Command 3 : Rejoice | Day 21

Document Your Responses!

Welcome to your 21st day of meditation! I once heard that if an activity is performed for 21 days, it becomes a habit. What a marvelous habit meditation would be! However, God's guarantee of complete success involves meditation on God's Word with the determination to carry it out.

Spiritual light received and acted upon brings more light, but light neglected or rejected brings darkness.

Our greatest hindrance in applying the command to rejoice when being reviled is the anger that erupts when little things go wrong in the family. Our responses to little irritations will establish our reactions to big assaults.

For this reason, the five steps of a "GREAT" response, which were shared yesterday,¹ are vital. For your journal entry today I urge you to gather your family together and go over those five points. Select a situation in which you responded the wrong way, and write out what could have happened if you would have followed these five steps.

Then, think of a situation that will probably happen in your family, and apply the same five steps to it. You cannot imagine how this will encourage and instruct your family in the ways of God as they see you humble yourself and apply God's truth to your life!

The highest honor is given to a leader who teaches by example with a humble spirit.

Your focus on your family follows the example of David, who made his home a priority: “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.... I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Psalm 101:2).

When you carry out this project and record the results, you will have "best-seller" information for other fathers who will be eager to find out what you did to conquer anger and what the good results were in your family!

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1. Review the five steps of a "GREAT" response in Day 20's e-mail.