My son Brendan is a bit of a brainiac. We started to notice that he was unique when he was about three-years-old. That’s when he started to read sentences and point out words like “Australia” on the globe.
I remember taking him into a toy store one day and picking up a book from the “A Bug’s Life” series. I was sitting in the front seat looking through the book when he said, “It’s too bad we didn’t get number 4, A Crown for Adda.”
Surprised I turned around and looked at him, “How did you know that?” I asked.
“There was a list in the store.” he replied. And then he went on to list all ten of the books in order. Turning the book around, I saw the list, and sure enough he got them all.
He’s almost 30 years old now, attending university, and consistently getting the top marks in his class. But here’s the thing about Brendan, he couldn’t care less if he’s at the top of the class. He doesn’t want a gold medal, and he doesn’t want recognition. What he does want, however, is to be the best he can be. That goes for school, as well as his health. He eats well, reads a book every two days, and whether it’s freezing outside or boiling hot, Brendan gets up in the morning and goes for a run. With anything, he has one goal in mind–to be better today than he was yesterday.
As I got to thinking about him today, I was reminded of the words that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians Chapter 9,
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24, NIV)
Paul’s not talking about competing with other Christians there. We don’t step over others to get to the top, we cheer them, on as they’re running the race.
Paul’s telling us to run our best race. He encouraging us to use every God-given gift in the best way we know how. To live to our full potential, like an athlete who vigorously and faithfully trains. To persistently strive for the mastery. To reach for the prize set before us.
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Tilling the Soil
Read The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30.
Planting Hope
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24, NIV)
Darlene Schacht and her husband Michael live in Manitoba Canada where the summers are beautiful and the winters are cold. Together they’ve come to learn that relationships aren’t always easy, but that marriage, the way God intended it to be, is a treasure worth fighting for.
She began her publishing journey about twelve years ago when she pioneered one of the first online magazines for Christian women, known at the time as “Christian Women Online Magazine.” After three years, Darlene left CWO to blog as a solo author at Time-Warp Wife Ministries.
It was also during this transition that she worked alongside actress Candace Cameron Bure to write the NYT Best-Selling book, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness. Reshaping it All was the winner of both the 2011 USA Best Book Awards and the 2012 Christian Reading Retailers Choice Awards.
Author of more than 15 books, Darlene continues to write and to minister to her readers through her blog at TimeWarpWife.com.
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You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht
The Time-Warp Wife