Day 18: 30-Day True Woman Makeover Challenge,

More Than a List

We send our kids to school. We give them piano lessons. We put them on sports teams. But who’s teaching them about modesty?

• There are formal, structured times to teach your children the ways of God, but more is taught in the course of everyday life using teachable moments and opportunities.

• Ask your children questions so they can discover truth themselves. Then they will have ownership of it and it will be much more valuable.

• If your children’s hearts are to please the Lord and to make choices that are based on the Word of God, then they won’t just conform to a list that you’ve come up with but will become difference-makers in their culture and in their generation.

This is just a taste of what you'll learn from Nancy Leigh DeMoss in the series, “The Attractive Christian Woman.”

Moving on….

If you could cheat on your spouse and know that you would not be caught, would you do it?  This was one of the questions that I heard in a commercial for a new television show.  I don’t remember the name of the show however.  A friend of mine had told me about this show previously.  Evidently they connect you to a lie detector while they ask you these questions.  It is just another silly television show.  However, what caught my attention is the context of the question.  It assumes that the only reason that we would have not cheated on our spouses is because we think we may be caught.

It is not laws that keep people from doing one thing or another for the most part.  It is what’s inside of the person that determines what he or she will or will not do.  If a person is honest then he will tend to do things honestly.  If a person is dishonest then he will tend to do things dishonestly regardless of the laws.  This is why people fight for what is right.  It is simply in them to do that.  For example, the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. could have been much better and perhaps much longer if he hadn’t gone on his civil rights campaign.  He knew it was risky, but he continued on the path.  It was in him.  It was who he was on the inside that caused him to do the things that he did.

Applying Godly discipline to our lives may sound unpopular in this laissez faire age we live in….. but it matters. Applying discipline has to start with the mind for the very obvious reason that the things we do are determined by the things we think.

Therefore, it appears that the real issue to effect change on the earth is not necessarily laws and such.  There must be a change of the inner person.  There has to be a change of the heart.  How do we do this?  How can we change who we are on the inside? 

First of all there has to be a desire to want to change.  A person is not going to change from dishonest to honest if there is no desire to do so.  What could make a person want to change?  Many things may do it.  For example, we may desire to change our eating habits because of health concerns.  With regards to Christianity, a person desires to change because he has seen his plight and realizes that he can do nothing about it.  We desire to get on the narrow way because we realize that the other path will lead us to destruction.  Even there, Jesus said that we have to be looking for it.

Our number one priority is God not the world.  So many professed Christians are seeking the things that the world has to offer at the expense of a relationship with the Lord.  We are taught to seek the new home, luxury car, money, jewelry, etc., but not the Lord.  There is something wrong indeed.

Trust God and live righteously.