Australian Family Party

Family Matters

Australian Family Party

Two People, Two Stories, One Message

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candleStory Number One

Dr Williams had devoted his life to helping the poor and the underprivileged. He lived above an Op-Shop in a run-down part of town and had placed a sign in front of the shop which read:

“Dr Williams Is Upstairs”

When Dr Williams died, he had no relatives and left no money for his funeral as he had never asked for payment from any of the patients he had treated.

So a few of his patients and a small group of friends got together and scraped up enough money for a funeral for the good doctor.

They didn’t however have enough money to buy a headstone.

This was a concern as they feared his grave would remain unmarked – until one of them came up with a bright idea. They took the sign from in front of the Op-Shop and nailed it to a post above his grave. It made for a lovely epitaph:

dr-williams

Story Number Two

Not long before she died, a journalist conducted an interview with Mother Teresa.

“Mother Teresa”, the journalist asked, “I understand you spend a lot of time praying to God.”

“Yes, I do”, replied the famous nun.

“So, what do you say to God when you pray?” asked the journo.

“I don’t say anything”, replied Mother Teresa, “I just listen”.

“Oh, I see”, said the journalist, “so what does God say to you?”

“He doesn’t say anything”, replied Mother Teresa, “He just listens”.

A little light dispels a great darkness.

The Three Russians

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three-russiansIt’s time to bring the famous Russian brothers to Australia. We desperately need to apply them to legislation, to politicians and to Australia’s citizens. The three Russians are Morov, Lessov and Ridov – what should we have ‘more of’, what should we have ‘less of’ and what should we get ‘rid of’!

Let’s start with some personal character traits applicable both to politicians and citizens alike:

Morov: Respect, courtesy, courage. Honesty, humility, tolerance. Generosity, discernment, common sense. Marriage, children, adoption and income-splitting for stay-at-home parents. More pro-family policy. More recognition of Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage. More patriotism and support for our armed forces. More self-reliance and personal responsibility. More freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion. More doctor-training, palliative care, affordable housing, support for grandparents. More roads, ports, reservoirs, independent schools. More property rights, small businesses, and funding the ‘user’ of services such as aged care, child care, disability care, energy, housing, superannuation, pharmaceuticals, education and public transport – instead of the ‘provider’ of those services.

Lessov: Gambling ads, alcohol consumption, poker machines, tax. Divorce, suicide, loneliness, fatherless households, crime, prostitution. Less hubris. Less abrogating responsibility to un-elected bureaucrats and the duplication of Federal and State functions – health and education in particular. Less rules that apply to some but not to others. Less government spending and fewer international treaties. And less factional politics, social media and government surveillance.

Ridov: Fearmongering and the weaponization of issues such as climate and covid. Price-gouging and profiteering from climate and covid. Wastefulness, hypocrisy, double standards. Barriers to home ownership and the distortion of Australia’s history. Pornography, abortion and euthanasia. And let’s be rid of vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, social distancing, masks, perspex screens, lockdowns, dobbing in your neighbours, discrimination based on medical status, QR codes and the testing and quarantining of healthy people.

Of all the above however, the worst is fearmongering. What politicians, health officials and the mainstream media have done to this country over the past two years is unforgivable.

Australians were a united, fun-loving, irreverent, tough-minded, down-to-earth people. Now look at us.

In his book ‘How Fear Works’, Frank Furedi writes: “The most effective way to counter the perspective of fear is with values that offer people the meaning and hope they need to effectively engage with uncertainty. The problem is not fear as such but society’s difficulty in cultivating values that can guide it to manage uncertainty and the threats it faces.”

UK Bishop N.T. (Tom) Wright commented in similar terms: “Do you know what the most frequent command in the Bible is? What instruction is given, again and again, by God, by angels, by Jesus, by prophets and by the apostles? Is it ‘be good’? ‘Is it be holy’? Is it ‘don’t sin’? No, the most frequent command in the Bible is, ‘Don’t be afraid’.”

We want our lives back. We want politicians and bureaucrats to stop watching us and to get off our backs and out of our pockets.

Perhaps 16th Century Swedish Statesman Axel Oxenstierna put it best when he said, “Behold my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”

Catfish

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catfishWhen the Canadian fishing industry first established its live cod exports to SE Asia, the fishing companies encountered an unexpected problem which threatened to derail the viability of their business.

They had started sending the live cod in big water tanks onboard ships but the cod’s inactivity in the tanks over the long journey resulted in them developing very soft and mushy flesh. By the time they reached their destination they were not what their Asian customers had ordered.

To counter the problem, the companies put catfish in the tanks with the cod. The catfish kept nipping at the cod and agitating them throughout the journey keeping them active and ensuring the quality of the fish.

We are catfish. We are there to agitate. To agitate for the family.

Wherever we are – in the workplace, in the community, in the classroom, in the courtroom, in the media, in the church, and especially in the parliament, our aim is to agitate and keep people on their toes.

As a Party, we are on track for the forthcoming SA State election in March with our key Lower House candidates now in place.

High on our nipping list will be to do those things which strengthen the family – economically and socially.

My late father used to say, “When poverty comes in the door, love goes out through the window”. In Australia today, one of the biggest causes of marriage stress is financial pressure – employment uncertainty, ridiculously high mortgages forcing both parents out to work, the high cost of educating and raising children, high power prices, high water prices – you name it.

Social ills caused by the rupturing of family relationships – divorce, de-facto relationships, fatherless households, single mothers bringing up children – lead to a breakdown in society. Family breakdown is costly.

We have quoted these figures before, but mental illness costs the Australian economy $180bn a year. More than 3,000 Australians take their own lives each year. Boys raised in father-absent environments are twenty times more likely to end up in a correctional facility. Addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and pornography are rampant.

Then there’s social media.

There is an indisputable link between mental health and social media. Violent computer games affect boys. Cyber bullying has turned deadly for girls. Sexting is rife. Online sexual predators are pervasive.

So how to respond to this new threat to family life? Do we try to control it or do we try to inoculate people against its effects?

Things are changing so profoundly – in social attitudes, world economics, and especially technology – that politicians and bureaucrats seem ill-equipped to manage them.

One institution which can do a lot to help combat the lawlessness of the digital jungle and its predators is the family. The family is the ideal place to teach about relationships, learning who to trust, who not to trust, who to communicate with, and who not to communicate with.

If we are not the catfish, someone else will be – and the results will not be pleasant.

More Breakfast, Less Dinner

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more-breakfast“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but through the heart of every human being.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It’s not every day you get to be on the ground during an historical event. More so when you get to witness dramatically contrasting aspects of human nature on the same day.

On 14 September 2015, along with a number of other Senators and MPs, I attended the Australian National Prayer Breakfast in Parliament House in Canberra.

Organised by the former Member for Macquarie Louise Markus MP and the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, the mission of PCF is, “To encourage and uplift fellow Members and Senators and provide opportunity for reflective discussion on biblical themes to both sustain and strengthen our daily walks with Jesus Christ”.

Hillsong musicians were flown in to lead the singing, I read the prayer for peace, and a number of other MPs and Senators prayed for each other, for the nation, and for our leaders.

“We prayed for wisdom, we prayed for our national leaders, and we prayed for our international leaders as they resolve and work on challenges and issues around the globe,” said Louise.

“We prayed huge prayers, big prayers, because we do believe that God answers those prayers.”

The event went for two hours – from 7:00am to 9:00am and all left spiritually uplifted. I remember thinking, “there’s hope for this place yet!”

However, by the end of that same day, words of goodwill and trust and support had given way to words of betrayal and treachery and ‘blood on the floor’, as a bitter leadership spill saw Prime Minister Tony Abbott rolled by Malcolm Turnbull.  Did someone say ‘a week is a long time in politics’? – how about a day!

The sentiments of the breakfast table did not survive past dinner time.

Being in Parliament House that day and watching events unfold had a profound effect on me. I saw first-hand the best and worst in people – the best and worst in the same people.

In the book of Genesis, before Cain murders his brother Abel in a fit of rage, God warns Cain to deal with his anger before it’s too late: “If you do not, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7).

God is telling Cain to deal with his anger and not let it continue or he will soon find himself in the grip of a monster he can’t control.

It’s been said people do not follow good causes; they follow good people who pursue good causes.

We do not elect political leaders to follow the crowd, we elect them to influence the crowd to follow them. The Apostle Paul said, ‘Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ’.

Being elected to parliament is an opportunity to influence people, to bring out the best in people and suppress the worst that is ‘crouching at the door’ or as Solzhenitsyn says, is ‘lurking in the heart of every human being’.

We particularly have an obligation to our young people who need to have a sense of purpose. A sense of pursuing something bigger than themselves.

As we end one tumultuous year and enter what will no doubt be an equally turbulent 2022, let us acknowledge the irrefutable truth of human nature and determine to do what we can to bring out the best and subdue the worst. That will certainly be our aim here at the Australian Family Party.

In closing, I trust the Newsletters this year have given you an insight into what the Australian Family Party is about – we would not want anyone to be in any doubt as to where we stand on the issues of the day.

To all our readers, have a happy Christmas and New Year and we look forward to catching up with you again in January.

The Unmasking of Australia

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unmasking-muriel-bill“I love acting, it’s so much more real than life”, quipped Oscar Wilde 150 years ago.

“Give a man a mask and he’ll say what he really thinks”.

He could have been talking about trolls. In fact, he was talking about trolls. 150 years on, social media has given the world a mask to say anything. To say what it really thinks.

Has Covid unmasked Australia?

Mateship, egalitarianism, tolerance, toughness, the fair go, down-to-earthness (if that’s even a word) …. for over 100 years Australia has defined itself by these admirable qualities. Crocodile Dundee, The Dish, Muriel’s Wedding and, of course, The Castle.

Are we still Crocodile Dundee? Are we still The Dish? Do we still have ‘the vibe’? Are we Muriel? Or are we more like Muriel’s father Bill?

Let’s be honest with ourselves – what does lie beneath?

There’s an old communist joke, “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything”. In other words, it’s not the rules that matter but the ones who apply the rules. As pointed out before, the very word ‘bureaucracy’ gives the game away. Bureaucracy is derived from two words – ‘bureau’ from the French word for ‘desk’ and ‘kratos’ from the Greek word for power, hence ‘bureau-krat’, ‘desk-power’.

And there’s the problem. Authoritarian governments are very open about this, they don’t try to ‘hide the ball’ as the Americans say, but democracies like ours are a lot more squeamish so they try to sugar-coat their authoritarianism with lines such as ‘we’re all in this together’.

There is no doubt Australia is becoming more divided.  Are you vaxxed or vax-free? No-one ‘agrees to disagree’ anymore. Patriotism – the love of one’s country, used to be a no-brainer. Seventeen-year-olds lied about their age in order to enlist so they could fight in World War I.

Everyone was proud to be Australian. Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars. From the time you could talk, dobbing was considered the most un-Australian thing you could do. Police Commissioners now tell people to dob in their neighbours.

Around the time of Oscar Wilde, but across the Channel in France, the cartoon character Monsieur Prudhomme was rapidly becoming a social phenomenon. M Prudhomme carried a large two-edged sword – one edge of the sword to defend his country against its enemies, the other edge of the sword to attack his country if it stepped out of line!

This is needed today as much as it was then.

We are being tested. Will we be found wanting?

Going … Going … Almost Gone

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4-corners-housingA recent 4-Corners program titled ‘Going, Going, Gone …’ asked the question, “What is driving Australia’s property frenzy?”

“Across Australia”, they reported, “property prices were going through the roof, pushing the total value of residential real estate to a staggering nine trillion dollars.

“When the pandemic hit in 2020, there were fears the property market would collapse. Instead, house prices have risen at the fastest pace in at least three decades. 

“For many people, the housing market has become unaffordable and it’s creating a generational divide. Home ownership among those under the age of 45 has plunged to levels not seen since the 1950s.

“There’s a sense of despair and disillusionment from many who have worked and saved, only to see their dream slip out of sight.

“For my generation it means a lot less home ownership. I feel it’s very unfair,” said one home hunter.

“I did everything right. I did everything that every politician has ever told us to do. The situation’s left me feeling completely defeated,” said another.

“As the divide between the haves and have-nots grows, housing experts warn there will be consequences.”

First, let’s get one thing straight, Australia does not have a ‘housing’ affordability problem, it has a ‘land’ affordability problem. As most people know, over the past 20 years the cost of building a new house in Australia has hardly moved. Land prices however have skyrocketed. By restricting the amount of land available on the urban fringe, state governments have sent the price of entry-level housing through the roof. State governments have used urban planning laws to restrict the amount of fringe land available and then drip fed it through their land management agencies to a land-starved housing industry at inflated prices. A few years ago, I asked a former cabinet minister why the government didn’t release more land to keep up with demand for housing. The former cabinet minister replied, “We needed the money”.

Throughout history, there have been times when surges in demand for goods and services appear out of nowhere but then equally out of nowhere, increases in supply meet that demand to keep the supply/demand equation in balance. A good example of this was the massive increase in demand for digital TVs, laptops, tablets and smart phones. And yet despite this surge in demand, prices fell. Why? Because supply was able to match – even exceed – demand. With housing, they wouldn’t allow the supply (of land) to meet the demand.

First home ownership is about getting a start in the housing market and in a modern, growing economy, that can really only happen on the urban fringe. The rising price of inner suburban houses is caused by growing demand from a growing population and a growing economy for a finite supply of goods – that is, lots of people all wanting to buy the same houses. There is little governments can, or should, do about the price of goods that are forever increasing in demand. But there’s a lot they can and should do about fringe development – entry level housing – where there’s an infinite supply of land available and a housing industry ready, willing and able to put good quality houses on it at very low prices.

A point made by one of the 4-Corners commentators was the amount of new housing supply required ‘to bring down house prices’.

This should not be the objective.

Increased supply does not need to bring down the average house price, only the entry level house price.

We shouldn’t care if house prices in inner suburbs cost over $1m as long as the entry level is around $250,000. Which it could be.

It’s the same with the job market. What does it matter if highly skilled people earn $1m a year, as long as the entry level is low enough for people to get a foot on the employment ladder?

Once on the housing or employment ladder, the only way is up.

For more on the Australian Family Party’s housing policy, click here.

‘Beware of Beginnings …’

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pharoah-moses-beginningsIn his brilliant new book, ‘The Magna Carta of Humanity’, Os Guinness writes, “The great paradox of freedom is that the greatest enemy of freedom is freedom itself. Freedom cannot keep itself alive. It requires responsibility, which can be burdensome. People become complacent, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory. It is the beginning of the end.”

Freedom is a two-edged sword. People need to be free – “… life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …” and all that jazz – but as Winston Churchill said, “Freedom also gives the enemies of democracy the freedom to undermine it”.

The Late Rabbi Sacks wrote:

“Those who are naïve about human nature find themselves disappointed again and again.

“Revolutions, protests and civil wars still take place because people think that removing a tyrant or having a democratic election will end corruption, create freedom and lead to justice and the rule of law – and still people are surprised and disappointed when it does not happen. All that happens is a change of faces in the corridors of power.”

After the French Revolution, Napoleon was more dictatorial than Louis XVI. After the Russian Revolution, Stalin was far more brutal than the Czar, and after the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao was more autocratic and murderous than any of the Emperors of the Chinese dynasties.

Each of these tyrants – Napoleon, Stalin and Mao – as well as fomenting anti-sovereign hatred – held a deep hostility towards God:

“We will never be free until we strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest.” – Diderot.

What the people who supported these tyrants naïvely overlooked was the inability of human beings to prevent the abuse of power and position once it has been attained.

Even democratically governments, acting ‘on behalf of the majority’, do not have the right to do whatever they want to a minority or to an individual. The ‘majority rules’ principle cannot be used to create a society of 1st and 2nd class citizens. Society cannot function like that.

Take the case of the vaccinated vs the unvaccinated. Even though they might be a majority, the vaccinated need to understand that the unvaccinated will not allow themselves to be bullied or oppressed. It is a mistake made by majorities and dictators since the days of Pharoah and Moses. If you oppress minorities beyond a certain point – and we are getting very close to that point – they will retaliate. And history shows that even though they may be outnumbered, the minority usually wins.

If they haven’t studied history themselves, one would hope our parliamentarians have employed enough graduates from places like the ‘Institute for Public Policy and Governance’ to advise them of these things.

But the real threat to our country is not the virus or the vaccinated or the unvaccinated, it is the authoritarian takeover of every aspect of our lives by those in power. We are witnessing the beginning of a new authoritarian bureaucracy. And we know where that leads – a surveillance state.

   “Know everything in order to control everyone.” – Adam Weishaupt (1786)

If the vaccine is all it is cracked up to be, those who are vaccinated have nothing to fear from those who are not vaccinated. Excluding the unvaccinated from every aspect of life from air travel to employment to sporting events, will not end well.

For a start, thousands of people have valid medical reasons why they can’t have the vaccine. Many of them have medical certificates signed by their doctors and yet are still being excluded.

The Australian Constitution (Part 5, Section 51 Clause 23A) expressly forbids any form of ‘civil conscription’ with respect to “the provision of … pharmaceutical and medical services”. In other words, no compulsory vaccinations!

Constitutions are written expressly to contain the limits of government power in order to protect the rights of minorities and individuals.

We need to be very careful over these next few months.

As my late father used to say, “Beware of beginnings …”

Family Resilience

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pagliacci-familyA man visited a doctor saying he was deeply depressed. Confiding in the doctor, the man said he felt all alone in a threatening world and that life was just too hard. What’s more, he said he was very uncertain about what lay ahead for himself and his family.

The doctor responded with a suggestion: “The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Take your family to see his show, it will cheer you up no end.”

The man burst into tears. “Doctor, I am Pagliacci.”

Mental illness costs the Australian economy $180bn a year. More than 3,000 Australians take their lives each year. More young men take their own lives than are killed in road accidents. Boys raised in father-absent environments are five times more likely to commit suicide, ten times more likely to abuse drugs, fourteen times more likely to commit rape, and twenty times more likely to end up in a correctional facility. Fatherless households are a dreadful problem.

As are divorce, domestic violence, loneliness and addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and pornography.

Suicide rates have increased. Rates of depression have sky-rocketed. Drug overdoses, the ICE scourge, something is very wrong.

There is a strong link between the health of the family and crime. It begins in the home.

Pagliacci is a fictional story based on an Italian opera. But its message of people suffering in silence is potent.

But there is hope. The family.

Family has what is called ‘agency’. It can do things.

Family provides meaning, belonging and security. Strong family relationships reduce depression and anxiety disorders, strengthen the immune system and speed recovery from surgery.

We all know there is no model or perfect family. Every family is flawed because it is made up of flawed human beings. But the family is the place to cultivate the right way to view life and the world around us. These are indeed difficult times but we’ve known hardships before. They are the ‘snakes and ladders’ of life and these too will pass.

Social ills caused by the rupturing of family relationships – divorce, de-facto relationships, fatherless households, single mothers bringing up children, high housing costs – lead to a breakdown in society. Family breakdown is costly.

The Australian Family Party believes the family should be the State’s top priority. The Australian Family Party believes it is time to strengthen the family. It is time to protect the family, to fight for the family, your family is the one thing you’d take a bullet for.

If you are interested in becoming an Australian Family Party candidate at the next State election – or would like to support a candidate in the election – please let me know here.

Calling all Candidates – Election ’22!

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south-australia-parliamentIt wasn’t without its challenges, but on Friday we received notification of the Party’s official registration in South Australia. Thank you to all those who helped with this endeavour.

With no time to lose, our next focus is the upcoming South Australian state election due on 19 March.

Australia needs strong, stable and resilient families like never before, and we need voices in our parliaments – both State and Federal – that will stand against those forces which are eroding family life.

“Always looking for good people”

We are seeking to field as many candidates as possible to represent the Party in South Australia’s 47 Member House of Assembly, plus 2 candidates for the State’s Legislative Council.

The 47 members who make up the House of Assembly (‘the Lower House’) represent the 47 electorates across the state. Each electorate has approximately 22,000 voters who live in approximately 15,000 dwellings – an average of 1.5 people per household.

The 22 members of the Legislative Council (‘the Upper House’) do not have separate electorates but cover the whole state. Each Member is, in effect, a whole-of-state representative.

Being a candidate in an election is not difficult. In fact, it is a great experience.

Candidates are asked to oversee their chosen electorate during an election campaign. This involves co-ordinating volunteers to look after polling places (between 10–20 in each electorate) – essentially enlisting family and friends to hand out how-to-vote cards on election day.

If you are interested in becoming a candidate, please contact us here.

Then there’s the financial side of things.

First, the Electoral Commission charges $1,000 to nominate as a candidate. Second, pre-election flyers cost around $500 per electorate and distribution of those flyers a further $1,000. Third, how-to-vote cards cost another $500. All up, a total of $3,000 per electorate is needed to fund a local electorate campaign.

If you would like to support us in this extremely important election – the events of recent months in the parliament cannot be forgotten – but are not able to stand for election yourself, perhaps you would consider sponsoring a young person who might be considering a political future? We have younger members who have the energy and conviction but do not as yet have the financial resources to fund their own election. We firmly believe that if we do not nurture and mentor our younger members, we’ll be stuck with a parliament of no-conviction careerists forever!

In a major analysis of voting trends, the Australian newspaper last month reported, “Support for minor parties and independents has reached its highest level in at least four years.”

The time is right.

There is so much that can be done both in social policy – as events of recent months will attest – and financially, to reduce the pressure on families including income splitting for taxation purposes, subsidies for grandparents who look after grandchildren, putting an end to price-gouging by state governments of water and power costs, and much more.

As we prepare for the upcoming elections, we urgently need resources to fight the good fight. Please add your voice to those seeking to stand up for family values by assisting in this shared work. You can contact us here and/or donate here.

Overcoming Failure

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churchill-surviving-failureThe story is told of Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy businessman who donated his own tomb for Jesus’ burial. When news of his generous gesture spread amongst Joseph’s business colleagues, a number of them went to see him. “Joseph, are you sure you know what you’re doing, giving your tomb to this Jesus of Nazareth? Tombs are very valuable and yours is the best in the cemetery,” they implored.

“Oy Vay”, Joseph replied, “don’t be concerned, it’s only for the weekend.”

Joseph of Arimathea was a hero of the faith. Practical faith. Confident faith. Legend has it that Joseph travelled far and wide throughout the Roman Empire – even to Britain – spreading the gospel.

To many of his followers, Jesus’ crucifixion was a disaster. His life had ended in failure. Not to Joseph. Or to people like Australia’s Les Murray:

“Some of the events surrounding Jesus’ ministry looked like political rallies. But Jesus was different. Unlike most would-be messiahs, Jesus did not give people what they thought they wanted. He did not become a creature of His audience. Instead, he gave them difficult truths, valid for all time and all people. All they wanted was a hero-king who would drive out the Romans and restore Israel’s former glory. But if he had yielded to that demand (which of course he could have), he may have been seen as a great success in the world’s eyes but would have been just another name in the history books.  Instead, we all know what happened. 

“We shouldn’t see ourselves as a ‘team’ or ‘army’ that has to go out and ‘win for God.’ He’s not helpless – and anyway, his idea of a win is the Cross.”

But back to Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph was an experienced businessman who would have had his fair share of losses and failures. He would have agreed with Winston Churchill (pictured) that, ‘success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm’. Or Henry Ford’s ‘failure is simply the opportunity to begin again; this time more intelligently’. Or Noel Coward’s ‘the secret of success is the capacity to survive failure’.

Some places of the soul can be reached only through failure and suffering. It’s during difficult times that God reveals many of His truths. The Jesuits teach that ‘those whom God loves the most, He allows to suffer the most’. He draws them close.

Of all the disciples, Jesus chose Peter to become the leader of his new church. It was Peter who preached the first gospel message at Pentecost establishing the Christian church. Yet it was Peter, who on the night before Jesus was crucified, denied three times that he even knew Jesus. Jesus did not choose the disciple closest to him, John the Divine, who wrote both the magnificent Gospel according to John and the Book of Revelation; or the brilliant intellectual and academic Paul who wrote most of New Testament theology. No, to head up the church, he chose Peter, the one who had failed him.

The Old Testament’s Saul became king of Israel without going through suffering. His character never developed and he became an envious, shallow man. David on the other hand, spent years in suffering and heartache. When he finally became king, God said David was ‘a man after my own heart’.

We should not resent or despise failure or suffering. They develop character like no other.

They say it’s the grit that forms the pearl. Suffering, difficulties, trials are the grit that leads to the pearl.

Our lives will be an inspiration to those who watch us face the trials that come our way.

What we lose in the flames, we find in the ashes.