From TODAY, Voices

Wednesday December 24, 2008

 

By Dr James Dobson

 

Some parents refer to their children as the “apple” of their eye, but one mum I know affectionately thinks of her kids as the “star” in the apple.

 

This mother discovered one day that by cutting an apple horizontally across the middle instead of coring it and slicing it in wedges from top to bottom, something new and striking appeared. A perfect five-point star was formed by the tiny seeds at the centre. The star had been there all along but she’d never seen it because she always approached the apple from a different point of view.

 

Most of us look at kids in a certain way. We see them, perhaps, as lazy or irritating or demanding. But children are infinitely complex, and we may be overlooking qualities of character that we’ve never seen before.

 

If we try to see them through fresh eyes every now and then, we may stumble onto a whole new wonderful dimension to their personalities that escaped us before. So start looking at your children from a new angle. There is, I promise, a star tucked away inside every boy and girl. 

 

From TODAY, Voices

Tuesday December 23, 2008

 

By Dr James Dobson

 

It was Dec 23, 1818, in the small Austrian village of Oberndorf. Father Josef Mohr had begun preparing the music for the Christmas Eve service at his church.

 

That evening, he attended the town Christmas play, then made his way up a nearby mountain overlooking the city.

 

There he sat, taking in the beauty of the evening darkness and the starlit sky overhead.

 

He reached home around midnight and sat down to pen a new song, one which could be played on the guitar, because the church organ was broken.

 

With the freshness of the mountain evening still on his mind, he began to write. All the while, the words flowed from his pen.

 

The next morning he asked his organist, Franz Gruber, to put a tune to the poem, something that could be played on a guitar. A few hours later, the task was accomplished.

 

And so it was, on Christmas Eve, 1818, that Father Mohr sang tenor and Franz Gruber sang bass, as the tiny town of Oberndorf heard for the first time a simple new song, a song that has since touched millions of lives around the world.

 

They called it Stille Nacht. You and I know it as Silent Night. 

 

Don't Stop Helping

From TODAY, Voices

Monday December 22, 2008

 

By Dr James Dobson

 

Somebody once said that ages one to 21 are when you do what your parents tell you to do, ages 21 to 65 are when you do what you have to do, and ages 65 and over are when you do whatever you want to do.

 

Well, if you ask me, I’d say that “doing whatever you want to do” is bad advice. It’s a raw deal, and everybody loses. Here’s why.

 

First, it’s unhealthy to focus on yourself, and to stop helping others.

 

Secondly, retired folks are in a unique position to help single parents, or to mentor children. These young people need somebody who’s not running at the speed of light to spend a little time with them, to do simple things, like read a book to them.

 

I might remind you that all of the stuff we accumulate, and most of our achievements, will lie rotting in the dump someday. But what will last forever is the love we’ve given, the lives we’ve nurtured, the relationships we’ve cultivated, and the hearts we’ve touched.

 

Now that’s a children’s inheritance worth spending. It’s priceless!