When I visited a neighbor's home I was surprised to see a freshly painted sign on the door. No, not a quarantine sign warning of an infectious disease, but it did generate almost as much surprise. The notice read simply, "LOVE SPOKEN HERE."   I could not help wondering just what kind of a home this was where they wanted visitors and friends to know that the language spoken within was LOVE.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I would be a Christian but there are too many hypocrites"? Now in absolute honesty, perhaps, you may admit that you, too, have had such a thought. A hypocrite is someone who pretends to have something he really does not possess. He's a fraud, a fake, a pretender.

Have you ever noticed how many times it is the little things in life that get you down? You can drive your car off a cliff, someone kidnaps your mother-in-law, or your mortgage is foreclosed on, and these things do not bother you quite as much as the little things such as running out of razor blades, your phone battery dying, or not being able to get your computer to work properly. I think we would all agree that the little things in life often irritate us far more than the major disasters. Solomon revealed a great truth when he said it is the little foxes that spoil the vines.

Do you find yourself increasingly bored, dissatisfied, and thoroughly unhappy with life?

Have you ever had one of those days when you were tired and discouraged? It can happen to anybody--times when you felt like quitting!

For the individual who believed that his giving was a strictly private matter—between only God and himself, a lot of what Jesus said when He was on Earth must have been rather disturbing. Author Randy Alcorn says that about 15% of everything that Jesus said has to do with your possessions and what you do with them. So why was what Jesus said so disconcerting to people? Repeatedly he urged people—not to give money to Him personally--but rather to give to the poor and needy, and thereby have treasure in heaven.

Have you ever been to a party where they played the "Newlywed Game?" The emcee separates the men and women and then asks them the same questions independently, then compares answers to see how nearly they say the same thing.

There's a problem which is quite common these days which afflicts people and does a great deal of damage to relationships. Primarily, though not exclusively, men suffer from this disorder; however, quite often children and teenagers are also afflicted by it. I define the malady as the PADD syndrome. Never hear of it? PADD is an acronym for a condition I describe as the Periodic Amnesia and Deafness Deficiency (PADD) syndrome.

Do you ever ask yourself, "Why do people end up marrying jerks?" I'm talking about a situation where a person has married someone who is totally undeserving of the other, someone who treats the other person disrespectfully, or is in no way an equal. It happens. Marry in haste and repent in leisure, goes the old saying.

In spite of the fact that he lived with an unhappy marriage himself, the English author Charles Dickens understood the importance of communication. He wrote, "Never close your lips to him to whom you have opened your heart!" Dickens realized that communication is the key to real love, but is that the only reason to learn communication skills? Not at all.