From a book written by my Preacher Dr. Bob Gray and titled Dealing With Personal Conflicts.
Ephesians 4:32 - "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you"
Luke 4:18 - "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised..."
The word tenderhearted is redundant. Both parts of the word mean the same things. The heart is supposed to be tender. A tender heart is like saying cold ice or hot fire or wet water because the heart is made to be tender. To have a tender heart means to have a heart that is doing what it ought to be, if it is healthy or in good repair.
A broken heart does not always mean someone is sad or has a burden or heartache. A broken heart is simply a heart that is broken.
A preacher friend of mine bought me the watch I am wearing. If the watch isn't working, it is broken. That dose not mean the watch is sad or sorrowful. It means the watch is not functioning like is supposed to function and needs to be fixed. That's what it means to be brokenhearted. The heart is not functioning like it is supposed to function and needs to be fixed.
When a broken heart is fixed it becomes tender. If it isn't tender, it is a broken heart. It is not functioning like it is supposed to function. Consequently, a tender heart and a fixed heart are synonymous.
If you have a broken heart, your hearts needs to be worked on. It needs to be repaired. If our heart is broken then it is not tender, because the heart is the emotional part of a person's being. We love with our heart; we hate with our heart; we weep with our heart; we laugh with our heart; the heart is the seat of our emotions. So, you either have a tender heart, which means it is fixed and functioning like it should, or you have a broken heart, which is not a tender and needs to be repaired.
Psalm 57:7 says, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." What is the result of the heart being fixed? When our heart is fixed, we sing and give praise. On the other hand, when our heart is broken, we don't sing and give praise.
Just like I can look at my watch and see if the second hand goes around, you can check yourself to find out whether your heart is fixed or broken. If the second hand doesn't move I know my watch is broken. Likewise, if I look at my heart and notice I'm not giving praise to God then my heart is broken.
A broken heart does not necessarily mean sadness. A broken hearted person can be laughing; a broken hearted person can have no problems at all; a broken heart is like a broken watch or broken radio. It just needs to be fixed. That's why the psalmist said, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed." How did he know his heart was fixed? He know his heart was fixed because he sand and gave praise. So, if you don't praise God, you have a broken heart, no a fixed heart. It doesn't mean you have a burden or you have a sorrow. It means your heart is not in good repair.
Psalm 18:2 says, "O God, my heart is fixed; I will sin and give praise, even with my glory." How can I tell if my heart is fixed? I will sing. When you don't open the songbook and sing the songs of God, your heart is not fixed. Your heart is broken. It has nothing to do with sadness or being burdened. Your heart is broken; your heart is not right. Because of that, you don't sing. Fixes id the opposite of broken. So what is the result of being fixed? Singing. Do you sing?
He also said, "and give praise." If a person doesn't sing and give praise during the song service, their heart is broken and needs to be fixed. When our heart is fixed, you will sing and give praise to God.
Psalm 108:3 says, "I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations." Some people say, "Well pastor, I'm just the type that doesn't like to sing and praise in front of other people." The Bible says your heart is broken if you don't sing and give praise among the people.
The Bible also says if your heart is fixed you will sing among the nations. A person with a fixed heart will not only sing and give praise among God's people; they will also sing and give praise among the heathen nations.
Psalm 112:7 says, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD." If our heart is fixed, you won't be afraid of bad tidings, because joy doesn't come from good tidings and disappear because of bad tidings. Situations do not determined rejoicing if the heart is fixed. What does that mean? The heart is not broken; it's working.
The fixed heart is emotional about what it should be emotional about. he Bible says we are to be tenderhearted toward each other. A tender heat is the opposite of a broken heart. A heart that is fixed, according to the Bible, is going to be a tender heart. Just like a radio that is fixed is a playing radio or watch that is fixed is a running watch; a heart that is tender toward others is a fixed heart. It is not a broken heart.
The Jews had a reputation for having fixed, or tender, hearts. Thus, they were known as a singing people. They were a harp playing people. Among the nations of the East they were known as a happy, singing, musical people. In Psalm 137 the Jews are in captivity. The first three verses of Psalm 137 say, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, year, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." Their response to begin asked to sing a song is found in verse 4; "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"
Psalm 108 tells us that when our heart is fixed we are to sing in a strange land and we are to praise God among the heathen. However, the Jews, who were in a strange land in Psalm 137, are not singing, and they are not praising God because their hearts are broken. Their hearts are not functioning like they ought to function. If their hearts were fixed, they would be able to sing in a strange land and praise God among the heathen.
The Psalms are not listed in chronological order. Please keep that in mind because in Psalm 126, which actually follows chronologically after Psalm 137, the Jews are in captivity. They have been asked to sing songs, but they refused to sing. Now, in Psalm 126, the captivity is over and they are on their way home. "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filed with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Turn again out captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south."
It seemed like a dream they were on their way home. It sure sounds like they got their broken heart fixed, doesn't it? So, if you come to church and don't laugh, you have a broken heart. I don't mean a sad heart; I mean your heart isn't working like it should. Laughter is as much a part of Christianity as weeping is. Some people say _ I don't believe in all that laughing in church. Of course you don't, because you have a broken heart that needs fixing.
Notice what happens in Psalm 126. The Jews laugh and sing among the heathen. What happened between Psalm 137 and 126? Their hearts got fixed. That's what Psalm 108: 1-3 is talking about. there was rejoicing and singing. Then what happened? Psalm 126: 5-6 says, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
Tears shed about the right things are as much as a part of a fixed heart as laughter and praise, because tears are an expression of the heart. teas are an indication of a tender heart, which is a fixed heart. If you weep about the right things, your heart is fixed; it is tender about the right things. If you weep about the wrong things, you have a broken heart. If you laugh at the right thins, you have a fixed heat. If you laugh at a dirty comedian, you ave a broken heart. If you allow the emotions to go to the right place, you have a fixed heart. If you also your emotions to go to the wrong place, you have a broken heart.
In Luke 4:18, Jesus is preaching his first sermon. He's in the synagogue of Nazareth. His text is Isaiah 1, which He quotes: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heat the brokenhearted." He is saying; God has called me to fix the hearts that are broken. He is not talking about somebody who is sad or has sorrow.
If you can sit in front of a television set and watch some dog getting run over by a care, and you sit there and cry, and thy you go to church and your pastor preachers about Jesus dying on the core and your emotion does nothing to you, you have a broken heart. It has nothing to do with whether you are right with God or not right with God.
You are going to weep, you are going to laugh; you are going to hate; you are tong to get exited. All you have to do is test what you weep about; test that you get excited about; and test about what you hate.
All of these emotional aspects of life come from the heart. To have a heart that is fixed is to laugh at the right things. To have a heart that is broken is to laugh at the wrong things. To have a heart that is tender or fixed means to love the right things. If I love the wrong things, it's because my heat is broken and needs to be fixed.
I John 2:15 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." Now what do these verses mean? It means if yo love the world and the things of the world you have a broken heart. It does not mean you do no love. You just love the wrong things, in this case, the world. The problem is not an absence of love; it is the wrong object of the love. If you love the world, your heart is broken and needs to be repaired. It's not working like it should work. If you would rather go to Six Fags over Texas then go to church on Sunday, your heart is broken and needs to be fixed. If you would rather stay home on soul winning night and watch basketball than come and deep somebody out of Hell, your heart is broken.
Parents, if you have a little child in grade school and he or she has a stoic look on heir face - change it. Put your finger in their chest and say, "Smile at me. Give me a great big grin."
It is up to parent to rain their children to laugh at the right things. If your kid doesn't laugh, there's something wrong at home. You haven't given him the right appetite for the right things. So you have no one to blame but yourself. It's up to you If you want a fixed heart that means your heart is not broken and functions like it should.
Is your heart fixed? Do you laugh at the right things? Do you love the right things? So you weep over the right things? Do you praise the right things? Do you get angry at the right things? If you never get angry at the right things, your heart is broken and needs to be fixed. If you get angry at the wrong things, your heart is broken and needs to be fixed. Do you get excited at the right things? Do you get more excited about the Dallas Cowboys winning he Super Bowl than you are about your name being written down in Heaven?
You can have a burden and still have a fixed heart. You can have a terrible sorrow and still have a fixed heart. It depends upon what caused the heartache. It depends upon what caused the sorrow.
To weep with a sorrowing friend is a fixed heart. To weep at a soap opera or a movie is a broken heart. To get excited about family, church, soul winning, bus route, and so on is a sign of a fixed heart. To get excited about some rock song is a sign of a broken heart. To weep because someone has cancer is a sign of a fixed heart. To weep because your favorite character gets killed on TV is a sign of a broken heart. To be sad if a friend is grieved is a sign of a fixed heart. To be sad when your team loses a game is a sign of a broken heart. To praise God is a sign of a fixed heart. To fail to praise God is the sign of a broken heart.
Now in Psalm 108:1, when David said, "My heart is fixed", he was saying his heart was tender over the right things. When Paul, under the leadership of the holy Spirit, wrote in Ephesians 4:32 about being tender hearted toward one another, he was saying we should be tender hearted over the right things. We are to suffer with those who suffer. WE are to rejoice with those who rejoice. We are to weep with those who weep. We are to laugh with those who laugh.
Now that we have identified the problem, what is the solution? How can I fix a broken heart that laughs over what it shouldn't laugh over and doesn't laugh over what it should laugh over? The Bible has the answer in Proverbs 23:7: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." The Bible doesn't say as a man thinketh in his head: it says as a man thinketh in his heart. So, I can think myself into a broken heart or I can think myself into a fixed heart because the heart is the marriage of thought and feelings.
If you sit and watch a movie and you fix your emotion on that movie, you can't help it; if there is something said, you are going to weep. On the other hand, if you go on a bus route and find a bus kid who is starving to death and focus on that bus kind, using the same mind and the same body, you can't help but weep. You can think, focus, and weep about anything.
I don't believe you should force yourself to cry; but you can force yourself to thing about what will make you cry. So protect yourself from things that would cause your mind to lead you to a broken heart.
I refuse to read certain things. I refuse to hand around negative people. I read the right things. I read biographies. I love old books. I hang around the right people. When I walk into the pulpit at the Longview Baptist Temple, my people need a preacher who is on topside. They need a preacher that loves them and will give them and feed them what they need.
If you are a grouch at home it is because you hang around the wrong people and read the wrong things; you are watching the wrong things on television. That's the only explanation - your heart is not working. It doesn't mean you are sad. It means you have the wrong things in front of you. The reason you can't get happy at church is because you get happy at the wrong places. It's really very simple - if you are not happy here, you're happy somewhere. So your heart is broken. You expose yourself to negative stimuli and more negative stimuli and then wonder why you're not happy.
I write down what I did when I have a good day. At the end of a good day, I write down what has made the day good. You know that feeling. You get up in the morning, spend time with God, spend time in your Bible, and things just go great. At the end of the day, you say, "Boy, this has been a good day." Well, get a pen out and write down what made it a great day. Then you can make another great day any time you want because you figured out what made it great.
If you have a bad day, write down what made the day bad. Oh, I got up late this morning. I didn't read my Bible. I didn't spend time with God. Oh, I hung around so and so and I knew I shouldn't have.
I don't know about you, but I'm going to make sure that my life is on topside.
Do you laugh at the right things? Do you weep at the right things? Do you smile in church? If you haven't, don't blame the pastor and don't blame the church. Look in the mirror and realize that you're laughing somewhere. The ability to be able to handle human conflicts depends upon the proper marriage of our thoughts and feelings.
Ephesians 4:32 - "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you"
Luke 4:18 - "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised..."
The word tenderhearted is redundant. Both parts of the word mean the same things. The heart is supposed to be tender. A tender heart is like saying cold ice or hot fire or wet water because the heart is made to be tender. To have a tender heart means to have a heart that is doing what it ought to be, if it is healthy or in good repair.
A broken heart does not always mean someone is sad or has a burden or heartache. A broken heart is simply a heart that is broken.
A preacher friend of mine bought me the watch I am wearing. If the watch isn't working, it is broken. That dose not mean the watch is sad or sorrowful. It means the watch is not functioning like is supposed to function and needs to be fixed. That's what it means to be brokenhearted. The heart is not functioning like it is supposed to function and needs to be fixed.
When a broken heart is fixed it becomes tender. If it isn't tender, it is a broken heart. It is not functioning like it is supposed to function. Consequently, a tender heart and a fixed heart are synonymous.
If you have a broken heart, your hearts needs to be worked on. It needs to be repaired. If our heart is broken then it is not tender, because the heart is the emotional part of a person's being. We love with our heart; we hate with our heart; we weep with our heart; we laugh with our heart; the heart is the seat of our emotions. So, you either have a tender heart, which means it is fixed and functioning like it should, or you have a broken heart, which is not a tender and needs to be repaired.
Psalm 57:7 says, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." What is the result of the heart being fixed? When our heart is fixed, we sing and give praise. On the other hand, when our heart is broken, we don't sing and give praise.
Just like I can look at my watch and see if the second hand goes around, you can check yourself to find out whether your heart is fixed or broken. If the second hand doesn't move I know my watch is broken. Likewise, if I look at my heart and notice I'm not giving praise to God then my heart is broken.
A broken heart does not necessarily mean sadness. A broken hearted person can be laughing; a broken hearted person can have no problems at all; a broken heart is like a broken watch or broken radio. It just needs to be fixed. That's why the psalmist said, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed." How did he know his heart was fixed? He know his heart was fixed because he sand and gave praise. So, if you don't praise God, you have a broken heart, no a fixed heart. It doesn't mean you have a burden or you have a sorrow. It means your heart is not in good repair.
Psalm 18:2 says, "O God, my heart is fixed; I will sin and give praise, even with my glory." How can I tell if my heart is fixed? I will sing. When you don't open the songbook and sing the songs of God, your heart is not fixed. Your heart is broken. It has nothing to do with sadness or being burdened. Your heart is broken; your heart is not right. Because of that, you don't sing. Fixes id the opposite of broken. So what is the result of being fixed? Singing. Do you sing?
He also said, "and give praise." If a person doesn't sing and give praise during the song service, their heart is broken and needs to be fixed. When our heart is fixed, you will sing and give praise to God.
Psalm 108:3 says, "I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations." Some people say, "Well pastor, I'm just the type that doesn't like to sing and praise in front of other people." The Bible says your heart is broken if you don't sing and give praise among the people.
The Bible also says if your heart is fixed you will sing among the nations. A person with a fixed heart will not only sing and give praise among God's people; they will also sing and give praise among the heathen nations.
Psalm 112:7 says, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD." If our heart is fixed, you won't be afraid of bad tidings, because joy doesn't come from good tidings and disappear because of bad tidings. Situations do not determined rejoicing if the heart is fixed. What does that mean? The heart is not broken; it's working.
The fixed heart is emotional about what it should be emotional about. he Bible says we are to be tenderhearted toward each other. A tender heat is the opposite of a broken heart. A heart that is fixed, according to the Bible, is going to be a tender heart. Just like a radio that is fixed is a playing radio or watch that is fixed is a running watch; a heart that is tender toward others is a fixed heart. It is not a broken heart.
The Jews had a reputation for having fixed, or tender, hearts. Thus, they were known as a singing people. They were a harp playing people. Among the nations of the East they were known as a happy, singing, musical people. In Psalm 137 the Jews are in captivity. The first three verses of Psalm 137 say, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, year, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." Their response to begin asked to sing a song is found in verse 4; "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"
Psalm 108 tells us that when our heart is fixed we are to sing in a strange land and we are to praise God among the heathen. However, the Jews, who were in a strange land in Psalm 137, are not singing, and they are not praising God because their hearts are broken. Their hearts are not functioning like they ought to function. If their hearts were fixed, they would be able to sing in a strange land and praise God among the heathen.
The Psalms are not listed in chronological order. Please keep that in mind because in Psalm 126, which actually follows chronologically after Psalm 137, the Jews are in captivity. They have been asked to sing songs, but they refused to sing. Now, in Psalm 126, the captivity is over and they are on their way home. "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filed with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. Turn again out captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south."
It seemed like a dream they were on their way home. It sure sounds like they got their broken heart fixed, doesn't it? So, if you come to church and don't laugh, you have a broken heart. I don't mean a sad heart; I mean your heart isn't working like it should. Laughter is as much a part of Christianity as weeping is. Some people say _ I don't believe in all that laughing in church. Of course you don't, because you have a broken heart that needs fixing.
Notice what happens in Psalm 126. The Jews laugh and sing among the heathen. What happened between Psalm 137 and 126? Their hearts got fixed. That's what Psalm 108: 1-3 is talking about. there was rejoicing and singing. Then what happened? Psalm 126: 5-6 says, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."
Tears shed about the right things are as much as a part of a fixed heart as laughter and praise, because tears are an expression of the heart. teas are an indication of a tender heart, which is a fixed heart. If you weep about the right things, your heart is fixed; it is tender about the right things. If you weep about the wrong things, you have a broken heart. If you laugh at the right thins, you have a fixed heat. If you laugh at a dirty comedian, you ave a broken heart. If you allow the emotions to go to the right place, you have a fixed heart. If you also your emotions to go to the wrong place, you have a broken heart.
In Luke 4:18, Jesus is preaching his first sermon. He's in the synagogue of Nazareth. His text is Isaiah 1, which He quotes: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heat the brokenhearted." He is saying; God has called me to fix the hearts that are broken. He is not talking about somebody who is sad or has sorrow.
If you can sit in front of a television set and watch some dog getting run over by a care, and you sit there and cry, and thy you go to church and your pastor preachers about Jesus dying on the core and your emotion does nothing to you, you have a broken heart. It has nothing to do with whether you are right with God or not right with God.
You are going to weep, you are going to laugh; you are going to hate; you are tong to get exited. All you have to do is test what you weep about; test that you get excited about; and test about what you hate.
All of these emotional aspects of life come from the heart. To have a heart that is fixed is to laugh at the right things. To have a heart that is broken is to laugh at the wrong things. To have a heart that is tender or fixed means to love the right things. If I love the wrong things, it's because my heat is broken and needs to be fixed.
I John 2:15 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." Now what do these verses mean? It means if yo love the world and the things of the world you have a broken heart. It does not mean you do no love. You just love the wrong things, in this case, the world. The problem is not an absence of love; it is the wrong object of the love. If you love the world, your heart is broken and needs to be repaired. It's not working like it should work. If you would rather go to Six Fags over Texas then go to church on Sunday, your heart is broken and needs to be fixed. If you would rather stay home on soul winning night and watch basketball than come and deep somebody out of Hell, your heart is broken.
Parents, if you have a little child in grade school and he or she has a stoic look on heir face - change it. Put your finger in their chest and say, "Smile at me. Give me a great big grin."
It is up to parent to rain their children to laugh at the right things. If your kid doesn't laugh, there's something wrong at home. You haven't given him the right appetite for the right things. So you have no one to blame but yourself. It's up to you If you want a fixed heart that means your heart is not broken and functions like it should.
Is your heart fixed? Do you laugh at the right things? Do you love the right things? So you weep over the right things? Do you praise the right things? Do you get angry at the right things? If you never get angry at the right things, your heart is broken and needs to be fixed. If you get angry at the wrong things, your heart is broken and needs to be fixed. Do you get excited at the right things? Do you get more excited about the Dallas Cowboys winning he Super Bowl than you are about your name being written down in Heaven?
You can have a burden and still have a fixed heart. You can have a terrible sorrow and still have a fixed heart. It depends upon what caused the heartache. It depends upon what caused the sorrow.
To weep with a sorrowing friend is a fixed heart. To weep at a soap opera or a movie is a broken heart. To get excited about family, church, soul winning, bus route, and so on is a sign of a fixed heart. To get excited about some rock song is a sign of a broken heart. To weep because someone has cancer is a sign of a fixed heart. To weep because your favorite character gets killed on TV is a sign of a broken heart. To be sad if a friend is grieved is a sign of a fixed heart. To be sad when your team loses a game is a sign of a broken heart. To praise God is a sign of a fixed heart. To fail to praise God is the sign of a broken heart.
Now in Psalm 108:1, when David said, "My heart is fixed", he was saying his heart was tender over the right things. When Paul, under the leadership of the holy Spirit, wrote in Ephesians 4:32 about being tender hearted toward one another, he was saying we should be tender hearted over the right things. We are to suffer with those who suffer. WE are to rejoice with those who rejoice. We are to weep with those who weep. We are to laugh with those who laugh.
Now that we have identified the problem, what is the solution? How can I fix a broken heart that laughs over what it shouldn't laugh over and doesn't laugh over what it should laugh over? The Bible has the answer in Proverbs 23:7: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." The Bible doesn't say as a man thinketh in his head: it says as a man thinketh in his heart. So, I can think myself into a broken heart or I can think myself into a fixed heart because the heart is the marriage of thought and feelings.
If you sit and watch a movie and you fix your emotion on that movie, you can't help it; if there is something said, you are going to weep. On the other hand, if you go on a bus route and find a bus kid who is starving to death and focus on that bus kind, using the same mind and the same body, you can't help but weep. You can think, focus, and weep about anything.
I don't believe you should force yourself to cry; but you can force yourself to thing about what will make you cry. So protect yourself from things that would cause your mind to lead you to a broken heart.
I refuse to read certain things. I refuse to hand around negative people. I read the right things. I read biographies. I love old books. I hang around the right people. When I walk into the pulpit at the Longview Baptist Temple, my people need a preacher who is on topside. They need a preacher that loves them and will give them and feed them what they need.
If you are a grouch at home it is because you hang around the wrong people and read the wrong things; you are watching the wrong things on television. That's the only explanation - your heart is not working. It doesn't mean you are sad. It means you have the wrong things in front of you. The reason you can't get happy at church is because you get happy at the wrong places. It's really very simple - if you are not happy here, you're happy somewhere. So your heart is broken. You expose yourself to negative stimuli and more negative stimuli and then wonder why you're not happy.
I write down what I did when I have a good day. At the end of a good day, I write down what has made the day good. You know that feeling. You get up in the morning, spend time with God, spend time in your Bible, and things just go great. At the end of the day, you say, "Boy, this has been a good day." Well, get a pen out and write down what made it a great day. Then you can make another great day any time you want because you figured out what made it great.
If you have a bad day, write down what made the day bad. Oh, I got up late this morning. I didn't read my Bible. I didn't spend time with God. Oh, I hung around so and so and I knew I shouldn't have.
I don't know about you, but I'm going to make sure that my life is on topside.
Do you laugh at the right things? Do you weep at the right things? Do you smile in church? If you haven't, don't blame the pastor and don't blame the church. Look in the mirror and realize that you're laughing somewhere. The ability to be able to handle human conflicts depends upon the proper marriage of our thoughts and feelings.