This week

• Shaving with expensive razors just got cheaper – here’s how you can save a bundle and still get a close shave… .…
• If your depression is caused by a physical ailment, these natural solutions might just work for you…
• Frustrated by your spouse’s faults? The solution may have nothing to do with your spouse ... but a lot to do with this…
• Are your children struggling with school? This could be the problem – and the solution may surprise you…
• If you want success, you have to solve a lot of problems. But this one character flaw could prevent you from reaching your goals…
• The Nobel Prize winner who found God’s wisdom for his life ... by ignoring his wise friends. Learn why it made him a success and you, too, can achieve great things.…
• One thing every Christian needs from his church … if you want to grow spiritually, look for one that does this…
• How to make your emails go faster ... by applying pressure to them…

“The Bible teaches that Christians are totally different from anyone else.” -  
Peter Jeffery, Evangelicals Then and Now (Buy Now)

Health

Natural Ways to Beat Depression

If you suffer with depression, one of the best things you can do is to find ways to serve others. Selfishness is definitely a major cause of depression. But there are cases of depression that are caused by physical problems. A poor diet, for instance, can make you feel sluggish. And a mineral deficiency can rob you of your youthful vitality.

Unfortunately, medical science likes to throw drugs at the problem, instead of finding the root cause. Most drugs are designed to treat symptoms. And, as we saw last week, they can have fatal side effects in many people. Plus, they’re not always effective (NEJM 3-23-2006).

Instead, here a few things you should try (I’m assuming here that you’ve dealt with the spiritual aspect of the problem, which is where you should always start).

First, take care of the obvious:

• Make sure you’re eating a good clean diet with lots of vegetables and protein. A lot of people, especially those over 50, don’t get enough protein (which can lead to sluggishness).
• Stop eating sugar. Some people say it doesn’t have any effect on your body, but I notice a big difference in how I feel when I eat too much sugar.
• Get plenty of exercise. This one alone can fix many cases of depression.
• Stop smoking. Yes, many Christians smoke regularly. And it can depress your immune system and your energy levels.

Second, try these supplements:

• Take a good quality multivitamin. Most of the ones at your local grocery store don’t qualify as “quality.” Find one that you have to take at least twice a day and is rich in nutrients.
• Take additional vitamin B6 (100-200 mg) and magnesium (100-300 mg). Both of these help increase your body’s serotonin levels – a “feel good” chemical made in your brain.
• Studies have found that the nutrients St. John’s wort (300-900 mg daily) and selenium (200 mcg daily) can fight depression as well as Prozac, without the side effects. (Findings reported at the 83rd annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.)

Finally, learn how to deal with conflict. Poor relationships can cause all kinds of health problems, including depression, cancer, and heart disease. I’ll have more on this in future issues of Wisdom’s Edge.

– Steve Kroening

Source: Second Opinion Newsletter; 64th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Psychosomatic Society in Denver, March 4, 2006.

Parenting & Education

What We Learned From Our Kids Helped Us Teach Them More Effectively

In 1986 my wife and I began home schooling. Now, 20 years later, we realize we’ve learned some lessons along the way. One of these lessons was understanding the difference in the way some children learn. And it was a difficult lesson for us. Perhaps our hard knocks can help you – even if you don’t home school.

You see, our first two children lulled us into a false sense of security. My wife had taught our first two children to read by the time they were four years old. They loved books. They loved reading. All we had to do was give them something to read and they’d be off with a new spurt of learning energy.

But then came the challenge in the family. Peter was our third and quietest child. He loved to play with Legos. He could build these complex models without any visual aids by the time he was three. He, too, learned to read by the age of four. But that’s where it stopped.

You see, Pete had no desire to read. The problem was not that he could not read, because he could read with the best of them. It was just that he did not like to read. And he still doesn’t. But it took us a few years to catch on to this. When at the end of the day we found he had finished none of his schoolwork, we initially thought he was lazy, rebellious, or just disinterested in learning. We were wrong on all counts.

What my wife eventually discovered was that if she sat with Pete and read his schoolwork to him, he would then pass any tests with flying colors. In fact, his test scores were better than his older brother and sister. We had on our hands something we were unfamiliar with at that time: an auditory learner.

We learned the hard way that some children like to learn by reading, while some like to learn by listening. And there’s another group that likes to learn by doing things.

So, if you’re having just a little frustration with your own children in the home, it may well be that there’s some kind of conflict going on with their learning style and the way you as a parent are trying to teach them. This can happen even if you’re not home schooling.

Therefore, be considerate of the gifts God has given to your child, and try to adapt any lessons you have for them to their learning styles. Do not in any way compromise your standards of what you want them to do. But be flexible in your presentation and handling of the lessons that you give them from day to day.

If you want more help, along with some practical assessment sheets to help, check out Discover Your Child's Learning Style, by Mariaemma Willis, MS.

– Ian Hodge

Success

How a Hot Temper Leads to Failure

Last week, in the Marriage and Relationship section, we discussed how people who regularly get angry can, in fact, control their tempers. This week, I’d like to show you how anger actually hinders you from achieving real success.

When someone – it could be a spouse, an employee, a friend, a child, or anyone – comes to you with a problem, it’s not always at the most convenient time. In those moments, it’s quite simple to greet that problem with a quick burst of anger. It will usually get rid of the problem – and the person. But were you a success?

Only if you think success is alienating or crushing other people and ignoring the problem. As usual, the Scriptures show us the truth in this matter. In Proverbs 29:22, it says, “A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression.” In other words, a man who losses his temper is a problem creator, not a problem solver.

On the other hand, Proverbs 15:18 says, “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.” Contention is another word for conflict – it’s a problem. And this verse clearly says that controlling your temper is a key to problem solving.

In order to solve problems, you have to think. Exploding in anger doesn’t take much thought. Rather, it’s a decision (almost always a bad decision) based on emotion rather than reason. To make wise decisions – problem-solving decisions – you have to control your temper and find the proper action; one that’s based on knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

– Steve Kroening

Wisdom From History

This One Man’s Devotion to Serve God and Man Won Him the Nobel Peace Prize

One moment, Albert Schweitzer's friends and colleagues were insisting his plan to take over a mission hospital in Africa was folly. The next, they were cutting him checks.

Schweitzer (1875-1965), who won the '53 Nobel Peace Prize for 40 years of work on behalf of Africa's poor, never let himself be deterred.

At the age of 21, he decided two things. First, he would fulfill his aspirations of working as a teacher, theologian and organist until the age of 30.After that, he would dedicate his life to others.

During the intervening nine years, he planned to search out the best way to serve. Yes, he'd devote himself to others, but he also wanted to ensure the work would suit him.

Schweitzer naturally thought first of some activity in Europe, he recalled, but was turned off by bureaucracy. He once offered to take in orphans after an orphanage in Strasbourg (then in Germany) burned. But the orphanage superintendent dismissed his offer out of hand.

Such experiences led him away from large organizations. What he wanted was an absolutely personal and independent activity.

At 29, he saw a report from the Paris Missionary Society bemoaning a shortage of doctors in French Equatorial Africa, and his path became clear. The following year, he took up medicine with a view toward working in Africa. At 37, with his medical degree in hand, he petitioned friends, family and colleagues for funds to help Africa's poor.

They insisted he'd gone mad. Brilliant and influential, he could best serve the needy by lecturing in Europe, one friend insisted. Other friends said he'd be wasting his gifts for being a preacher, theologian, musician, and philanthropist.

But Schweitzer was armed with an unwavering faith that God meant him to serve man directly. He pursued his goal with single-minded determination….

Schweitzer's medical work alone could have occupied him 24 hours a day. While he constantly battled fatigue, he stayed productive and fought off exhaustion by being tightly focused, says Dr. Edgar Berman, a surgeon who worked with him at Lambarene.

One of the great sources of his productivity in Africa was his almost superhuman power of concentration, Berman wrote in his memoirs, In Africa With Schweitzer.

It seemed he could work as well in the maelstrom of his pharmacy office as he could in his study. At times he seemed to enjoy interruptions by the most trivial of distractions but was always able to get back to his writings without missing a comma.

Schweitzer cultivated this skill by constantly reminding himself of his greater goal - to serve man. That way he could approach all tasks with equal enthusiasm

– Sherry Kuczynski

(Quoted from “Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer,” Investor’s Business Daily, May 8, 1998.)

Word for the Wise

When You Leave Church, Are You Prepared for Action?

"for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ"  Ephesians 4:12

Equipping – Years ago I traveled to Corfu, one of the Greek islands.  The blue Mediterranean sea lapped against the brilliant white stone.  On most beaches, you could find a few old men repairing fishing nets, meticulously tying together broken lines.  They had to job of equipping, making things ready to go.  If I had spoken to them, they would have used the Greek verb kataritizo, the root behind the word in this verse.  It's all about repairing, mending and preparing.  The imagery would have been comfortably at home in Jesus' discussion of fishing.  There is more to catching fish (or men) than simply casting out nets.  A lot of time has to go into making the necessary repairs and preparation so that when the nets are dropped into the sea, the catch can be pulled into the boat.

Paul suggests that the roles God gives to individuals within the church have this common purpose:  to make ready the saints for the task at hand.  Is that how your church operates?  Do you come away from the service feeling mended, ready to go back to fishing?  Is your church teaching you the depths of God's word so that you will be fully prepared to function in a hostile world?  Or does your church really exist to offer you shelter, relief or entertainment?  In other words, is it a place of training, heart mending, and mind repair or is it a place dedicated to "feel good" isolation from the sins of the world?

Do you want to know why the church is so weak today?  Why it seems to have so little impact of the culture?  So little relevance?  It's not because of programming or productions.  It's not for lack of money or buildings or advertisement.  The church is inept because it no longer considers equipping its number one purpose.  The church never existed to protect us from the world.

The church is boot camp.  Its role is to prepare us to fight for the Kingdom in the world.  The church must be the place where I am stretched, challenged, taught (that's not the same as "preached to"), prepared and empowered to take Jesus to the marketplace.  The church succeeds when it loses its members to God's greater calling, not when it focuses on growing by accumulation.  I am waiting for the day that the local congregation celebrates the members who are leaving to serve God beyond the walls instead of bemoaning the loss of a registered pew-sitter….

Is that the kind of church you attend?  A place where you are filled to capacity so that you can leave ready to go do His will?

– Skip Moen

(Ed. Note: Skip Moen, PhD, is the president of At God’s Table and the author of Words to Lead By.)

The Time Shaver

Save Time E-Mailing Digital Photos!

E-mailing digital photos for most is not a Time-Shaver friendly event. If you’re sending photos primarily to be viewed on a computer, you’re probably sending files that are much larger than necessary. Next time, try compressing.

How do I compress?

(1) Your camera has settings for higher and lower resolution. In my business, the 640 x 480 setting works just fine, even though I have a camera capable of much higher settings. My photos are arranged six to a page and are used as a general reference. I learned early on that 10 MB files were not appreciated or sometimes even received by my clients. Being able to combine 24 images and 18 pages of text into a 750K PDF file Shaves Time for both my clients and my company.

(2) We take our family photos at high-resolution settings, which creates very large files.  When e-mailing to family for simple viewing, we like to use Microsoft Outlook’s built in compression tool. Here’s how you do it in less than three seconds:

(A) Attach your photos using the Insert File function.

(B) Select “Attachment Options” if it is not already open.

(C) Select the pull-down menu under “Select picture size”

(D) Select a size. The smaller the faster!

(E) Send!

The “small” selection will convert a 1 MB file into about a 35K file! My upload on one image dropped from 42 to 2 seconds! That’s a great Time Shavings! Also remember, when you compress, you are removing information from your image. As long as there is no need to zoom into the image or print at photo quality, the image will look just fine.  Not convinced? Experiment! Email yourself some images.

– Dale Gramith (TheTimeShaver@adelphia.net)

PS – Shave additional Time by passing this tip on to your friends and relatives who keep sending you those bloated photos!

 Resources

Discover Your Child’s Learning Style, by Mariaemma Willis, MS (BUY NOW)

Evangelicals Then and Now, Peter Jeffery, Evangelical Press (BUY NOW)

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