{"id":1240,"date":"2019-11-22T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=1240"},"modified":"2019-11-22T08:08:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T13:08:02","slug":"im-thankful-for-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/11\/22\/im-thankful-for-brothers\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019M THANKFUL FOR BROTHERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cBut if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/\u201cAs soon as you inject a book with links and connect it to the Web - as soon as you \u201cextend\u201d and \u201cenhance\u201d it and make it \u201cdynamic\u201d - you change what it is and you change, as well, the experience of reading it\u201d (Carr, 2010, p. 102).   I think this statement from Carr states how the internet has and is changing book reading.  I read books primarily on Kindle.  Rarely do I use a hard copy book.  When I\u2019m reading one book and it refers to another I might find interesting, I often stop reading, find the other book on Amazon and download it for future reading.    I honestly don\u2019t know how I will read books in the future.  I never imagined I would be reading books the way I am now when I was a child reading my coveted hardback Nancy Drew mysteries.  As lost as I would get in books back then, I never dreamed of the world we have today.  Not once did I think I would have access to millions of books in a moment, able to download them instantaneously.  Never did I imagine not needing to go to the library or store to find a book.  I find the fact even the majority of our textbooks are on Kindle to be amazing.  When I graduated college 25 years ago, we still had to go to the bookstore for all of our needs, praying we could still get used ones, or they would buy them back at the end of the semester.  I have yet to walk into Regent\u2019s book store.  I can only imagine how we will read 25 years from now.\">1 Timothy 5:8 CSB<\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the beginning of this section of Scripture in my Bible, it says: \u201cThe Support of Widows,\u201d God is telling us how to take care of family.\u00a0 I was blessed with four brothers, men who know how to do this well.  All of them have helped take care of me over my lifetime, I would not have the life I have if it wasn\u2019t for them.\u00a0 My mother was a widow, they took care of her well, so well she never remarried.  My brother Butch gave me vision.  He went to college first, when no one else in our family had, he gave me vision for my life.\u00a0 My brother Dutch gave me fatherly love. When my Dad died and Mom was at wit&#8217;s end with my poor behavior, Dutch took me into his home and gave me another chance at life.  My brother Matt gave me strength.  Our relationship has sharpened me more than any other, because we are so alike.\u00a0 We\u2019ve wrestled with each other to get to maturity, and through it became friends.  My brother Ron gave me faith.  His journey with God started before mine, I followed him back to Jesus when my life was in a pit.  I am thankful for these men who have helped shape my life.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Siblings do shape our lives, they are among the elite who knows you better than anyone else.&nbsp; They know your shortcomings and love to remind you of them.  The challenge of loving siblings will grow our love muscles better than most.&nbsp; In everyone\u2019s life, hopefully, there comes a point where you realize you\u2019re not a kid anymore.  You can\u2019t get away with doing stupid things and blame it on not knowing.&nbsp; Siblings are the ones who help you realize it.  They do this by reminding you of your past mistakes, helping you learn from those mistakes so you can do better next time.&nbsp; Unfortunately, we may not take their input well, after all, they are our siblings.  But maybe we should.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m finally beginning to understand some of the things my brothers have been trying to tell me.&nbsp; Especially Matt, he was the one whose input I didn\u2019t want but he\u2019s the one I should have been listening too.&nbsp; Instead of constantly fighting with him, I should have spent time listening to what he was trying to tell me.  Now I\u2019m beginning to understand, now I\u2019m realizing, he wasn\u2019t trying to keep me from having fun, he was protecting me.&nbsp; The same thing God does for us when He tells us not to do things like lie, steal and cheat.  He doesn\u2019t tell us these things because He doesn\u2019t want us to have fun, He tells us these things so we won\u2019t hurt ourselves.  I\u2019m thankful for brothers because God used them to grow me closer to Him.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today I\u2019m thankful for brothers.&nbsp; What are you thankful for?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBut if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.\u201d 1 Timothy 5:8 CSB At the beginning of this section of Scripture in my Bible, it says: \u201cThe Support of Widows,\u201d God is telling us how to take care&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/11\/22\/im-thankful-for-brothers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">I\u2019M THANKFUL FOR BROTHERS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1335,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions\/1335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}