“50% of Christian marriages end in divorce”
“The divorce rate is higher for Christians than non-Christians”
“Young people are leaving the church in mass numbers”
I’ve heard these statistics for a decade now, from church leaders all across America who believe that our nation is quickly dying as a religious power in the world. Unfortunately, most of these numbers are poorly researched and should not be advertised. We should be working hard as a church to win people and disciple them properly, but we should not be doing so out of fear that our way of life is dying…fearful action is no way to pursue the Lord’s work.
Finally, someone has seen fit to stand up and provide good statistics. Sociologist Bradley R. E. Wright is publishing a work based on some more solid studies to help correct some of the statistical errors that our nation has come to believe, and in doing so, he may well change our perception of Christianity.
Keep an eye out for his book, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites … and Other Lies You’ve Been Told
and read the article by Christian Post here, if you want more information…
Tags: bradley, sociology, statistics, wright
Found this today, and loved it. Hope it makes you laugh!
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants; a woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn’t want, but that’s on sale.
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband; a man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes moer money than his wife can spend; a successful woman is one who can find such a man.
To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little; to be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not to understand her at all.
Any married man should forget his mistakes—there’s no use in two people remembering the same thing.
A woman marries a man expecting him to change, but he doesn’t. a man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, and she does.
A woman has the last word in any argument; anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
Any long term relationship requires us to:
- Wade through a few difficult seasons
- Work for many things that are necessary
- Wait on some things that take time
- Watch out for those things that are harmful
- Wave goodbye to personal things that are selfish
Tags: differences, humor, Married Life, men, women
Some things change, and some don’t. My quotable quotes were interrupted for a while, as I made changes in my role and life…but I hope you find their return to be a pleasant surprise in the future. If this is your first time reading the Quotable Quotes, they are a light-hearted weekly post that I’ve passed onto friends from my own sources (none of that forwarded SPAM email we all love so much).
This week’s quotes are selected contents from John C. Maxwell’s Winning with People
“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Five Principles that deal with Trust:
1. The Bedrock Principle: Trust is the foundation of any relationship.
2. The Situation Principle: Never let the situation mean more than the relationship.
3. The Bob Principle: When Bob has a problem with everyone, Bob is usually the problem.
4. The Approachability Principle: Being at ease with ourselves helps others be at ease with us.
5. The Foxhole Principle: When preparing for battle, dig a hole big enough for a friend.
The Bedrock Principle: Am I a Trustworthy Person?
“It is a greater compliment to be trusted than to be loved.” ~ George MacDonald
“A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.” ~ Charles Kingsley
1. Trust begins with yourself:
“This above all: To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” ~ William Shakespeare
2. Trust cannot be Compartmentalized:
“One of the realities of life is that if you can’t trust a person at all points, you can’t truly trust him or her at any point.” ~ Cheryl Biehl
What a person will do with you, he’ll also do to you.
3. Trust works like a bank account:
Positive interactions make deposits, and negative ones withdrawl. A positive balance yields a good relationship, a negative balance will keep you from doing business.
What do you do when a person is untrustworthy?
1. Forgive them.
2. Explain that the violation must never happen again.
3. Remember their better moments.
4. Give them opportunities to rebuild trust.
I’m sure you’ve spent at least a couple hours this past month watching intently as the soccer matches of teams from around the world took place in South Africa. For the first time in history, the World Cup is widely available on TV and on the internet…and the world truly is watching.
The games are definitely filled with mixed emotions for me. There are so many excellent players and such great teamwork among the players that I find it thrilling to watch. In my opinion, soccer is the greatest sport out there: it requires an extreme amount of physical endurance to play nonstop for 1.5-2 hours, it demands that people communicate and interact as a team on the fly (rather than being dependent upon direction from coaches every 5 minutes), and grips the attention and devotion of people all across the world like no other sport.
Unfortunately, it also places a lot of authority on the fallible and limited perspective of 3 referees, who are often dishonest, blind, or deceived without any chance of their being a challenge to their decisions…and it reveals the extreme lengths of cheating and dishonesty that players will go to in order to get a call in their team’s favor. No example is more vivid than the most recent game with Ghana and Uruguay, where the Uruguay player used his hand to knock the game-winning goal for Ghana out of the game, causing Uruguay to win. It’s an illegal move: something I would consider far below a player’s character…and yet we’ve seen plenty of character revealing plays in the last few weeks, as teams will do anything to win.
Well, what can I say? I’ll keep watching. I don’t hate it enough to ignore it. Teamwork, endurance, and skill are too amazing not to watch. I just hope that in my life and in my ministry, I continue to get to work in teams that are as good as these World Cup competitors. Success is a team effort: in my life and in the World Cup. I’m grateful for the teams I have had in my life already: a loving family, an amazing church, great schools, great neighbors, and unbelievable friends.
This picture says it all…thanks to historiclols.cheezburger.com
