Guidelines For Living

"My husband just doesn't get it," a wife complains.  Often, she is right, and she has scientific evidence to back up her allegation.  Scientists using a modified MRI have taken pictures of both male and female brains that prove--Are you ready for this? --that women use both sides of their brains when they listen, and men use only one side.

"Dear Dr. Sala, where was God when my dream died?  I thought I could trust Him.  Now I'm not sure!"  No, you were not the one who wrote those words, but chances are those thoughts have at some time or another risen from your troubled heart, whether you voiced them aloud or just thought them.

When I was a kid in school, I found myself constantly thinking about tomorrow--what I intended to do as soon as I could get out of the classroom and get moving.  The young often dream of tomorrow, thinking of what they are going to do, and the old often focus on yesterday--what they have done.  You know the attitude, "The older I am, the better I was!"  With each telling of the story, the fish gets bigger or the hero gets braver. 

Do you ever feel yourself being torn between what you know is the right thing to do and what you really want to do?  If you answer, "no," either you're not telling the truth, or the battery of your conscience has gone dead.  The struggle is an old one.  Even Paul experienced the conflict.  He candidly told of the battle which waged in his heart.  He said, "When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway" (Romans 7:19, Living Bible).

"Marriage is a relationship in which a woman never gets what she expects and a man never expects what he gets," so said a pundit. Another cynic tells of a conversation a dad had with his school-age boy, who asked, "Dad, I hear that in some parts of Africa a man doesn't know his wife until he marries her.  Is that right?" and the dad replies, "That happens in most countries, son."

Few people ever have had an encounter with a burning bush that would not go out, but Moses did.  Few people ever audibly hear the voice of God, but Moses did.  Few individuals are given supernatural signs which convince others that they have had an encounter with God, but Moses was one who did!  Yet--and I want you to make that word a bookmark for what I’m saying--yet Moses cried out to God: “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you…" (Exodus 33:13).

On Saturday," writes a friend of Guidelines, "I was so depressed that I wanted to kill myself. This is not the first time, either. No matter what, I can never stop feeling this way." She then told what triggered this depression. She explained, "There was a misunderstanding this morning between my sister and me and I took it personally."

A comedian making light of God's instruction to Noah, mimics his response to God's call, saying, "What do you want, God?  I didn't do nuthin'!"  That was supposed to be humor, but it underlines a pretty common belief that God won't bother you if you don't bother Him.  Sadly enough, individuals who prefer to live independently of their Maker live in rebellion against Him and are the real losers, not because of God's wrath but because of the blessings which they are denied. 

Nearly 3,000 years ago the psalmist, David, wrote, "I praise Thee because I have been fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous is Thy workmanship as my soul is well aware" (Psalm 139:14).  But just how wonderfully made man really is has come to light only in the past century as science has began to unlock the secrets of the human body.  The human body, according to medical science, contains 37 trillion cells that reproduce themselves every seven years.  Each one of the 37 trillion cells performs 10,000 different chemical functions, according to the late Dr. Ralph Byron of the City of Hope Cancer Clinic, yet all of them just work together to produce a healthy body.

Friend, what are your plans for tomorrow?  You are not sure, right?  Some have is the attitude, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!"  If that describes you, the something important is missing in your life--it is hope, hope that tomorrow will hold the answers to the questions and problems that have you baffled today.