Writer Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. “I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day,” he recalled in his book Stress Fractures. “Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable.
“I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, ‘Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin’ and I’ll tell you really fast.’
“Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, ‘Honey, you can tell me — and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.” “I’ll never forget her answer: ‘Then listen slowly.'”
–From Bits & Pieces, June 24, 1993, and quoted in this morning’s sermon
As more of a personal aside than a comment on this particular quotation, I found Dr Swindoll’s children’s books — charmingly illustrated — very useful as texts and “conversation starters” [apologies to Rev Dr Toon] with my children when they were in elementary school. Although I’ve never read any of Swindoll’s adult-oriented books, I’m sure that his wonderful combination of Christian perception and basic human wisdom shines through in them. Another item on my To-Do list… [Sigh…]
Charles Swindoll was one of the very few radio preachers I actually liked and listened to when I was a ‘DJ’ in Christian radio back in the 1980’s (the rest I just cued and started, and read a book while listening for the ‘end cue’ that meant ‘one minute warning’).
I found his teaching very Biblically solid, and his manner likable, and never once did he preach a ‘health and wealth’ message, nor speak down to his audience. I’m still on his mailing list!