Melting Stone-Cold Attitudes, Ideas, and Hearts - Part 3

How important are other people's opinions to you? There are individuals  who will never be swayed by what others think or believe. Then there are those whose lives hinge on other people's opinions. Fortunately, most people will consider what others say and then make an independent decision.

The older brother in Jesus' story of the lost son was emotionally locked into an inflexible way of thinking. To him, his younger brother made a choice that forever separated him from the privileges and rights of belonging to the family. To him, it was incomprehensible that his brother could come home and be embraced as an important family member.

The older brother's indignation kept him from celebrating his brother's homecoming. He appeared incapable of feeling empathy for his brother or father. Empathy clears the way for understanding what's important to another person. Empathy encourages you to walk with someone through a troubled or a happy occasion. God's love and redemption can melt a heart of stone and clear the way for compassion.  

Never Too Late to Change - Part 1

The experiences of life, both positive and negative, work together to shape what we believe and how we behave. God designed us for growth, maturity, and change. An eighty-four year old woman proudly stated, "I'm still learning and changing." What we know and believe provides meaning and purpose to life.

When the prodigal son chose to go home and face his family, his attitude and mind-set had changed. His experience in the pig pen reshaped his entire belief system. He left home with an attitude of arrogance but returned with humility. Arrogance portrays false confidence. Humility reveals an attitude of flexibility, readiness to learn, and willingness to be transformed.

The father was so delighted to have his son back home that he celebrated by giving him a robe and ring and by throwing him a huge party. The pig pen experience helped the young man accept his father's love and generosity. This parable illustrates God's attitude toward us when we repent and return to him. 

False Assumptions vs. Reality - Part 2

The ability to deal constructively with reality is based fundamentally on faith and trust in God to sustain you, no matter how terrible or twisted reality appears to be. A woman revealed with frustration how everyone she met seemed to have an ulterior motive or hidden agenda behind their friendliness.

This seemed to be true for the young man in Jesus' parable of the lost son. With his inheritance depleted, his friends were nowhere to be found. Even the farmer who hired him to feed hogs had little respect for him. Yet it was in this setting that he shifted his thinking, which allowed him to confront reality, including facing his family and making amends.

False assumptions got him into trouble, but the willingness to shift his thinking alerted him to choices for changing his life. This young man had faith in his father's love for him that allowed the father to forgive his foolish choices and behavior. The father had faith in his son's ability to eventually deal constructively with reality, which is God's plan for each of us.