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Voice
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You won’t find a good man while you rescue leeches…….
17 Aug 2011 by Rod Smith / No Comments
“I divorced but my ex-husband continued to live me. I fell a man who stated texting me. He was living with his ex wife. I got him a place and did everything for him. He cheated and was also sleeping with his ex. I walked away but still wonder why this happened to me. My ex made my life hell and then this man was worse.
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Wedding sermon – resist the messy merger
14 Aug 2011 by Rod Smith / No Comments
Dear Bride and Groom:
Don’t get lost in marriage. Get found.
Don’t lose your voice. Ambitions. Uniqueness.
Rather, really, find them all.
Many men and women get lost within their most intimate relationship. Don’t. Resist the messy merger, so you may retain your marriage.
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The power of authentic humility
07 Aug 2011 by Rod Smith / No Comments
Humility is an appealing quality in a leader or a co-worker. It is oft promoted as a quality worthy of cultivation – and then often misunderstood, and replaced by twisted, manipulative arrogance posing as humility.
Humility is not hiding, avoiding, shying away from others, assuming that others are talented while you are not. It is not sheepishness or a way to escape the responsibilities that come with being naturally talented – as we all are.
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10 Commandments (no 15!) for Healthy Christian Families
02 Aug 2011 by Rod Smith / 1 Comment
“Don’t eat your children” as many Christian families are inclined to do…..
This morning a South African pastor wrote and asked me for my “10 Commandments for Families” for a sermon he will preach this weekend. Let’s all help him by adding to my list through “comments” …….. here are mine:
Fifteen guidelines for a Health Christian family
(I am going to assume you are already fully engaged in the basics)
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My sons have learned from their father to be cruel to me…..
01 Aug 2011 by Rod Smith / 1 Comment
“My two children (male teenagers) have learned from their father to be unkind and often cruel to me. They will mimic my voice as he does if I give them instructions and they will laugh at my face. He knows they are copying him but he can’t do anything about it. They know how he treats me. I feel ganged up on in my own house. Please help.”
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Verbal log-jam
When I was a boy I’d endlessly practice the fluent delivery of my name but it seldom flowed easily from my lips. As if it was new news to me, adults pointed out my stutter. Perhaps they thought I was beginning, at that precise moment, for the first time in my life to spit from the mouth, twist at the neck, jig my head back and forth trying to expel some inane statement log-jammed between my gut and my throat.
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Life in our beloved 122
If the inside of a house (outside, too, I suppose) is a metaphor of the lives of the people who live in it – which is something I once read somewhere – gosh, are we in trouble. Our house is a mess.
I consistently clean it room by room, thinking often of the legend that the Golden Gate Bridge that says there’s some guy constantly painting it. I feel for him. While I am sure the view is wonderful I must believe that the poor guy whose doing it daily from one end to the other must find the wind and the weather quite a challenge.
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Being a white South African can come with complications
Being a white South African reared under Apartheid is no simple matter. It permeated everything for me. While I do not pretend to have been a political activist, I was always cognizant that my privileges, simply a result of being born white, were unmerited, and most unfair especially when enjoyed at the expense of others who were not. I think this unsettling truth (for I took advantage of my station in life) was somewhat of a companion to me from the age of about six or seven.
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Location, location – remembering winter in August
We live very close to our school and church, so close we can hear the school bell from our kitchen and the church bells in my bedroom.
Sometimes we walk to both and we don’t see the car for days.
I like it. I like not having to get in and out of the car. I like not having to negotiate traffic, something as synonymous with life in the USA as Disney, Fast Food, and the Fourth of July.
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Ready to adopt?
If you wait until you are ready to adopt a child you never will because you will never be ready. The baby, and only the baby, will make you ready. Reading the right books will be helpful, but “ready” magically comes upon you when a real baby is sleeping in your arms or crying in the middle of the night. If you are not ready to change diapers – and I always am amused at the big deal about this non-issue – being unprepared will last only as long as a clean diaper.
Life inside the Smith household
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