David N. Walker's Blog, page 31

ADHD And Ritalin

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Ronit Baras wrote an article in Family Matters in September of 2011 which started with the following image:

The basic thesis of her article was that Ritalin was a cop-out to replace real parenting. She’s swimming against the current in this. Diagnosing kids as having ADHD and then prescribing them Ritalin has become as normal as taking aspirin to get rid of a headache. But is it right?

A little over twenty years ago, I took custody and responsibility for raising by high school-age nephew. He was a poor student and paid little attention in class. My own daughter was grown and had never presented me with a situation like I faced with him. I didn’t know what to do, but I was surrounded by people with the quick diagnosis of ADHD who urged me to get him on Ritalin. Not knowing any better, I acceded to their suggestions. And I’ve been sorry ever since.

Despite everything, my nephew grew up to be a productive member of society. I take little credit for that. I think he has succeeded in spite of, rather than because of, his raising.

Through the years since then, I have become more and more convinced that we have made up the diagnosis of ADHD to avoid parenting. Kids have trouble paying attention in class. Is that new? When I was in school, kids had trouble paying attention in class. There was a solution available back then that didn’t involve subjecting the kids to addictive drugs—a paddle hanging on the wall of the boiler room. Very effective.

In our enlightened society today, we don’t want our poor little kids to suffer the indignity and temporary pain of a paddling. We’d rather subject them to the possibility of addiction to dangerous drugs.

That same article quotes the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights as saying, “Emergency room visits by kids aged 10 to 14 involving Ritalin intoxication or overdoses have now reached the same level of those visiting for use of cocaine.”

Okay, David, so how does this rant relate to Christianity, which is the subject of our Tuesday blogs? Very simply. Hebrews 12:5-8 says:

. . . you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

If we are going to parent our children, we must accept our responsibility to give them discipline. We can’t just leave them to do whatever they want without expecting consequences. We can’t leave them to develop bad behavior and then expect some medication to straighten them up for us. God says if we don’t discipline our children we treat them as illegitimate.

Isn’t it time to replace Ritalin with honest parenting?

What experiences have you had with ADHD and Ritalin? Have you tried letting your child know what behavior is expected and what the consequences are of not meeting that behavior standard?

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Terrific Tuesday Tagged: ADHD, Christian, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Ritalin, Ronit Baras

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

The world lost a giant this past week. Every once in a while someone comes along with a combination of character, personality, ability and timing so right that he or she can be said to have changed the course of history.

Three such people come to mind for the twentieth century: Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher. Two British Prime Ministers and an American President.

Winston Churchill’s indomitable personality and courage inspired a people to carry on in the face of horrible attacks by Hitler’s Nazis and then led the free world in its post-war dealings with Germany. Who would want to contemplate that era of the world’s history without this man?

Ronald Reagan righted the ship of a fast sinking nation. His predecessor brought us a combination of hyperinflation and economic stagnation so horrible it gave rise to a new term—stagflation. Our nation had also become a laughingstock around the world. With his calmly assured demeanor and powerful leadership, both our domestic woes and our international position were reversed with his first term. Without him, would we even still be an independent nation?

Margaret Thatcher pretty much did the same things for Britain that Reagan did for the United States. She took the laughingstock of Europe and restored it to its position as a world leader. She revived an economy choking to death on the excesses of socialism. She exhibited the moral courage to defend her nation’s territory and citizens against foreign invaders in the Falkland Islands—halfway around the world from her navy’s home base.

I don’t follow British politics closely enough to know all of the things this powerful woman did for her country, but I know they were many and crucially important. The Economist says “ONLY a handful of peacetime politicians can claim to have changed the world. Margaret Thatcher was one.”

Thatcher rose to power just before Reagan’s election as President. Call it God’s timing or a lucky fluke or whatever you will, but this allowed these two great leaders to strengthen and feed off each other. It’s doubtful either would have been quite so successful in the absence of the other. Thank God we got both at the same time.

Like any great leader, she had her detractors. I’m sure there are some among my readers who would disagree with my assessment of her greatness, but I don’t think anyone who remembers the world situation and that of Britain in particular would deny she made a profound difference.

R.I.P., Margaret Thatcher.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Freestyle Friday Tagged: Advice, Authorship, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Margaret Thatcher, Personal development, Ronald Reagan, Self-help, Winston Churchill

Apples

 

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

A few years ago a group of salesmen from here went to a regional sales convention in Chicago.

They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.

The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?”

She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister….” He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, “Are you Jesus?”

He stopped in mid-stride … and he wondered. He gently went back and said, “No, I am nothing like Jesus – He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place.”

The girl gently nodded: “I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him – only He  knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call,  Mister.”

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing around in his soul: “Are you Jesus?”

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though you, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Terrific Tuesday Tagged: Christian, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Heaven Sent, inspiration

Big Book News

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Today, I’m promoting two books. The first, I’ll mention briefly: Fancy, first in my novella series by the same name, is seeking readers. I’ve put it on a special five-day free giveaway promotion. Just click here to get your Kindle copy absolutely free. After Monday, the price will go back to $.99.

Now, let’s talk about my friend Lara Schiffbauer‘s newly released book, Finding Meara, which is available for Kindle for $.99. If you don’t know Lara, you should. Click her name above to see her blog.

Lara and I met through the Life List Club, which was disbanded around a year ago. She’s a licensed clinical social worker and an all-around sweet person. Her Friday blogs always include funny animal photos with funnier captions. You can’t read it without laughing.

When I finished writing Fancy, Lara volunteered to be my Beta reader, editor and critiquer. Once that was done, she elected to stay onboard to read and critique the rest of the series as the volumes have come out. She never asked for money. She just does this because she’s a good friend.

Finding Meara is about a young lady named Hazel Michelli, who didn’t know she was adopted until her birth father, Lucien, kidnaps her and takes her to an alternate universe. Although she escapes, she learns she has a sister named Meara, whom she sets out to find. For 99 cents, you can find out what happens.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Freestyle Friday Tagged: Advice, Authorship, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, Finding Meara, Heaven Sent, Lara Schiffbauer, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Personal development, Self-help

Guesting

 

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

My friend Margo Kanas is hosting me over at her site today. Click here to join me, and be sure to browse her website while you’re there.

I want to thank Margo for hosting me today. I’ll be back in my regular slot Friday.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Miscellaneous Tagged: Christian, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Heaven Sent, inspiration

My Dad

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Twenty-one years ago Sunday was the day my father died. He had fallen on a parking lot eighteen days earlier—as a result of a stroke, so far as any of us could tell. Click here to read about my last hour with him, a poignant story that was published by the American College of Chest Physicians in 2002.

Dad was not a touchy-feely sort of person. For some reason, he was never able to express his love, yet I never doubted he loved me. He gave me my first set of golf clubs—a mismatched collection, but at least a start—when I was eight years old. From then through my high school graduation, he and I would play together with some degree of regularity, which gave me a relationship with him that my siblings didn’t enjoy.

From college up until I was around forty, we saw each other now and then, but not often. Our relationship became a bit distant during these years, although there was never any sort of split between us.

Circumstances put us back together much more closely throughout my forties, and we established a closer relationship than we’d ever had before. He and my business partner and I would get together frequently for card games, and Dad and I began to enjoy each other’s company more than ever.

I got the phone call early on Friday afternoon, March 13, 1992, and immediately went to the emergency room where he’d been taken. He was lucid and feeling okay by the time I got there, but that night he went into a coma from which he never recovered.

My brother and my sister and her oldest niece flew in when I told them what happened. They all had to go home after a couple of days, but my brother and sister both came back for the funeral.

Sunday, as I was reflecting on all this, I thought about the dates once more. I’d always thought it ironic, or at least unusual, that he went into the hospital on the 13th and died on the 31st. Reversible numbers and things like that always fascinate me, but this time a new thought struck.

He went in on 3-13. Add those digits together, and the total is seven. He died on 3-31. Again, the digits add up to seven. Okay, a coincidence, but then my mind began to wander a little further.

Seven is generally considered by Bible students as God’s number of perfection. Dad was far from a perfect man. A great man in many ways, he also had great faults. But on 3-31, as a result of what happened on 3-13, he was perfected. This man who, like all of us, had an imperfect body and an imperfect character, but on that day, his imperfections were traded for perfection. The blood of Jesus, which he had believed in ever since he was fourteen years old, now poured over him at age seventy-seven and perfected him through and through.

I know that if he’d died a day sooner or a day later he would still have been with Jesus. But he didn’t. He died on 3-31. 3+3+1=7. Perfect.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Terrific Tuesday Tagged: Christian, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Heaven Sent, inspiration

This Is Progress?

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Unless you live in New York City, or perhaps San Francisco, you probably drive a car. Right? How often do you drive for more than five minutes or so without coming up to a barrier, lane narrowing, or some other impediment to your trip caused by repairs or road construction?

    

Okay, I know we can’t leave all roads like they were in 1950. They’d be totally worn out, not to mention inadequate for the number of vehicles in today’s traffic. We do have to keep up.

But why do we have to spend half a decade repairing a pothole? All right, I admit I’m stretching that one a little, but you know what I mean.

Colonial Parkway runs front of Colonial Country Club, the site of one of the oldest tournaments on the PGA Tour. Months and months ago—probably just after last year’s tournament was completed—the city of Fort Worth started some sort of project on that road.

The first thing they did was dump a bunch of fill material and park equipment in the right turn lane of Rogers Road where it comes into Colonial Parkway from the north. Then they began tearing up parts of Colonial Parkway, narrowing the lanes to the point you almost had to creep past. On occasion they would fully close one side of the street or the other, posting guys to stop traffic from one direction while that from the other direction went through.

How long has this been going on? Couldn’t tell you. Seems like ages, and I know it’s been at least several months.

What are they doing there? Who knows? Digging holes in the pavement for some inscrutable reason. They’re not widening the road. There were no cracks or potholes in the pavement that needed repair. Did someone’s brother-in-law’s company need a new job? *Shrugs*

Let’s keep our roads up, but let’s only do repairs that are needed and make sense. When we do, let’s get with it and get the job done.

We have to keep building new roads—freeways, interstate highways, state roads—all sorts of roads. We keep adding to our population, at least here in Texas, which means more drivers, which means we must have both new and improved roads. I understand that.

What I don’t understand is why we have to tear up 20 or 30 miles of road at a time, bottlenecking traffic for that entire duration, so that we can build a quarter of a mile a week, or whatever the rate is. Traffic along the entire 20 or 30 mile stretch is slowed down for however long it takes to build that section.

Why can’t we tear up a mile or two, build that, and then tear up the next mile or two? Why must we creep along mile after mile after mile, looking at total inactivity almost the entire distance?

Of course, it’s a given that if a crew is working on a road there will be at least two people standing around watching for each one who is actually working. I guess all of us taxpayers can enjoy paying for that.

In the 1860s, we build a railroad all the way from Omaha to Sacramento in only four years. In that same era, the Suez Canal was built in ten years. These were mammoth undertakings, but they were built expeditiously and quickly.

Today, it may take as long as the Suez Canal took just to get EPA approval of a construction project. Although we have much better equipment now than 150 years ago, we have a couple of different freeway/tollway projects going on here locally that will take longer than the entire transcontinental railroad to build.

Something’s wrong with this picture.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the "About" tab above.

For more information about his books, click on "Books" above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Freestyle Friday Tagged: Advice, Authorship, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Personal development, Self-help, traffic

God’s Mysterious Ways

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

We’ve all heard it said that God works in mysterious ways. One of the things in life that has caused me trouble many times is not understanding what He was doing, and not waiting to see. Just grab the ball and run with it myself.

The other day, I accidentally waited for God to work things His way, although I didn’t even realize at the time that was what I was doing. The result was a wonderful feeling.

Saturday I participated in a book-signing event at the Bedford (TX) Public Library. The event sponsors gave each of us 20 minutes to read from our work, and I ended up being the last reader scheduled.

I didn’t like being the last one. I figured people would be leaving by then and no one would be there to hear me read or buy books afterward. That turned out to be a pretty good guess. My friend Charity Kountz stuck around, along with one couple who stayed after the preceding reading. This couple paid courteous attention to my reading and then got up and left without asking any questions or making any attempt to buy either of the books I read from.

As I read the last page of my reading from the second book, holding it up to see the print, which allowed others in the room to see the cover, a rather frazzled-looking lady appeared in the doorway. She stood quietly until I finished and started to put my books away, and then she stopped me.

“Oh, thank God. There were two books here today I wanted to buy, and that’s one of them.” She indicated my Christian Inspirational, Heaven Sent.

She told me she worked in the library—I’m not sure whether as an employee or a volunteer—and hadn’t had much chance to get into the room where we were displaying our books and signing the ones people bought. She’d seen mine and this other book on a quick trip through the room earlier in the day, but she didn’t have her purse with her.

When she went home for lunch, she got her purse, intending to buy both books, but when she got back to the library, she discovered her checkbook wasn’t in her purse. I guess she got off work a little before we finished and made a second trip back home to get the checkbook. By the time she got back to the library, the other authors were all gone except Charity and me, and we were about to leave.

To make the story even better, the lady running the event came to me earlier in the afternoon and told me she could get me on earlier if I didn’t mind using a different room. I’m not sure if I was afraid no one would find me in the other room, or if God did something to stop me or what, but I told her just to leave me as originally scheduled.

If I’d been scheduled earlier in the day, I probably would have left an hour sooner than I did. If I’d accepted the schedule change the lady offered me, I probably would have left an hour earlier.

The point of this story is that God knew this woman wanted my book. He also knew she wouldn’t be able to buy it until right at the library’s closing time. He arranged circumstances so that I’d be there to sell it to her when she was able to buy it.

That one sale, with library personnel standing around waiting for us to leave so they could close, made the entire day worth it. Yeah, I made a few bucks on the sale, but seeing the delight on this woman’s face was worth 100 sales. I pray that God will make the book particularly meaningful to her.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Terrific Tuesday Tagged: Christian, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Heaven Sent, inspiration

Avoiding Burglaries

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

I received this information in an email and forwarded it to a number of friends. Renee Jacobson suggested that the information was so important I should put it into a blog post, which I decided to do. I hope you find it important also.

NOT ALL THIEVES ARE STUPID!!

1.  Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car’s registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people’s home in Pebble Beach and robbed it. So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener.  This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic  technology.

2.  GPS.  Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game.

Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans.  Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and aGPS which had been  prominently mounted on the dashboard.  When the victims got home, they found their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.  The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house.  The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house.  It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS – don’t put your home address in it. Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

3.  CELL PHONES I never thought of this. This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cellphone, credit card, wallet, etc, was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby said ‘I received your text asking about our Pin number and I replied a little while ago.’  When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.

The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text ‘hubby’ in the contact list and got hold of the pin number.  Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Moral of the lesson:

a.  Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.  Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.

b.  And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

c.  Also, when you’re being sent  texts by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don’t reach them, be very careful about going places to meet ‘family and friends’ who text you.

Have you or someone you know had to deal with any of these things? We love hearing from you.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Freestyle Friday Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Avoid Burglaries, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Personal development, Self-help

Worry

 

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Two weeks ago, we talked about dealing with inner demons. Last week we talked about “Bootstrap” Christianity—how to engender Christian growth. Today, we’re going to deal with a closely related but slightly different subject.

Sunday, I attended church with my daughter and her family, since we were down there visiting them for the weekend. The sermon was on the subject of worry.

Sound familiar? Are you a worrier? What things do you worry about? This preacher based his sermon on the sixth chapter of Matthew. This is right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and the words are all Jesus’s.

Let’s go through this verse by verse, because each is important in putting worry into its proper place, starting with verse 25.

25. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

He starts off with the general instruction for us not to worry—about our lives, our food, our drink, or our clothing. Basically, He’s telling us not to worry about anything.

26. Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Here He gives us some specific examples of how God takes care of His creatures. If He takes care of their needs, how much more so will He take care of ours. Where does that leave any room for worry?

27. And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

I love this one. Can you or I add an hour to our lives by worrying? Can we really ever change anything by worrying?

28. And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29. yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

Most of us enjoy looking at pretty flowers, shrubs and trees. Do you ever stop to wonder how they got to be so pretty? Certainly not by worrying about their appearance. The very thought is ludicrous. The beauty of bed of flowers or shrubs or a tree comes directly from God. He made them the way they are for His own pleasure, and He allows us to enjoy the beauty of them along with Him.

30. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

Why do we think the God who created us to be special among all His creatures would care less about our nurture than he does about the grass and flowers and such? Jesus says He will much more see to our clothing, which is to say He will much more see to all of our needs.

31. Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32. For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

In these verses He sums up what He’s been talking about, telling us to quit worrying. He says to Gentiles, which is used here to mean heathens, or non-believers, seek after all these things. Further, He says our heavenly Father knows we need these things. Our heavenly Father knows all our needs. We have no needs that come as a surprise to Him.

33. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Here, we have the key verse of the whole discourse. How backward we are in our approach. We seek to “get things” first—food, clothing, shelter, new cars, jewelry, and all manner of other things—and then when we get all that taken care of, we may give a few minutes of our time to think about God. Even then, we don’t truly seek His kingdom and His righteousness. Most of the time, our relationship with Him consists of muttering a few words of prayer now and then, and even then we’re usually asking Him to give us something.

Jesus is telling us here to reverse our way of doing things. First—before giving thought to our needs and wants—seek Him. Seek His kingdom. Seek His righteousness. Seek Him. When we do that, He will see to it that our needs are met.

31. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As a wrap-up, Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow. I’ve heard it said many times that when we worry, we rob ourselves of both yesterday and tomorrow. It would appear Jesus concurs with that.

If I worry about something, and it doesn’t come to pass, that worry is totally wasted. On the other hand, if I worry about something that does come to pass, my worry has not prevented it from coming or even diminished the effect of it. Any worry on my part is absolutely useless. Far better to seek Him and let Him take care of my needs. Won’t you cast your cares on Him?

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Terrific Tuesday Tagged: Christian, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sermon on the Mount