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Wisdom on getting along with others (in church) from Dietrich Bonheoffer.

"We are members of the world and of the church, and must labor to do good to many; and therefore we have greater work to do on earth than merely securing our own salvation."

— Richard Baxter, Dying Thoughts

"Imagine a team from France calls your church and says they want to visit. They want to put on VBS (which you have done for years), but the material is in French. They have heard about how the U.S. church has struggled and want to help you fix it. They want to send 20 people, half of them youth. Only two of them speak English. They need a place to stay for free, with cheap food and warm showers if possible. During the trip half of the group’s energy will be spent on resolving tension between team members. Two people will get sick. They’d like you to arrange some sightseeing for them on their free day. Do you want them to come?"

— Darren Carlson in Why You Should Consider Cancelling Your Short-Term Mission Trips

(Source: thegospelcoalition.org)

"Idleness is the burial of a living man; an idle person being so useless to any purposes of God and man that he is like one that is dead; he lives only to spend his time and eat the fruits of the earth like [a] vermin. [And yet] a man may be very idly busy, and take great pains to so little purpose, that, in his labors and expense of time, he shall serve no end but of folly and vanity. There are some people who are busy; but it is, as Domitian was, in catching flies."

— Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

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Family photos by the talented Ashley Brown of Brown Photography.