In his book Broken in the Right Place, Alan Nelson writes:
My boys are at the age when they like gliders, the cheap, balsa wood airplanes. The thin, light wood is prestamped so that you punch out the airplane and attach the wings to the fuselage. The balsa wood is supposed to break off at the grooves. Sometimes it does not. Occasionally you splinter or break off part of the airplane by accident. When this happens, the planes don't fly as well as they are designed to. Life is delicate, like the balsa plane. When we break in the right areas we will fly higher and smoother than when we break in the wrong places.
When we are broken in the wrong places, we become self-centered. Our broken emotions keep us from loving effectively. We shun future settings where further hurt could take place, like significant relationships, churches, and goal-setting. Or we react defensively to the hurt by overachieving and living a life of abandon...When we are broken in the wrong places, we do not see the fruit of the Spirit.
Look around you. The older you get, the more you see people who have lost the twinkle in their eyes. They have endured tough circumstances, but not successfully...Being broken in the heart, in the soul, where God can do something with your will and character, is a matter of converting, sanctifying the actual pain, and making it a part of the healing salve. You cannot do it on your own. God must. But you must be willing.
Aging, Fear, Self-Centeredness, Testing, Trials
Ps. 51:17; Rom. 5:2-5; James 1:2-4
My boys are at the age when they like gliders, the cheap, balsa wood airplanes. The thin, light wood is prestamped so that you punch out the airplane and attach the wings to the fuselage. The balsa wood is supposed to break off at the grooves. Sometimes it does not. Occasionally you splinter or break off part of the airplane by accident. When this happens, the planes don't fly as well as they are designed to. Life is delicate, like the balsa plane. When we break in the right areas we will fly higher and smoother than when we break in the wrong places.
When we are broken in the wrong places, we become self-centered. Our broken emotions keep us from loving effectively. We shun future settings where further hurt could take place, like significant relationships, churches, and goal-setting. Or we react defensively to the hurt by overachieving and living a life of abandon...When we are broken in the wrong places, we do not see the fruit of the Spirit.
Look around you. The older you get, the more you see people who have lost the twinkle in their eyes. They have endured tough circumstances, but not successfully...Being broken in the heart, in the soul, where God can do something with your will and character, is a matter of converting, sanctifying the actual pain, and making it a part of the healing salve. You cannot do it on your own. God must. But you must be willing.
Aging, Fear, Self-Centeredness, Testing, Trials
Ps. 51:17; Rom. 5:2-5; James 1:2-4