Little Messages with Big Impact
“The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.” — Proverbs 20:23 (NIV) Theft, in its most literal and obvious form, is widely and uncontroversially condemned across virtually every culture and moral framework. Few people seriously argue…
“So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.” — Malachi 2:15 (NIV) Loyalty is frequently misunderstood as a passive state, something a person simply possesses by default until an active choice…
“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” — Ephesians 5:33 (NIV) Affair-proofing a marriage is not primarily a defensive project, focused exclusively on what must be…
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” — Psalm 51:10 (NIV) Psalm 51 occupies a unique place in scripture: it is the recorded prayer of a man who had already committed adultery,…
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” — Matthew 5:27-28 (NIV) Marriage is about…
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” — Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) There is a meaningful difference between managing anger through sheer willpower and managing it through genuine spiritual transformation, and…
“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” — James 1:19 (NIV) Anger rarely arrives as a freestanding emotion, complete in itself and requiring no further investigation. It is, far more often, a surface…
“In your anger do not sin: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” — Ephesians 4:26 (NIV) Managing anger biblically begins with a step that sounds almost too simple to mention, yet remains, in practice,…
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgement.” — Matthew 5:21-22 (NIV) Jesus’s…
“The Lord disciplines the one he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” — Hebrews 12:6 (NIV) Discipline is frequently misunderstood as the opposite of love, a necessary unpleasantness imposed despite affection rather than because of it. Scripture…