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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978,

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To whom you are accountable spiritually?

Of course we’re all accountable to God. And most

Christians have a Bible study group or Christian

friends they hang out with. But do you have a flesh

and blood person who you’ve empowered to ask you

the tough questions that will inspire you to live out the

mission God has prepared for you in this life?

I do! I have five men, and my wife has four women,

who are committed to help us grow spiritually,

relationally, emotionally, and even physically. These

are the men who watch my life and my back. They

pray for me, encourage me when I need it, and speak

truth to me even when I’d prefer not to hear it. They’re

my accountability partners, my friends, and my

brothers in Christ.

“Each of you should look not only to your own

interests, but also to the interests of others.” 

(Philippians 2:4)

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More than twenty years ago, I received a call from my

friend Tom that had a profound effect on my life. He

asked if we could have lunch to talk about something

God had put on his mind. Normally I’d be wary. “Whatdoes he want from me?” That would be the first

question that popped into my head, but I trusted Tom,

so we met.

“Clare,” he started out, “I’ve been frustrated lately

with how little I’m growing in some very important

areas of my life. I really want to be a better follower

of Jesus. I really desire to be a better husband and

father and even a better friend to my friends. I have

all these good intentions, but for one reason or

another they just never seem to happen. The tyranny

of the urgent, my job, the busyness of life, all kinds

of factors seem to suck the life out of me and I rarely

get around to doing the things I know God really

wants for me.

He had my attention. Immediately I identified with

his frustration. What reasonably sensitive person

wouldn’t? Unlike God or our spouse or our children,

our boss and customers and clients are sitting right

in front of us or online, demanding our attention now,not when we have time, but NOW!

For stay-at-home moms it’s the same. The demands

of children and all the frustrations of keeping a

household afloat can be overwhelming. When do

they have the time to address their needs and grow

in the relationships that mean so much to them? And

mothers who work outside the home are in a whole

other league.

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I grew up watching I Love Lucy , a popular TV show

staring Lucille Ball, the dizzy wife of Ricky Ricardo.

In one famous episode she and her friend, Ethel, got

a job in a chocolate candy factory. Their job was to

put candy in little wrappers as they came down the

conveyor belt. But their supervisor kept speeding up

the belt until candy was dropping off the end of the

line. So to cover up their failure, they ate as many

candies as they could, stuffed them in their clothes,anything to keep up. But they never could handle their

supervisor’s expectations.

Like Lucy at the candy factory, “the line” seems to

speed up every day, and the most important people

and aspects of our life get what’s left over. At the end

of the day, we’re so beat we just want to relax. We

tell ourselves that we’ll attend to our spiritual life and

spend quality time with our spouse or children this

weekend. But “this weekend” rarely happens. We tell

ourselves this lie, and we desperately want to believe

it, because we don’t see any other answer.