Split Vision

“A wise man’s heart guides his mouth.” Proverbs 16:23 

Isn’t it curious how in the midst of a nasty family argument we can shake our bad mood the instant the telephone rings or a neighbor knocks on the door? Have you ever been brought up short by a small voice questioning such a sudden turn to peaches and cream after twenty minutes of fire and brimstone? Sometimes we treat those we love the worst, and kids are quick to recognize this hypocrisy.

Mark Hatfield, a longtime senator from Oregon and the father of four, said his wife once stung him by saying, “I just wish you were as patient with your children as you are with your constituents.” He isn’t alone. We’re all guilty at times of what might be called “split vision”— treating acquaintances with forbearance while losing patience or even heaping contempt on those under our own roof. We assume the worst. We pounce on every shortcoming. We never miss an opportunity to harangue. In the process, we wound the people we care about most.

It’s time we cut one another a little slack at home. If we say our spouses, children, and parents are the most significant people in our lives, we can prove it by showing them the same kindnesses we would bestow on our most honored guests.

Just between us…

• Are we as patient with each other at home as we are with guests and strangers?
• Why do you think we can be so hard on each other?
• How can we encourage each other to avoid this kind of “split vision”? 

Father, open our eyes to see one another the way You do. Forgive us for the laziness and selfishness that so easily sour our family relationships. Help us guard our words and actions so that we may be pleasing in Your sight. Amen. 

From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson
Copyright © 2000 by James Dobson, Inc. All rights reserved.
Illustration from Quiet Times with the one You Love by Art Hunt (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 1998).

SINGING PRAISES

After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: "Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever." As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 2 Chronicles 20:21-22 

The overflow of singing praises amid great difficulties has tremendous spiritual power for helping to win the spiritual battle. Paul and Silas set the biblical pattern in the prison in Philippi. Pastor Jack Hayford enjoys sharing the story as told by his favourite black preacher. Paul and Silas' prison cell singing was heard all the way to the throne room of God. He began to tap his toe to the music. Since heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool; that created an earthquake!!!

Ivan Antonov spent twenty-four years in Russian prison camps for preaching the gospel. He later shared how he survived:

I would sing hymns. I was really glad that I knew so many. I had memorized about one hundred seventy hymns, and in order not to forget them, I reviewed several every day. So over a time, I sang through all of them. I want to emphasize to my young friends that you should worship God with songs and poems and memorize them. They will come in handy...I sang hymns every morning and at night before going to bed...In those quiet [morning] hours, I would go outside in the fresh air and sing hymns of praise to God and pray. Then I went in for breakfast with everyone else.[1]

China’s notable pastor Wang Ming-dao shared upon his release from prison that he frequently sang praises to God to buoy his spirits. The songs that meant the most to him were “All The Way My Saviour Leads Me” and “Safe In The Arms Of Jesus.”

His contemporary, Allen Yuan shared with me two songs which he repeatedly sang aloud throughout his nearly twenty-two years in prison. One was “The Old Rugged Cross” and the other “Psalm Twenty-Seven” from the Chinese Psalter. It was always an emotional highlight to hear him sing these songs. 

RESPONSE: Today I will sing praises to the Lord my God.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to rejoice and sing praises to You, especially when I feel the challenges of spiritual warfare. 

1. Ivan Antonov, “Survival 101: How to prepare for imprisonment,” Prisoner Bulletin (1989), p.13.

Verse of the Day - May 15, 2016

Ecclesiastes 11:5 (NIV) As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 11