Though kindness certainly helped a commander and leader, the Army did not consider it an important character trait in an officer. A casual glance at our political social-media driven world reveals an appalling lack of kindness in any kind of public intercourse. The business world eschews kin...

  28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28 English Standard Version                One of my best friends in the Army exemplified this passage. Evidently, he did so in the context of his marriage as well. Knowing that he and his wife enjoyed a good, long-lasting, marriage, I asked his wife what character traits she respected. In her reply, I found this wonderful phrase, “A good husband should be a leader, not a boss.” In that short sentence, she encapsulated what kind of man a good husband is. Sadly, most of us reach for the boss and not the leader character trait. Unfortunately, too many of us think a lot about the passage in Ephesians 5 which tells wives to “be in submission” to their husbands, rarely giving much thought to what kind of husbands we are. Are we a boss, or are we a leader?       ...