Me: Recognizing your temptations is the first step to resisting them.

Prodigal: Very true!

This is from the book No Man Is An Island by Thomas Merton

If my will is meant to perfect its freedom in serving another will, that does not mean it will find its perfection in serving every other will. In fact, there is only one will in whose service I can find perfection and freedom. To give my freedom blindly to a being equal to or inferior to myself is to degrade myself and throw away my freedom. I can only become perfectly free by serving the will of God. If I do, in fact, obey other men and serve them it is not for their sake alone that I will do so, but because their will is the sacrament of the will of God. Obedience to man has no meaning unless it is primarily obedience to God. From this flow many consequences. Where there is no faith in God there can be no real order; therefore, where there is no faith obedience is without any sense. It can only be imposed on others as a matter of expediency. If there is no God, no government is logical except tyranny. And in actual fact, states that reject the idea of God tend either to tyranny or to open disorder. In either case, the end is disorder, because tyranny is itself a disorder.

And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: Deuteronomy 26:10 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: Give God what’s right, not what’s left.

Me: Yes, Lord guide us to what is right.

This is from Sandy Seltzer

Dustin, my California-bred guide dog, was having trouble outside our Long Island apartment. This was his first snow storm and he was confused. I’m blind, and I wasn’t doing so well either. No one was out, so there were no sounds to steer me. Contrary to what many people think, guide dogs do not find the way for a blind person. The blind person directs the dog.

After a harrowing forty-five minutes, Dustin and I finally made it back. But guide dogs must be walked regularly. “Next time why don’t you ask God to go with you?” a friend suggested. And so I did. “Lord, go with Dustin and me. The wind is so fierce it’s hard to concentrate on our direction. Lead us.”

Snow stung our faces and it was difficult to make a path. Dustin whined a little. “Okay, boy,” I said to him, “the Lord is with us.” And then I gave him a command that a blind person gives only when another person is leading the way: “Dustin, follow!”

Dustin perked up and to my astonishment took off as though he knew exactly where to go. We made it to the street, then headed back to our building–no problem.

A young woman trudged up and offered to walk us to our door. “We’ll just follow your footprints,” she said. “Yours and the dog’s, and that other person’s.”

“What other person?” I asked.

“There’s a dog’s prints. And your prints. And a larger person’s prints. Wasn’t someone with you?”

I paused for a moment and then I answered, “Oh yes, there was Someone with us.” There always is.

They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. Nehemiah 4:17 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Me: I have something to share.

Prodigal: Go ahead!

This is from Ruth Harms Calkin

You know, Lord, how I serve You

With great emotional fervor

In the limelight.

You know how eagerly I speak for You

At the women’s club.

You know how I effervesce when I promote

A fellowship group.

You know my genuine enthusiam

At a Bible study.

But how would I react, I wonder

If You pointed to a basin of water

And asked me to wash the calloused feet

Of a bent and wrinkled old woman

Day after day

Month after month

In a room where nobody saw

And nobody knew.

God looked down from heaven upon the children of men,
to see if there were any that did understand,
that did seek God. Psalm 53:2 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Me: I have some truth and wisdom for you.

Prodigal: Let’s hear it!

This is from Choose Love by Stormie Omartian

Every time you read God’s Word with the idea that it is living and powerful, God will speak to your spirit and soul. If you invite Him to, He will touch you and change you. He will open your eyes to His truth and give you wisdom that will bring you into the realm of the truly wise. With such a strong lying spirit in the world today, God’s Word gives you the truth. And we will all need that in order to combat the lies of the enemy and stay on the right path.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making the wise the simple, the statues of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:7-8). You will love that His Word is true and His laws are right. Your heart will rejoice over their absolute dependability.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Mathew 4:4

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: They grow up fast.

Me: Yes, they do!

This is from How to Have That Difficult Conversation by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

All parents need to come to terms with this reality: One day your child will be on her own in the world. It is sad but true that your child is on the way out as you read these words. This is the goal of parenting. The parent-child relationship is unique: It is the only God-designed relationship whose goal is separation, not connection. Your child’s leaving sometimes hurts so much because your heart investment in her wants her to stay, but God has designed her to use that very same investment to leave and find the way of God for herself.

A righteous man is cautious in friendship (Proverbs 12:26)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: It’s not open yet.

Me: It will be soon.

This is from Timeless Stories by Vance Christie

On 18 September 1838, all available funds for George Muller’s three orphan houses had been exhausted. Muller and his staff had been praying earnestly about the pressing need but received no apparent answer. Consideration was even being given to selling some household items deemed not absolutely essential in order to provide the next day’s food.

The middle of the afternoon a lady called at Muller’s home. She explained that she had come from London to Bristol four or five days earlier and had been staying right next door to the boy’s orphan house that entire time. She then presented Muller with a contribution to his ministry from her daughter in London.

Muller later wrote: “That money had been so near the Orphan Houses for several days without being given, is a plain proof that ti was from the beginning in the heart of God to help us; but, because He delights in the prayers of His children, He had allowed us to pray so long; also to try our faith, and to make the answer so much the sweeter.

And they went out, and preached that men should repent. Mark 6:12 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: God is good!

Me: All the time.

This is from I. Watts

To heaven I lift my waiting eyes;

There all my hopes are laid;

The Lord that built the earth and skies

Is my perpetual aid.

And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. 2. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Mark 6:1-2) KJV

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: I’m rich!

Me: Let’s talk about another type of richness.

This is from Thomas Merton: No Man is an Island.

God Who is infinitely rich became man in order to experience the poverty and misery of fallen man, not because He needed this experience but because we needed His example. Now that we have seen His love, let us love one another as He has loved us. Thus His love will work in our hearts and transform us into Himself.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James 4:14 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: Here is a spiritual leader!

Me: I AGREE!

This is from A Spiritual Clinic by J. Oswald Sanders

Courses in leadership are the order of the day, a tacit admission that leaders are in short supply. The fact is that there has always been a dearth of leaders of the right caliber, whether it be in secular or in sacred realms. In the Scriptures God is frequently represented as searching for a man of a certain type. “The LORD has sought him a man after his own heart” (1 Sam 13:14). “I beheld, and lo, there was no man” (Jer 4:25). “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see….if ye can find a man…that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it” (Jer. 5:1) “I sought for a man…that should…stand in the gap” (Ezek 22:30 ASV) And when He does discover a man who conforms to His spiritual requirements–a John Wesley, a William Booth, a Hudson Taylor, a Billy Graham–despite their obvious limitations and shortcomings, it seems as though there is no limit to what He will do for and through them.

One of the greatest needs of the church today is for authoritative, spiritual, and sacrificial leadership. Authoritative, because people love to be led by one who knows where he is going and who inspires their confidence. Spiritual, because a leadership which is carnal and explainable in terms of the natural, be it ever so competent, can result only in sterility and spiritual bankruptcy. Sacrificial, because it is modeled on the life of One who gave Himself a sacrifice for the whole world, and who stated that the path to leadership was by the lonely road of sacrificial service.

All things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prodigal: I think I’m gettin’ the big head.

Me: Maybe look to God for humility then.

This is from the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

What a solemn thought, that our love to God will be measured by our everyday intercourse with men and the love it displays; and that our love to God will be found to be a delusion, except as its truth is proved in standing the test of daily life with our fellow-men. It is even so with our humility. It is easy to think we humble ourselves before God; humility towards men will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real; that humility has taken up its abode in us; and become our very nature; that we actually, like Christ, have made ourselves of no reputation. When in the presence of God lowliness of heart has become, not a posture we pray to Him, but the very spirit of our life, it will manifest itself in all our bearing towards our brethren. The lesson is one of deep import: the only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignificance of daily life are the importance and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us. It is in our most unguarded moments that we really show and see what we are. To know the humble man, to know how the humble man behaves, you must follow him in the common course of daily life.

And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. Matthew 1:25 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org