After reflecting, I realized it’s not so much what I would want out of it, but what benefits others have that I might be envious or resentful of. I came up with some very quickly.

• Job and income security, regardless of how much work I did or how I treated others.
• Prestige, prominence, and a sense of self importance.
• Money to buy whatever I wanted.
• Freedom to do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it.
• Claiming things as business expenses that are actually personal expenses.
• Ability to reward myself or be rewarded with bonuses for the results of others’ work.
• Ability to blame others for my mistakes and be taken seriously — the slickness to deflect criticism away from myself and toward others.

Now it’s not a good reflection on me that I came up with this list so quickly. These behaviors may be common in the average company or corporation in our fine country today (no wonder we’re in an economic crisis). But none of these behaviors are those I would want associated with me. These are not the legacy I want to leave or the person I want to be. They are obviously “deceptive food.” So why do I resent it so much when I see others employing and becoming wealthy with them?

I think of Asaph, who expressed similar thoughts in Psalm 73:3-8 “For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; the imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; they speak from on high.” Corporate executives might make $200 to $500K a year, but they’ll scheme to get rid of someone who makes $35K a year, and then give themselves a bonus for “reducing costs,” for “making the tough decisions.” If they really wanted to cut costs, they could start with their own salaries . . . but I digress.

This I’m certain of — envy and coveting are detrimental to my own goals of vitality, health and a close walk with God. The more time I spend fuming about things others do, the more frustrated and discontent I am, and the more useless and powerless I become. I can’t make someone else choose to do the right thing. My focus should be on doing the things I can do to make a situation better. I’ve been reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey (New York: Free Press, 1989, 2004). He quotes Samuel Johnson on p. 93:

The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.

This is a battle I have to win in my own mind. I have to believe that effectiveness and productivity are going to come by my choosing what is right, what has value, what will benefit others — what is true to the purposes and values I hold, regardless of what others do. As Asaph said, “When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.” Psalm 73:21-22 I don’t want to be like an ignorant beast. Envy and coveting are habits I’ve developed over the last 30 years, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that they have done me nothing but harm: my health, relationships, and emotions — all hurt by them. But as Steven Covey says, “Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.” That’s the tremendous privilege that God has given us — free will. I believe that with God’s help, I can eliminate these destructive habits from my life, and I’m committing myself to accomplishing this change.

• First is the free radical or oxidative theory, first advanced by Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D. in 1956. Free radicals are molecules that have lost an electron in their interaction with other molecules. Consequently, they become unstable and reactive and begin searching for another molecule that will provide the missing component. A free radical molecule will steal an electron from a healthy molecule, making the healthy molecule dysfunctional. We take antioxidants to control this chain of events.
• Second is the membrane theory, proposed by Imre S. Nagy. This theory states that cell membranes become less pliable as we grow older, due to the loss of lipid and water stored within each cell. This loss impedes the efficiency of the flow of fluids in and out of the cells, which can lead to toxic accumulations of cellular material, known as liposfucin. Several food items have been cited as being helpful to the cell membrane repairing process including lecithin, omega-3 oils, glucosamine, and essential fatty acids.
• Third is the mitochondrial theory. The mitochondria are tiny power plants in every cell of the body that supply energy. Cells cannot borrow energy from each other; so if the mitochondria of a particular cell fail, so does the cell. One of the best supplements to counteract this is acetyl-l-carnitine.
• Fourth is the telomeres theory of aging. Telomeres (the sequences of nucleic acids extending from the ends of chromosomes) shorten every time a cell divides, which is believed to lead to cellualr damage. Each time a cell divides, it duplicates itself a little less perfectly than the time before, and this eventually leads to cellular dysfunction and aging.
• Fifth is the hormonal theory, which states that as we age, our delicate hormonal mechanism breaks down and nearly all our beneficial hormones (HGH, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, melatonin, etc.) decline. At the same time, the pro-aging hormones (insulin, cortisol) incline! These simultaneous progressions cause unfortunate results.
• The last one I’ll mention is the glycation and protein carbonylation theory. The problem begins when the circulating glucose level in the blood is high. The excess glucose reacts with proteins such as collagen. The glucose bonds with the protein molecule or DNA, and the function of the protein or DNA becomes irreversibly compromised — a process called glycation. Glycation results in cross linking of proteins, which creates a sugar-damaged protein called an advanced glycation end product — AGE. A high number of these damaged proteins leads to premature aging.

All these processes appear to work in concert to do their dirty work. But I’d like to focus on glycation for now. The process of glycation occurs in everyone, but it’s much higher in people who are diabetic. In fact, the damage to skin collagen is twice as great in diabetics as it is in nondiabetics, which is why diabetics are more vulnerable to age spots and wrinkles. But AGEs will cause wrinkles and unwanted pigmentations in all of us. In addition to causing cosmetic damage to skin, AGE can wreak havoc on virtually all other body tissues. For example, if the proteins in the lens of the eye become damaged, cataracts and eventual blindness may occur. If the collagen in the arteries becomes damaged, fatty plaques could form and result in a heart attack. The glycation process in the brain has been cited as a possible culprit in Alzheimers and other neurodegnerative diseases. Arthritis has also been associated with AGEs. AND glycation can promote the formation of free radicals, so it enhances the aging processes of theory number one.

So what’s to be done? There are several supplements that are considered effective in preventing glycation: Benfotiamine (vitamin B1 variant), alpha lipoic acid (to be the subject of a later blog), and carnosine (also to be the subject of a later blog). Exercise is also effective — walking is a great way to lower blood sugar. Proper dental care has been associated with lower blood sugar. And we can change our diets. From what I’ve read, the ADA recommended diet doesn’t appear to lower blood sugar in anyone, but then I haven’t checked every record. I personally believe in a diet high in fruits and vegetables, limited in other complex carbohydrates, with several servings of healthy fats (olive oil, avocados, raw nuts, fish oil) and adequate complete proteins every day. And I eat very few sugar-laden products. I also have cinnamon in my food every day, since cinnamon has been shown to lower blood sugar.

The best approach is to figure out what works for you. If you have or can get hold of a glucometer, here’s a link to a flyer that recommends a common sense approach to determining which foods increase your blood sugar. Flyer

If you don’t know what your blood sugar is, but you believe you’re a candidate for diabetes or prediabetes, you should ask your doctor to perform a blood panel, including a fasting glucose and an A1C test. Even if your glucose level is normal but on the high side (normal fasting glucose is 70 to 110 mg/dL), work to lower your blood sugar before it becomes a problem. Not only will you not have to worry about the degenerative complications of diabetes, but you also won’t have to deal with the wrinkles and age spots caused by AGEs. That’s a couple of great benefits!

No, seriously! I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks, and I’ve lost inches around my waist and abdomen! Suck in your stomach. Focus on sucking in the lower abdominals (around your navel, in and up) as hard and as deep as you can for 15 to 60 seconds. Then relax and repeat for at least five minutes a day. Pretty basic, but it works. The longer and harder you hold it, the better your results.

For even better results, suck in your abdominals all day long whenever you think about it: while you’re driving in your car, while doing cardio, while sitting at your desk, while eating meals — just whenever you think about it. It will flatten your tummy, strengthen your back, improve your posture, and improve your breathing.

Be aware, though, that sucking in your gut won’t help you lose weight — it just helps strengthen your transverse abdominus muscles. To lose that belly fat, you need to stick with the diet and cardio.

• Not keeping track of papers can become expensive. Late fees for credit card payments rose to $18.1 billion in 2006 from $17.1 billion in 2005. Robert Hammer, RK Hammer Advisors, 2007
• From a survey of 1,000 middle managers of large companies in the U.S. and U.K., 59% miss important information almost every day because it exists within the company but they cannot find it. Accenture, Wall Street Journal, 5/14/2007
• Fifteen percent of all paper handled in businesses is lost, according to the Delphi Group, a Boston consultancy, and 30 percent of employees’ time is spent trying to find lost documents. Jane M. Von Bergen (Knight Ridder Newspapers), The Boston Globe, 3/21/2006
• According to a survey of 2,600 executives by Esselte, maker of Pendaflex and Dymo, FastCompany Magazine, 8/2004, executives waste six weeks per year searching for lost documents.
• Getting rid of excess clutter would eliminate 40 percent of housework in the average home. National Soap and Detergent Association

Peter Walsh says in his book, It’s All too Much (New York: Free Press, 2007), p. 13, “Clutter is insidious, a slow but steady tide. It enters your home little by little, usually over years. Clutter sucks life away. It leaves you depressed overwhelmed, lacking motivation, and unable to breathe. Clutter prevents you from enjoying the most precious, intimate moments in life. Clutter robs you of far more than the space it occupies — it steals your life!” While this may be worded more melodramatically than I would have worded it (my motto is, “When in doubt, throw it out”), there is no doubt that as you let “stuff” take over your house and workplace, it impacts you emotionally, mentally, and physically.

I believe that most people initially delay dealing with clutter because it doesn’t seem like a priority issue. Then, as the clutter increases, the task becomes unmanageable, and the thought of tackling such a monumental task is too much to even think about, much less take on. So the clutter takes over. But what we’re really dealing with is a lack of self discipline. You don’t have to deal with all the clutter in the house or office at once — just start by doing something, and then commit yourself to working on a room every week. If you’re one of those people paying into the $18.1 billion credit card late payment fees pot, you should move decluttering to one of the top priorities in your life!

I recommend you start by examining the importance in your life of the stuff you’re accumulating. What are your goals for your life? For your home? Does the stuff you’re storing add to the accomplishment of your goals? Do you have the kind of home that you envisioned having when you moved into it? Is it a place where you and your family can relax and get refreshed? Is the stuff adding to relaxation and refreshment or hindering it and negatively impacting the quality of your relationships?

If you have a problem with clutter, get started cleaning it up right away. Peter Walsh is a professional organizer from TLC’s series Clean Sweep. He organizes people’s homes for a living. And he recommends that you kick start the decluttering by setting aside a Saturday for all members of the family and work on the worst room. You should separate everything in the room into three groups: what you’re going to keep, what you’re going to throw away, and what you’re going to sell or give away. The keep pile gets put into place according to what you want to accomplish in the room, the throw away pile gets taken to the dump immediately (before you have time to change your mind), and the give away pile has to go out the door, never to come back in your house for any reason.

If you’re not up to a Saturday kick start, start TODAY by taking on a task you can get done: clean up your medicine cabinet, clean out the hall closet, organize the pantry, clean out the refrigerator, clean up the top shelf of your desk, etc. Work on one room a week. Put 15 to 30 minutes a day into it. Commit yourself to throwing out things you don’t use — there’s more at the store if you need it some unspecified time in the future. Keep going until you get the area cleared out.

Don’t try to excuse yourself out of cleaning up by saying you don’t have money to buy organization systems and tools. Those items usually just add to the clutter in your house, because you initially put things in them, but you don’t maintain the system. So a few years later, you accumulate the same amount of new clutter, plus you have a shelving or drawer unit with things in it that you’ve forgotten you have.

One more point I believe is important: organization is a tool to help you accomplish your goals. It’s not a task master, a ball and chain, or a club to beat yourself or others with. You need to analyze your objectives, and then apply the self discipline necessary to accomplish the appropriate level of organization. Organization isn’t about how you maintain your shoes or clothes, or how you file your bills. It’s about the level of order you need to achieve optimal productivity and creativity for family or co-workers. A lot of organization books seem to me to go overboard scheduling and establishing rules for every area of life, every moment of time. That might be effective for those particular personality types, but it won’t do a thing for you if you’re not already internally motivated to live that way. (And if you have a problem with clutter, you’re not internally motivated to live that way!)

For those of you that feel you need additional help to get organized, there’s actually an organization devoted to providing help to those suffering from clutter syndrome: National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization. They have conferences and various resources available for sale on their web site. Do what it takes to start decluttering right away. You’ll be amazed at how much more you’ll enjoy your time at work and home when things are set up in a user-friendly way. And you’ll save money by getting your bills paid on time, using the food in your freezer and pantry before it expires, and by not buying things you already have but have forgotten about.

I can’t say that my hands look beautiful now, but I do have visible nails on almost all of my fingers. This is a change for me - I haven’t had nails since my 30s. And I also noticed that my typing speed increased: before this year, I typed in the low 70s wpm, and now I type in the low 80s wpm, without me doing anything else different.

I believe the regular massage and exercise of my hands has been good for everything in my hands, including the joints, thus resulting in an increase in typing speed. The part about using the Claws product I ignore, but I try to do the exercises and massages every evening before I go to bed. Try it for a month and let me know if it helps you as well.

Just to get started, I’ve included a USDA table of the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbence Capacity) level of several common spices. ORAC is the measure of antioxidant capacity of a substance. I’ve also linked it back to the USDA page where I found it.

USDA ORAC database

Cinnamon

Turmeric

Oregano

Thyme

Red Pepper

Those listed above are my favorites. However, I have a large variety of spices available and sprinkle a few on anything I’m throwing together. My suggestions for incorporating spices into your life are:

1. Pick one spice that you try to ingest (in moderation) daily.
2. Pick a couple of spices that you use at least once a week.
3. Have a good variety of spices in your pantry and try them in soups, salads, and other dishes. You’ll soon discover some you’ll want to add to everything you cook.

Now, facial exercises may sound like a good idea, but think about it: all your wrinkles come about as a result of facial exercises. The wrinkles around the eyes come about from smiling and moving the muscles underneath. The lines around the mouth emerge after moving the lips (talking, smiling, eating, etc.) for many years. So why would moving these muscles even more than they already do decrease the amount of lines on your face?

As you know, facial muscles originate on the bone and attach directly to the skin. So every time you move the skin, you pull the muscle with it, generating more and more lines. That’s why I’m not sure that facial exercise will get you the results you are looking for, since moving the muscles is what causes lines in the first place. There is a certain electrical machine that stimulates deeper muscles under the skin of the face. I’ve seen good results from it. But exercising the muscles on your own will not get you very far.

Also, here’s a link to web site that presents the other side of this issue: Contrary Opinion.

I would like to respond to the points made by these beauty experts. If you wanted to tone up your arms, would you think that exercise was pointless since you move your arms around every day anyway? Of course not! There’s a big difference between the limited movements we make in our everyday lives and the muscle movement you get with controlled resistance training. And there’s nothing that will deal with the flab on our arms better than regular exercise of our arm muscles. Even Dr. Denese and Paula Begoun wouldn’t argue with that. And why wouldn’t they argue with that? Because they’ve done arm exercises and seen the results for themselves. To think that working muscles below the neck will have one kind of result, and working muscles above the neck will have a totally different result doesn’t seem entirely reasonable.

But I wanted you to read the other side for yourselves. All I can say is I tried it and I’m pleased with the results after eight months.

I first checked out several web sites, and decided to order Flex Effect®, which I tried for about three months. I could tell that it was doing something to my face within two weeks. My whole face felt different. I also had a significant adjustment period during which I had to get used to touching my face. I had allowed myself to be brainwashed into thinking that touching my face was bad for my skin. Now I realize how incorrect that is. Deb Crowley says in her FlexEffect® booklet, “It is not facial expressions or the handling of your face that cause lines and wrinkles. Lines and wrinkles are caused when skin cells lose vitality and lack resiliency. When this occurs, it enables facial expressions to set lines and folds. Which incidentally wouldn’t have happened in the time that it did had you handled your face in the first place.” And I have to concur. What I’ve learned and experienced in the last year has convinced me that the best thing for any part of your body, your skin included, is increasing blood flow to that area, which can best be done by exercise and appropriate massaging.

Two or three months after I started my FlexEffect® regime, I came down with a bug I couldn’t shake, plus I thought my face had started looking unusual, so I quit the facial exercising. However, I restarted it in April of 2008 and immediately saw results again. This time, I decided to stick with it. But because the FlexEffect® regime takes about 45 minutes a day, I decided to try Carolyn’s Facial Fitness™, since it said I could accomplish the same results in just 15 minutes a day. I received my DVD toward the end of April, and I have been doing the exercises ever since, averaging six days a week of muscle building. I must admit the exercises take me more like 25 minutes a day, but that’s a manageable time allotment for me. I also like the exercises because they include more massaging of the skin, but then I had already made the adjustment from “do not touch” to “touching okay” during my trial of FlexEffect®, (which is a very good program also).

I have never been one to take pictures of myself, so I don’t have before and after pictures. Also, I’d love to report that people have commented on how improved my skin looks, but that’s not the case either. However, I have personally noticed positive results, and I’d like to report those results to you:

1. Reduction of whiteheads and blemishes. I’ve always had oily, problem-ridden skin. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t clear it up. But within two weeks after starting facial exercising, I noticed a significant reduction of blemishes, especially those hard to eliminate whiteheads. My forehead had been covered with them for years, and now they’re practically gone. That alone makes these exercises worthwhile to me.

2. Evening out of skin tone. Having dealt with acne for 40 years, you can imagine how blotchy my skin is. Also, for about 15 years up to about 2003, I had constant problems with sinusitis and bronchitis. The frequent wiping of my nose with tissue broke many capillaries and made the area around my nose noticeably red. With just a few months of facial exercising, I’ve noticed my skin tone and the color of the area around my nose have significantly improved.

3. Reshaping the face. My whole face, neck and upper chest feel different - tighter - and I know that some of the sag has been taken up. Not all of it, unfortunately. And the skin under my eyes appears unchanged to me. There is one exercise I do where I put my thumb inside my mouth along my lower jaw, and grasp the skin between the thumb and fingers. Then I use the muscle to pull the skin through my fingers till my fingers and thumb reach the mouth. When I first started, the skin would fold over at the bottom forrow every time I pulled it through my fingers. Now I notice it doesn’t fold anymore, even when I try to get it to happen. So some skin tightening has apparently occured! When I check the before and after photos posted on some of the facial exercising web sites, I can see it takes a couple of years of consistent application before sagging skin appears to be eliminated. And since I believe this is already good for my skin even without sag reduction, it’s no problem for me to be motivated to keep going for a couple of years.

4. Better skin texture. There’s nothing like exercise to get blood to flow to a muscle. As I continue bringing blood flow to my facial muscles, I believe the condition of my dermis is being improved. And, as a result, the texture of my epidermis is becoming better. It’s smoother, some of the large pores have shrunk, some of the scarring seems to have filled in.

5. Relaxation of face muscles. I realized after I started exercising that some muscles in my forehead were in a permanent state of contraction. And the muscles default to the contracted condition when I’m not paying attention. Doing the exercises has helped restore flexibility to the muscles and has helped me to consciously relax them. I still have to pay attention, they still want to go back to the contracted state, but I believe they’re getting better.

Okay, here’s a link to my post on the negative opinions on facial exercising. Read up on it for yourselves and let me know your conclusions.

There’s not really much to report about answers to prayer. Of my 20 items, one was a definite “no,” which I can verify since the event is already passed. I replaced that item with something else of a longer term nature. But of the other 19 items on the list, I have to admit that I can’t say that there have been any answers to prayer. I do see some signs that God may be moving in some of the areas, but nothing to report yet. I continue on, being committed to a full 90 days of seeking God’s hand and blessing in these issues.

The Lord has placed it on my heart to write this article. I believe He gave me the gift of helps, because I changed the way I looked at my career and interacted with my employer after I became a Christian. And I’ve spent the rest of my Christian life helping someone. Helps is different from the gift of service. Service is task oriented - you see a job that needs to be done and step in to do it. Helps is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:28. [Helps ] antileempseis. This word occurs no where else in the New Testament. It is derived from antilambanoo, and denotes properly, “aid, assistance, help;” and then those who render aid, assistance, or help; helpers. (from Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Who can you help? Well, everyone with whom you come in contact. I believe helps is a ministry that is directed toward an individual, and is based on an understanding of the particular needs of that person. As wives, we’re called to be helpers to our husbands. Our children absolutely need our help. Our employers hire us because they need help. Our co-workers, friends and family members need help from us on occasion. Our brothers and sisters in Christ sometimes need our help.

Helping comes in three (or four) different formats. One, you do something for someone because they are unable to do the task for themselves. The most obvious example is young children, who are helpless without our assistance. Another example is if someone doesn’t know how to work a modern appliance or find something on the internet, you can help them by teaching them how to do the task for themselves. However if you continue to do something for someone and thereby prevent them from learning how to do that task for themselves, you’re no longer helping - you’re meddling. Parents sometimes make this mistake, continuing to control who their children listen to or interact with or what they’ll study in college, etc., when they should be teaching them how to maneuver themselves and make godly choices in a dangerous world. Or parents might do everything for their child: cooking, cleaning, laundry, all conversations with teachers/employers, filling out all applications, and so forth. This misapplied level of help usually creates someone who is unable to function when adulthood is reached.

The second form of help is a synergistic one. The person you’re helping is capable of doing things for him/herself, but they’re really gifted in certain areas. So to help them, you take on the tasks that slow them down so they can focus on doing the things they’re really gifted to do. The two of you divide up the work by who does what well. This results in a good relationship if it includes mutual respect for both sets of contributions. This would be an ideal scenario in a marriage, especially in the responsibilities associated with child rearing. It could also be the basis for excellent working relationships.

The third form of help is one that most helpers fall short on: confrontation. You have to find a positive way to point out destructive things others are doing - the things that will hurt their families or prevent them from reaching their goals. This is where a lot of Christian wives fall short. We usually either nag and openly criticize our husbands, or we’ll just accept their decisions under the guise of submitting to their leadership. I believe both positions are wrong. Consider the story in Joshua chapter 7 concerning Achan, who took things from Jericho that were under the ban. What in the world did his wife say when he brought that gold, silver and shawl back to the tent? I think I would have said, “What is that stuff you’ve got there? You’re not thinking about bringing that into the tent are you? You better take that to Joshua right now and tell him where you got it!” And if he hadn’t done that, I think I might have run it over to Joshua’s tent first opportunity. I certainly wouldn’t have said, “Well, he’s my husband, so I guess I just have to accept it and hope he changes his mind.” If your husband is about to make a mistake, you need to talk rationally to him as a partner and express your concerns and reservations about the choice he’s making on your behalf. Suggest options. It shouldn’t be comfortable for him to disobey God. God sees the two of you as one person, and the consequences of your husband’s actions will be your consequences as well, and your children will no doubt also be hurt.

The Lord often sent messages through wives, and He expected them to pass the message on to their husbands. Rebekah was the one the Lord communicated with regarding the two nations that would come out of her womb (Gen 25:22-23). The Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife first (and second), and she told her husband and made sure that he heard the same message (regarding the birth of Samson, Judges 13). Abigail saved her household and her own husband’s life because she stepped out and corrected an insult that had been issued to David. And she was commended as being beautiful AND intelligent - a praise God didn’t usually apply to women (1 Samuel 25). Esther was raised up for the purpose of appealing to her husband to stop the eradication of the Jewish people that Haman had planned and her husband had approved (Esther 4:13-14). And one of the most interesting cases is Pilate’s wife, who was warned in a dream that Pilate should have nothing to do with Jesus Christ’s judgment (Matt 17:19). I find it interesting that the dream is even mentioned in Scripture! I see it as the commendation of God for her obeying in that area.

Confrontation is also essential with friends and more distant family if you see them doing something that’s blatantly sinful or appears to be a significant mistake (leave the little issues alone). It’s a little harder with employers - they’re not interested in paying someone to point out their flaws. But I have seen it done successfully. It took patience, wisdom, time and the willingness for the helper to accept a certain amount of abuse; but it resulted in a significant improvement in the business.

And then the fourth form of help is encouragement. Not really a part of the helps gift - I know this from experience. This is an area where I need to grow. But encouragement is so necessary in our relationships today. It’s practically gone from the workplace. And it’s absent from many homes.

I believe that actual help occurs only when you’re wise in applying all three (or four) forms of help in your particular relationship. And true helpfulness can only come about when you have the other person’s success and accomplishment as your goal.

Everyone around us needs help today. And Jesus did say that if we want to be first in God’s kingdom, we’re to learn how to be servants of all. Approach your job this week as an employee committed to helping the company attain its goals. It will produce a job satisfaction you may not have experienced before. Or determine what it is your problem child needs most, and see if there’s some way you can help him/her attain that objective. It takes your attention off the difficult relationship, and places it in an arena where you can be proactive.