Knowing the few things we cannot fail to do makes all the difference in succeeding or failing. We can redeem the time by focusing on the few noble deeds that will produce the greatest results in each role of our lives. The story of Charlie Stenmetz is one that highlights the importance and the results of knowing where to tinker in life.

Knowing Where To Tinker Makes All the Difference

Charlie Steinmetz designed the generators that powered Henry Ford’s first assembly lines in Dearborn, Michigan. Sometime after he retired, the generators stalled out, bringing the entire plant to a halt. Ford’s engineers couldn’t find the problem, so he called his old friend Charlie. Steinmetz fiddled with this gauge, jiggled that lever, tried this button, played with a few wires, and after a few hours threw the master switch. The motors kicked on, and the system returned to normal. Some days later Ford received a bil from Steinmetz for $10,000. Ford found the charge excessive and wrote his friend a note: “Charlie: It seems awfully steep, this $10,000, for a man who for just a little while tinkered around with a few motors.” Steinmetz wrote a new bill and sent it back to Henry Ford. “Henry: For tinkering around with Motors, $10; for knowing where to tinker, $9,900.”

As Long As They Sought the Lord, He Made Them to Prosper

It was said of Kinig Uzziah, “And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.” (See 2 Chronicles 26:5) As you can see from the example of Henry Ford, people are willing to pay any price, and go anywhere if there is any hope. When we understand the fact that God has kept the secrets to life very simple and they are with those who fear him. (See Psalm 25:14) One way that we express the fear of the Lord is by being in His gates early each morning with our families. When we spend time in family devotions each morning God is faithful to reveal His secrets that we might know how to go about our days. The following stories reveal the simple answer to life that God gives to those who fear Him.

Homeless Man Educates Daughter in The Wilderness

On April 28, 2004 police found a father and his daughter living deep in the forest in the northwest corner of Oregon. Homeless and destitute, the father had opted not to leave his daughter to grown up on the streets. Instead, he took her into the woods, and for four years they lived in a makeshift lean-to against a hillside. Police were amazed to find the girl clean, healthy, and—educated! There in the forest, the father had homeschooled his daughter with nothing but a Bible and a decrepit set of encyclopedias. Incredibly, when officials tested the twelve-year-old, they found that she had already achieved a twelfth-grade equivalency. How could this happen without a federal department of education? There were no certified teachers and no expensive curriculum. So what was the secret? Police Sergeant Michael Barkley told reporters, “What was so clear was that their living conditions were unacceptable, but their relationship was a real deep love and caring for each other.” There are some factors in the education of a child that transcend all other factors. These factors are so powerful that they eliminate the need for experts, expensive government programs, and extensive regulations. It is relationships based on being a credible messenger, a safe place of unconditional understanding and incremental release.

Story found in Kevin Swanson’s book “Upgrade – 10 Secrets for the best education of your child” on page 85.

The next story is a confirming testimony of God’s ways in educating His children. This story reveals the answer the Amercian National Education Association is looking for but is too foolish to recognize it.

A Report to Thomas Jefferson on why Americans were more literate than Europeans

In 1800, DuPont de Nemours reported to Thomas Jefferson that, in the United State of America, “not more than four in a thousand are unable to write legibly,” while in many European countries less then twenty percent “of the population can read.” Andy why were Americans in 1890 more literate than their European counterparts? NeMours conclusion: “the Bible is read—fathers read aloud to their children while breakfast is being prepared.”

h4. The One Thing We Cannot Fail to Do

The one thing we cannot fail to do is to invest the eternal word into the eternal hearts of our children to gain the eternal fruits of heaven.

Action Steps

• Make a commitment to having a time for family devotions.
• Make it your purpose to hear God’s voice through His Word and by the power of His Spirit, not to perform a daily ritual.
• Make the dining room table a modern day family altar.
• Sit the family around the table each day and ask God to show you beautiful things in His law as you spend time reading it.
• Give each family member a journal to record the insights they discovered during the reading time.
• Commit yourself as a father to humbling yourself and trembling at God’s Word. Your children will react to your pride and they will esteem your humility, brokenness and contrite spirit. See Isaiah 66:2

The Man God Regards

“But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (See Isaiah 66:2) The one thing a father cannot fail to do in order to keep his commitment to family devotions is to humble himself when he has failed. When we as fathers fail in harshness or some other sin we feel like a hypocrite until we humble ourselves by asking forgiveness of God and being cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Once we humble ourselves to God and our family we once again experience the boldness to come into God’s presence and approach the throne of grace for our families as a priest, king and prophet. God does resist the proud and so does our family but He esteems and looks to the man who is broken and contrite and trembles at His Word.

Posted by Chris Hogan on Friday, April 14, 2006 at 11:57 AM