It requires a great deal of personal discipline and a close relationship with God to overcome the temptation of the free love generation. And Israel proved not to have the discipline.

Although God says that the husband is the head of the wife, when the husband abdicates his responsibilities, God will use the wife to get the job done. Deborah shows us that God will use whomever is willing to say, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Godly leaders always have to make more objective decisions, because the leader’s job is to move the organization from “want to” to “ought to”. The leader cannot do that which he wants, but must do that which he ought; that which he is commanded to do by God.

A man cannot be responsible, in most cases, for his wife’s happiness. He can provide her with the creature comforts that are available to him, but her happiness is directly proportional to whether or not she decides to be grateful that that which he does. It is impossible for a man to do whatever a woman wants, because her desires change with her circumstances.

The praise of God, although delayed until His plan is completed, is better than the immediate gratification of the praise of men. The reward of God, although delayed until His plan is completed, is better than the immediate gratification in the reward of men. Belief in God’s plan, although His plan may be delayed, is better than the immediate gratification of belief in the plans of man. The authority of God, although delayed while He is completing His plan, is better than the puny authority of man.

We have the good things that we have, not because of our own power, but because the Lord has chosen to not withhold them from us. The Lord is the one that paid the price on Calvary, and we should thank Him for our successes rather than having self-esteem, considering ourselves more highly than we ought.

Let us look at our children as Jesus looked at His disciples, and emulate Jesus’ example by living lives of character before them, and then by taking every opportunity to build up our children, not in self-esteem, but using discipline to develop character to build respect for the authority of God’s Word in them.

God is telling you today, through the words of the Bible that I am repeating, that His Word and His principles are still literally true, and that true wisdom is found by serious, earnest and honest study of, faith in, and adherence to the Divinely Inspired Written Word of God.