Guidelines For Living Devotional

How do you balance business with family commitments? How do you respond when your son says, "Dad, how come you can never come to my game? All the other kids' dads are there"? So you stutter and stammer about how you can't get off work and that you are overloaded and so forth, but your son simply knows you are not there.

In my resource files are a variety of folders which are filed alphabetically by subject. Thinking of today's commentary, I happened to notice that the file captioned "LOVE" is nestled between the one captioned "LONELINESS" and the one on "MARRIAGE." It is pretty true to life. Love is what it takes to turn loneliness to marriage. Question: Is love only a Western idea, a romantic notion which came from Europe and is embraced by only segments of civilization? Or is love a universal emotion, a deep-seated response of the heart which can make the mind grow weak?

A medical doctor who says, "Look, this is what's wrong with you, and this is what you need to do to get rid of your problem" has done you a great favor. He has both accurately diagnosed your illness, and told you exactly what you need to do to be rid of the pain and suffering which brought you to his office. He's done you a great service. But a doctor who either ignores your symptoms or glosses over them, saying, "Look, everybody has aches and pains. Don't worry about them!" has done you a great disservice.

If mankind's greatest need had been for information, surely God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been for learning how to make money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been for pleasure, surely God would have sent a comedian. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent His Son who became the Savior of the world.

"After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done," wrote the writer of Chronicles, "Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah" (2 Chronicles 32:1). Whoa! For a moment look at life from the perspective of a man who had done everything right. He lived right, he supported the right causes, he was faithful to his family and just in his dealings, and sought to glorify God, who had raised him up and put him on the throne.

Most people called it, "An absolute disaster!" But Bill Eaton called it "an adventure!" It all started following several weeks of drenching rain when California took on the appearance of an Asian monsoon! The rains finally softened the earth beneath Bill and Lee Eaton's family home, and a massive hole began to swallow up their 4 bedroom house which had been home for 23 years. That home was full of memories, too. Here their family grew up. Christmases and birthdays, a wedding and scores of good memories ware all associated with the pale green house.

"Dear Dr. Sala," writes a friend of Guidelines, "when my husband and I get into an argument, he walks away and comes back as though nothing had ever happened. When he has hurt me and never asks for forgiveness, I feel offended and want to withdraw. Do you have any suggestions which might help?"

When you are only five feet three, and someone who is six feet five towers over you, you quickly learn what intimidation is, especially when the giant leans over you and threatens you. We'd much prefer enemies about our size giving us an equal chance; but, of course, life isn't always fair.

How a person responds to calamity or disaster tells an awful lot about what's inside! When things are not going well, there is a tendency for the old to become cynical and critical, and castigate those who are younger. You know the mentality--"The older I am, the better I was!" Having had years of experience, it is very easy for them to see immediately what's wrong with the world, especially people in the world, and be very clear in letting folks know that things aren't like they used to be, and that if they were still in control, it wouldn't be that way.

My wife and I had just had breakfast looking across the vast city of Seoul, Korea. The day was cloudy and dreary, but we commented on the number of churches which were visible, all of which had a cross silhouetted against the dark sky. I counted no less than a dozen crosses, many of which were outlined in red neon.