One of my favorite
books is Finishing Strong, written by
Steve Farrar. The audience he addresses
is men - husbands and fathers. The gist
of the book is found on the back cover.
Farrar writes, “When you look
around, you realize very few husbands and fathers are finishing strong. The man who hangs in there for the long haul
with his wife, his kids, and his Lord is an exception these days.”
I agree. Just look around
as Farrar said. Look at our world and the men who lead it. Better yet, look around your church, your
family, and among your friends. Look at
yourself. How many of us are striving to finish strong, to finish well?
How many of us are flirting with disaster, living too close to the
edge? How many are neglecting their
family? We see wives and husbands who
are pursuing their own interests as if they’re not even married. Homes have become nothing more than roadside rest
areas where we eat, sleep, and shower.
While I don’t want
to get too sentimental, I feel compelled to remind us of the marriages that
have gone before us. I think of men and
women who struggled together and stayed together when it would have been much
easier to give up and search for greener pastures. For me, I have such pleasant memories of
couples that stayed married for life.
Couples like Rudolph and Arlene, Huel and Gladys, Jimmy and Zella,
Robert and Mildred, Lester and Ethel, and the list goes on. These are some of the couples who, when I was
a kid growing up, were the “old people.”
They were old and they had old values.
Values that never changed because they were based on God and His
will. These couples finished
strong. God help us do the same. How? Farrar tells us
how to finish strong. He believes there
are four things that will help any of us, who want to, finish strong. He suggests:
Stay in.
Stay close.
Stay away.
Stay alert.
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