The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Melheimian Maxim #14: Legacy

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to how we want our children to remember us that we give to the question of what to do with two weeks' vacation, we would overnight become better parents and over time become the kind of partner that we always dreamed we'd be.

Melheimian Maxim 13: Dreams

Kill a dream and you kill all that dream's unborn children.

Melheimian Maxim 12: Respect

The only rule you need around your house is re-spect. Break the word apart and you find re = "again" and spect = "to look." Look again! These are your parents. Your mother went up two dress sizes and turned prematurely grey for you. Look again! Even on a day when you tell your father off, he would still jump in front of a truck to save your life. Look again! Part of you will be walking the face of the earth long after you are gone in the form of this child. Look again! If all we manage to do in our homes is re-spect that might be enough.

 

Melheimian Maxim 11: Prayer

Most people talk to God like they talk to their dog. They expect a lot of sympathy but they don't expect a lot of answers.

Melheimian Maxim #10: Relationships

I have a feeling that the book of Acts wouldn't have ended the way it did if Jesus hadn't gone fishing every once and a while with his disciples.

Melheimian Maxim #9: Discovery

Don't wait to be discovered. Discover yourself.

Melheimian Maxim #8: Volunteers

For any volunteer to find their work life-giving rather than life-draining, five elements must be part of their experience:

 

1. They must be giving in a significant way

2. They must be receiving in a significant way

3. They must have a manageable job (bite-sized piece of ministry)

4. They must have intimacy built in

5. They've got to have fun doing it

Melheimian Maxim 7: Parenting

Live each moment with your child in such a way that, if it were the last memory they had of you, it would be the memory you'd want them to remember.

Melheimian Maxim 6: Teaching

If you don't plan the drama, the humor or the interruptions in your teaching, don't worry.

The kids will plan it for you.

Melheimian Maxim 5: Money Problems

There is no such thing as a money problem at a church. There is only a vision problem, an imagination problem, a passion problem, a plan problem, and a combination thereof.