[Deuteronomy 8-10 New International Version (NIV)]
8 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
Little Chad was a shy, quiet young fella. One day he came home and told his mother he'd like to make a valentine for everyone in his class. Her heart sank. She thought, I wish he wouldn't do that! because she had watched the children when they walked home from school.
Remember that it's not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us, but also the desire for peace, leisure, travel, and learning. It doesn't matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another... where our heart is set, there our impediment lies.
At the Counter (Tapestry Magazine, Paula Kirk- Editor)
This had been a miserable Easter vacation. As I walked through the airport my heart was heavy at the devastation in my daughter's life. Her husband of one year had left her and she was immobilized by shock and sorrow. Because she is an air traffic controller, she was now terribly worried about her ability to stay focused.
