Kindness Under Fire: How to Take the Perfect Nap
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick Religion has not always been kind to women. But women also seem bent on exhausting themselves. Today’s woman seems restless. I think St. Augustine could easily have been talking to us when he made this famous statement in his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Religion may not have been easy on women. But Jesus has been supremely kind. That’s why I keep pointing out our enemy, the devil, as the real perpetrator of the war on women. Hurting women has been his game plan from the start. Jesus made a...
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Kindness Under Fire: A Leader with Heart
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick I’m one of those people that gets misty-eyed over our men and women in uniform. My dad is a World War II era submarine veteran. Our family tree is dotted with soldiers back to the Revolutionary War, when our ancestor, Captain Simon Hunt, was one of the 80 minutemen who led the charge against the British with the “shot heard round the world.” Soldiers fight for our freedom. They display courage and discipline. But for me, war is all about heart. A woman of valor is ready to fight the fight of faith and to fight for those she loves because she has heart. The...
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Kindness Under Fire: Teaching Kindness
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick Kindness actually makes people happier. Such were the findings of a Stanford University study. Subjects who did five kind actions each week were happier than those who did not. And those who performed five acts every day were the happiest of all. The study found that happiness is greater when the acts of kindness are directed toward those we know as opposed to strangers. I guess you could say kindness, like charity, begins at home. The Proverbs 31 woman of valor instructed others. I like the way the International Children’s Bible puts it: “She teaches others to be...
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Kindness Under Fire: Rest for Your Soul
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick The Proverbs 31:10 “woman of valor” is kind, and she teaches others to be kind. But we must also consider the kindness of God. Because until we get that one right, we’ll never walk in true freedom. Throughout history, we have seen how women (and all people, for that matter) have done terrible things to themselves and to each other when their view of God is off. We have a good role model in the woman of valor in Proverbs 31. Her wholehearted devotion to God was not from terror, but rather from a reverential awe that filled her with confidence. Such strong faith was...
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Kindness Under Fire: The Female Superhero—Not So Liberating
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick I will readily admit I love superhero movies. Today’s superhero movies have given us quite a rush of female superheroines splashed across our screen—a far cry from the helpless damsel in distress of years past. Perhaps these fit, strong females will provide our daughters with better role models and higher self-esteem? Better think again. Just when we suspected these hard-hitting heroines were saving us from our outdated images of women, this new breed of female superhero might be making things worse. A recent study shows that instead of giving women healthier views...
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Kindness Under Fire: Our Own Worst Enemies
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick You’d think women would have learned by now that sometimes we can be our own worst enemies. For example, the torturous custom of foot binding, which plagued China’s women for over a thousand years, was perpetuated by women. Originally a symbol of female wealth and refinement, foot binding eventually became a symbol of beauty. The smaller the foot—with a three-inch foot being the ideal—the better chance the woman had of getting married. In order to fit into the tiny lotus shoes, women had to literally suffer the breaking of bones in their feet, beginning when they...
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Kindness Under Fire: Showing Kindness to Ourselves
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick I still marvel when I think about how God gave women the added privilege of being life-givers and co-creators of the entire human race. Eve was the first woman. Her name literally means “mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). I love Eve’s response after giving birth to the first human ever born to a woman: “Look, I have created a new human, with the help of the Eternal” (Genesis 4:1 VOICE). Another translation puts it this way: “I produced a man” (Gen 4:1 TLV). We’re not only able to bear children, but also to nurture them. What’s more, we have the...
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Kindness Under Fire: She Teaches with Kindness
A Moment of Hope
by Marilynn Chadwick A woman of valor who can find?...The teaching of kindness is on her tongue (Proverbs 31:10,26 JPS). Disney got it right. The scariest villains are often women. Think about it. Cinderella’s wicked stepmother overworked the poor girl and locked her in an attic before she was finally rescued by her handsome prince. The evil Maleficent cast her jealous spell on Sleeping Beauty. Snow White battled a wicked queen who was envious of her beauty. And don’t forget Cruella De Vil [cruel devil] who kidnapped an entire litter of Dalmatian puppies, intending to use their fur to make...
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A Missing in Action Word for Christians: Living Out Kindness
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick Kindness. It is a word that our modern society seems to undervalue and it is a “missing in action” concept in the Christian world. This week, my exhortation has been to reclaim kindness. We have talked about remembering how important kindness is, we have talked about how to reclaim it, how to increase a life of kindness and show it to others. Today, I want to call all of us to action to live out kindness from this moment forward. Kindness does not come naturally. It has to be remembered, reclaimed, increased, demonstrated to all, and lived out every day. Unfortunately, in...
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A Missing in Action Word for Christians: Kindness Toward All
A Moment of Hope
by David Chadwick Do you know what I think gives the best illustration of kindness in the entire Bible? The story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. It is one of my favorite accounts in all of Scripture. Let’s look at it together. If you know biblical history, you know that the Samaritans were derided by the Jews in Jesus’s day. They were absolutely hated. Despised even. They were considered the half-breeds of society. When the Jews were in captivity in Babylon, many Jews married Gentiles who had been imported into the land. These unions produced the Samaritans, called such because of where...
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Guilt is a stronghold that many people bring to the foot of the cross. Guilt is the stomach churning feeling that you have done something wrong.
Christian apologists deduce that this negative emotion is one of the main emotions that helps to prove the existence of God. In order for there to be guilt, there must be a moral law within a human being that he or she thinks has been broken. “Conscience” is another word people use to describe this tension that exists between guilt and innocence. And everyone worldwide possesses this conscience at some level or another.
Paul actually talks about moral law in Romans 1 in the context of the existence of God. Paul emphasizes that where there is a moral law - decisive commitments to what is right and wrong - there must be a moral law giver, God himself.
Guilt comes as a result of the Fall in Genesis 3. No guilt existed in the Garden of Eden pre-Genesis 3. Adam and Eve operated in perfect union with God. They always obeyed God and followed his will. They were instructed to eat from the tree of life, but to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would be deviating from God’s moral law.
Adam’s and Eve’s intentional, willful, and sinful decision to eat of this tree sent mankind on a terrible trajectory bent toward making decisions based on personal desires and will rather than God’s will. At that moment, all of humanity assumed the responsibility for determining what was good and evil. This is a responsibility we were never supposed to have! Adam’s and Eve’s decision took them away from the true life that God originally offered them. Because of this, God said they would surely die - both physically and spiritually.
Guilt is one of the strongest evidences of the spiritual death that entered our world through sin. Without Jesus, mankind lives under permanent condemnation, especially from the devil. Even for Christ followers, Satan loves to taunt us with jeers that God could never love someone like us. He reminds us repeatedly of how worthless we are for rebelling against God and leaves us soaking in one thing: guilt.
How can we untangle ourselves from this guilt? Go to Jesus! He came to earth to pay for our sins, but also to eradicate and eliminate guilt from our hearts. Jesus absorbed all of our guilt on the cross. We are now forever forgiven!
Did you know there is now NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)? Jesus washes your sins away and will never come back and remind you of them. When you feel guilt and condemnation as a follower of Jesus, it’s never coming from Jesus! It’s from the enemy.
When guilt tries to sneak up on you, use it to your advantage. Let it drive you to the cross where your guilt is replaced by Jesus’s grace.
And be set free!