\u201cWhen I am filled with cares, your comfort brings me joy.\u201d Psalm 94:19 CSB
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I\u2019m in the process of writing a paper on Fred Rogers from Mister Rogers Neighborhood. He was an amazing man, his heart for the Lord knew no bounds. The stories of how he shared Christ\u2019s love with children truly touch the heart strings. He also has taught me something about discipline. I\u2019ve always thought I was disciplined, but compared to Mister Rogers, I\u2019ve got a long way to go. Grateful God doesn\u2019t play the comparison game, and neither should we. But I do love when God reveals areas to me where I need work, like He did yesterday.
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Mister Rogers weighed 143 pounds all of his life. Every morning he would get up and swim, then he would weigh himself to make sure the scale said 143. In order to maintain his weight he didn\u2019t drink or smoke, he never ate meat, he went to be early and rose early, always getting 8 hours of sleep. Believe it or not, he didn\u2019t even watch television. He was diligent about remaining 143 pounds for this one simple reason. 143 spelled \u201cI love you\u201d in Mister Rogers mind. This is how he explains his thinking: “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three. ‘I love you.’ Isn’t that wonderful?” Weighing 143 pounds is how Mister Rogers kept his mind focused on the love of God, for him and for others.
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The definition of discipline could be explained in 143 pounds. Mister Rogers was a man who had his eyes focused so clearly on God, he couldn\u2019t see much else. He didn\u2019t live an elaborate life. The infamous sweaters he wore on his show were made by his mother. He always took afternoon naps. He knew clearly what his purpose was here on earth, he believed deeply that we are all God\u2019s image bearers (Genesis 1:27). When he was dying he read Matthew 25 often, he would ask his wife, \u201cAm I a sheep?\u201d He was fearful he hadn\u2019t done enough for God in his time here on earth. Yet 16 years after his death, Fred Rogers Production has four children\u2019s show developed from Mister Rogers neighborhood that are still going strong, still sharing the love of Christ. Fred Rogers turned down lucrative financial deals from advertisers because he refused to market to children. He wanted to keep his message pure and relevant. He wasn\u2019t afraid to tackle the tough issues of divorce, assination, or racial tensions. He did it all with love.
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Mister Rogers was a man who knew how to be happy with what he had. He knew how to keep his eyes focused on Jesus. Day after day, he sought to live for the Lord and do the right thing. And each day, he kept his focus by starting out his day on the scale, weighing 143 pounds. Managing his weight was his way of telling the world, \u201cI love you.\u201d If we want to learn to be happy with what we have, we can learn a lot from Mister Rogers. As he always said, \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!\u201d
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\u201cWhen I am filled with cares, your comfort brings me joy.\u201d Psalm 94:19 CSB I\u2019m in the process of writing a paper on Fred Rogers from Mister Rogers Neighborhood. He was an amazing man, his heart for the Lord knew no bounds. The stories of how he shared Christ\u2019s love with children truly touch the… Continue reading BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE<\/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-986","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\/986","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=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}