YEARS AGO, I listened as Anna Sklar, the author of a book titled Runaway Wives, shared some shocking statistics:
Early in the twentieth century, for every wife or mother who walked away from her home and responsibilities, six hundred husbands and fathers did so. Just ten years later, after the women's liberation movement, for each man who did that, two women did the same.
Pause and let that sink in. Do the math.
I'm not advocating either side, but I'm just amazed at the unbelievably rapid rise in modern-day women who choose escape as their favorite method of coping. There is not an achievement worth remembering that isn't stained with the blood of diligence and checkered with the scars of disappointment. To quit may feel good now, but it's a bummer when life's bills come due.
Churchill put it well:
Wars are not won by evacuations.
Battles are won in the trenches, in the grit and grime of courageous determination . . . not by a violent jerk now and then but a prolonged pull, day in and day out. The same is true of our salvation.
The man who bore on his body "the scars that show [he belongs] to Jesus" (Galatians 6:17) was a living example of his own counsel:
My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. . . . Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.
Giving thought to giving up? Considering the possibility of quitting? Looking for an easy way out? Entertaining the idea of running away . . . stopping before it's finished . . . escaping from reality? Admittedly, the holiday season only encourages such feelings of despair.
Don't! Instead, I urge you to draw near to God and to His people. Don't retreat, but rather surround yourself with loving, supportive friends. And let God be gracious to you. It's always harder to quit when a few friends stand with you.
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord . . . Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved. The full devotional can be purchased at tyndale.com.
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
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