Staying Power, Sum it Up

Thanks for sticking around, I appreciate it.
As we wrap up this chapter, I need to ask the question: "What keeps men from staying put?"
A necessary follow up is, "How do we(I) not fall prey to these influences in our(my) home and family?"
In the middle of this chapter Stu sights some dire statistics, 1,420% rise in the divorce rate in approximately a 70 year span. Men that is only a lifetime, 3 1/2 generations. Our children are the "oddity" in their classrooms because they "only have two parents."
Stu sights a study that concluded that 42% of children of divorce have not had physical contact with the father in over a year. Children of today see this trend as "normal." These are old statistics, it is probably worse today.
Staying power is about honesty and integrity, plain and simple. We need to be the living example of what an honest man looks like in our home.

Read the lesson from Deut. 6:
"1 Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it,
2 so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
3 O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

and further:
"17 You should diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.
18 You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to give your fathers,
19by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.
20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?'
21 then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand.
22 'Moreover, the LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household;
23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.'
24 So the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today.
25 It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God, just as He commanded us." (NASB)

Please notice, these instructions are not "One and done" items. The language indicates a continuing action. "You shall (keep on) loving the LORD your God", "These words ... shall be on your heart (continually)", "You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD (every day)", "You shall (constantly) teach them diligently to your sons (and daughters)." (added emphasis mine)
These commandments are a lifestyle that is developed over time. This is how we learn staying power.

Near the end of this lesson, Stu gives us an ancient example (Job), a contemporary example (Orville for him) and a Perfect example, Jesus Himself, for us to use as patterns.
My encouragment is this: Find your own "Orville." Find this man who is willing to be your "Paul," who will mentor you along in your marriage, your job and your own Christian life.
Choose wisely.
Remember in "Facing the Giants" when the coach was teaching about giving their all with the "death crawl" He kept shouting "Don't Give up, don't you quit until there is nothing left!"
In His service,
Garry