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This week

• FINANCE: What you must do before you rent a car online. If you don't, you could end up paying a lot more than you intended...
• HEALTH: Why you may still be at high risk for heart attack even if your cholesterol is within a "normal" range. Take this test instead. It's more accurate and almost always covered by health insurance...
• MARRIAGE: If your spouse isn't meeting your needs, this may be the reason. And it's easy to fix...
• PARENTING: If your kids think you're unfair when you give them a job to do, they may be right. How to tell and what to do about it today...
• SUCCESS: The Christian stewardship principle that applies to both your investment portfolio as well as your waistline. Are you getting a positive return?...
• Are you tempted to become bitter in the face of tough times? This amazing woman resisted the temptation, which proved priceless when her son became king...
• One of the wisest, wealthiest kings in history tells when a big bank account is worth having ... and when it's no good at all...

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

Dear Wisdom Seeker,

We here at Wisdom's Edge thank God for you and hope you have a joyful and heart-felt Thanksgiving. Enjoy your time with friends and family. And give thanks to God for all His wonderful blessings. Psalm 92:1 says, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord."

– Steve Kroening

Health

This Test Predicts Heart Attack Risk Better Than Cholesterol

Did you know that there’s a test for predicting your heart attack risk that’s more accurate than cholesterol? The test is covered by practically every insurance plan, including Medicare. But most people I meet are still not asking for it.

Instead, most people settle for inferior tests when they have their annual check-ups. This is very risky business. The typical cholesterol test predicts heart disease less than half of the time. This explains why more than half of people who have heart attacks test within “normal” ranges for total cholesterol.

In fact, a shocking 80% of patients in the Framingham Study who had a cardiovascular event had normal results using the old method of testing.

Don’t get me wrong. Lipids (bodily substances that include the different forms of cholesterol) are a great measure of future health. But doctors need precise information. And the traditional cholesterol test doesn’t give results accurate enough for them to give good advice. In fact, the test doesn’t directly measure low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Instead, it indirectly calculates it.

And knowing your total cholesterol is simply not enough. For instance, did you know that LDL accounts for only 25% of the risk of premature cardiovascular disease? The remaining 75% represents “residual risk” from other risk factors — factors that are not included in the traditional test.

These other factors are exactly the ones measured by the VAP Cholesterol Test. VAP stands for Vertical Auto Profile. Unlike the traditional test, the VAP test directly measures LDL, and the lipoprotein subclasses, including very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], HDL subtypes (HDL2 and HDL3), and intermediate-density lipoprotein (IDL).

Here is what you need to know about some of the other factors measured by the VAP test. Elevated Lp(a), is called the “widow maker,” or the “heart attack cholesterol.” It’s an independent clinical risk factor for heart disease and stroke. It increases the risk of premature heart disease by up to 70%. Patients with high Lp(a) can reduce it with niacin. Lp(a) is quite a bit more dangerous than LDL and typical cholesterol tests don’t even measure it.

The VAP Test also measures LDL particle size. This is important because patients with small, dense LDL have quadruple the risk of developing heart disease. Fish oils increase LDL particle size. I also suggest that you be tested for two other known risk factors, homocysteine and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP).

All of this additional information allows doctors to identify up to 90% of at-risk patients. Your doctor simply will not get this kind of accuracy from the traditional test. He must use the VAP test to get the best picture of your cardiovascular risk!

– James Balch, MD

(Quoted from Prescriptions for Healthy Living, August 2006, 800-728-2288.)

Parenting

If Your Child Thinks You’re Unfair, This Could Be Why….

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve discussed how teaching your children to be leaders requires you to teach them to be good stewards. And to be a good steward requires both responsibility and accountability. Both are necessary in the biblical notion of stewardship. But there’s more. There is also measurement.

You can see how this works when your child goes to violin or piano lessons.  During the lesson, the teacher gives your child the responsibility to learn a particular piece of music. Your teacher (with your help) will hold your child accountable for this at his next lesson, which may be as soon as a week away. Now, when your child arrives at his lesson, the teacher will measure the progress that has been made.

It may be that the student has learned to play all the notes in the piece of music. Yet the teacher is not satisfied. “It is not the notes that are important,” says the teacher. “It is the way the notes are played that makes for good music.” So the student is sent home to practice the piece another week. This time the responsibility and accountability are virtually the same. But there’s an adjusted measurement in view.

Responsibility and accountability require measurability. It’s not possible to give a proper account of something if it cannot be measured. In business, it’s easy to do this in the sales department: count the dollars coming through the door. But how is measurement to be applied in the finance department or in operations? Here it’s necessary to set up work goals and schedules that can be measured.

In these departments, it will not be the sales dollars by which they are measured, but perhaps by the least number of dollars they spend to run their sections. Accountability will be measured in these areas by the commitments people make to fulfil tasks, then determining if that commitment is honored and upheld. In short, the integrity and honesty of the worker are at stake. The same is true for your child. If you give your child responsibility and accountability, but no way to measure success, then failure is the only possible outcome (unless your child is mature enough to measure his own progress, which is rare).

There are some aspects of this that need to be managed carefully. You have to keep your child’s experience in mind. And you have to assess (i.e., measure) his capabilities. A parent who treats his child fairly will always consider these things.

Other parents, who are less scrupulous, will use their child’s inexperience to belittle him, make him feel inferior, or use circumstances to make themselves appear superior. This is foolish parenting. A path of failure will also lead to failure in the parent-child relationship.

The wise parent, on the other hand, sets up pathways of success for his or her child. We see this principle very clearly in Scripture. In Luke 6:38, Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

So measure your children fairly and accurately, as every bit of it – and then some – will come back to you in some way. Your children also will understand better how you’re evaluating them and what you’re doing in their training.

These three areas of stewardship are applicable in every station of life. Whether you are a parent, business manager, or church leader, these principles apply.

But most of all, they apply to each of us personally. If I am to be a good steward, I must allow myself to be held accountable for those things for which I am the steward. And in order to be accountable, I need to be measured on how well I’m doing.

– Ian Hodge

Success

The #1 Rule for Investment Success – Begin Here Before Investing Another Dollar

You may have heard that the people who save more money early in their lives will earn more throughout their lives than someone who starts saving later. It’s very true. But it’s not all there is to successful investing.

There are some very important principles many Christians overlook when they invest. Some of them are tied very closely to the above-mentioned truth. Others are simply a matter of perspective.

The first principle is that everything you do is investing. Too often we think of investing only in terms of money. But you invest every single moment of your life.

It doesn’t matter if it’s eating, shopping, working, smoking a cigarette, or going on vacation. Every thought, every emotion, and every action is an investment into something. Some things you invest in have positive returns. Some have negative returns. And a few things break even.

Your job as a Christian is to evaluate everything you think, feel, and do in light of Scripture and invest all you can to produce positive, godly returns. For instance, does the food you eat energize you and make you more productive? Or does it make you tired and sluggish? If your answer is the former, then you are investing the time, energy, and money you spend on food wisely. But if you answer the latter, you are not only wasting that time, energy, and money, you are actually seeing a negative return on your investment.

Take this example and apply it to the first principle we discussed and you’ll see how this works over time. The longer you invest in good foods, the more productive you’ll be in the long term – and the longer you’ll be around to be productive (assuming you don’t die from an accident, war, or malice). But invest poorly in food for most of your life and the opposite is true. If you change your investment style later in life, it will be positive. But not nearly as positive if you had done so 20 or 30 years earlier.

You can apply the same principle to any other activity. Some of the positives are obvious, such as time in prayer, reading (though this can be a negative if you’re reading the wrong material), and time spent with family and friends (which can also be a negative if you don’t handle relationships in a godly way). And some negatives are just as obvious, such as sinful activities, smoking (drugs, etc), and playing the lottery (or any other high-risk activity).

Some things are not as obvious, but very important to evaluate appropriately. Take the amount of thought, emotion, and action you invest in work versus ministry … or ministry versus family … or family versus work. All of these things are good. All of them will generally produce positive returns on your investment. So which ones do you focus on?

Where you invest your resources (i.e., time, emotions, actions, and possessions),
will determine how successful you become in life.

Sometimes it’s very difficult to evaluate these areas and determine where we should invest the most. So the next couple of weeks we’ll discuss other principles of investment that can guide your evaluation process.

In the meantime, evaluate the more obvious investments in your life. Where do you spend your resources on food, habits and hobbies, and relationships? Are you doing things that produce positive returns? Or do your investments in these areas produce negative returns? If the latter, think about what you need to do to reallocate your resources into more positive producing investments. Before long, you’ll develop of habit of investing wisely. And success follows quickly once successful habits are developed.

– Steve Kroening

Wisdom From History

Facing Tough Times? Here’s How to Endure…

Webster’s dictionary defines endurance as the ability to withstand hardship or adversity. Specifically, it is the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity. This is a good trait to develop in our lives even though it may be uncomfortable.

As I mentioned last week, Lady Margaret Beaufort endured the death of three husbands and the exile of her only child. Each time she chose to focus her attention on the Lord. She became a pious woman committed to good works. Her deep compassion was birthed out of her own misfortunes.

As Christians, we do have the grace to follow her example. And like her, we receive the grace to persevere. Margaret chose to funnel her energy by becoming knowledgeable in the ways of the court. This is the very insight that would prove priceless to her son when he became king. She busied herself in learning instead of wallowing in bitterness. A lesson we would do well to learn from her example.

Motherhood is challenging and demanding at any age. Yet at the age of 13, Margaret endured under this pressure. In difficult situations, often our first inclination is to flee. But valuable lessons are learned under pressure, if we remain faithful.

An illustration of this in the Bible is the account of Jacob and Esau. After Jacob stole the birthright from Esau, he fled. Yet, he ended up under the authority of Laban, who as a father-in-law would prove a hard taskmaster. Yet now, Jacob persevered and became a man of prayer.

Eventually, he would learn patience and longsuffering. Twenty years would go by before he was reconciled to his brother. While he endured harsh treatment under Laban, God was molding him into a man that He could use to build up the nation of Israel. If we abide under our trials, God will show Himself strong on our behalf.

Living in Cambridge, as I do, I have the privilege of often visiting the two colleges Lady Margaret Beaufort founded. Her desire to build a college where ignorance would be stamped out has been accomplished. Her desire that others may know God is an ongoing work of God, as people come into the chapel to worship. We thank God for her example of enduring the years of uncertainty during her son’s exile. And we should follow the example she set when bearing her suffering without complaint.

Hebrews 12:1 – Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

– Gladys Villnow

Word for the Wise

Why Settle for Good, When You Can Have the Best?

“The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” – Psalm 119:72

Better – Why is God’s word better than vast amounts of money? More importantly, why is it personally better, better to me? Aren't we often confronted with the challenge that religious fervor may be good for the soul, but it won't put bread on the table? Haven't we often prayed for help only to face continued dissipation? How can God’s word be better than a big bank account? After all, even Proverbs says that riches protect the wealthy from many of life’s tragedies (Proverbs 10:15).  

We can understand David’s perspective better if we think about the full range of meaning for this particular Hebrew word, tob.  It covers what is good, what is pleasing, what is morally correct, what is practically efficient and useful, what is convenient and what is profitable. David sees that God’s word encompasses the full range of human need, far more than simply financial security. David might answer those haunting questions with some of his own.

• What good is wealth when you are terminally ill? Who provides you with life?
• What good is wealth if you suffer the death of your children or spouse? Who gave you those relationships?
• What good is wealth if you are constantly worried about keeping it? Who is your real security?
• What good is wealth if it controls your decisions? Who gives you true freedom?
• What good is wealth if it binds you to restricting responsibilities? Who grants you liberty?
• What good is wealth if the next generation destroys it? Who guarantees your inheritance?

Wealth is a powerful god of this world. With its twin, Time, it dominates our perceptions of reality. But the Psalmist asks us to raise our eyes above the horizon. Peter and John understood. “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give to you” (Acts 3:6).  The man who stood up understood too. Some very important things money just can't buy. If that's true, then why are we chasing it so intently?

What would your life be like if you put the same amount of energy into obeying God’s word?

– Skip Moen

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

Resources

Avoiding the Greener Grass Syndrome: How to Grow Affair-Proof Hedges Around Your Marriage by Nancy C. Anderson (BUY NOW)

Evangelicals Then and Now, Peter Jeffery, Evangelical Press (Buy Now)

Wisdom’s Edge is a complimentary e-mail service from Quest Media International LLC. It contains general information on finances, health, relationships, and other beneficial areas. Readers are advised to consult their financial advisors, doctors, or counselors before implementing any ideas they read about in these pages.

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