Guidelines For Living Devotional

Does My Life Have Any Purpose?

One of the greatest tragedies in life is to get very close to reaching your goal, arriving at your full potential, accomplishing what you set out to do, only to fall short of what you wanted to do.  It's always sad to have to quit a few hundred meters short of the top, or to get so very close to winning, only to have victory snatched from your grasp.

Does Your Lifestyle Allow for Generosity?

William Borden was born to a wealthy family, but when he was challenged by a friend at Princeton University, he gave away his millions.  Years later he wouldn't even allow himself the luxury of a car, when he rode through the teaming streets of Cairo, Egypt on a bicycle.  His desire was to reach people at their level, and he did just that.  His motto:  No reluctance, no regrets, no retreat.

Righteousness Can't Be Borrowed

Everyone admired his vast library.  He had nearly 10,000 volumes.  The man lived on a tiny pension.  Then an enterprising librarian tried to trace down a book that had not been returned.  In the house there were "books everywhere," she said.  She found the missing library book and also found an unbelievable number of other books which had been borrowed without permission from various public and private libraries and book stores.  The librarian got her book all right, and five trucks and three police vans carted the rest away to return to their rightful owners.  That is what you could call a rather extreme case of borrowing.  But borrowing has become a real problem the world over.

Who Says Life Is Fair?

Whoever said that life is fair?  Certainly not God.  Airplanes crash and burn just as do marriages and future hopes and dreams.  Innocent children in Africa die from HIV as well as the doctor who has spent her life striving to save the lives of her patients.  Never, under any stretch of the imagination, would a sane person ask God for difficulty, for trials, for illness that he or she might learn the lessons of grace and patience which come from facing difficulty and winning the battle.

Time.

Victor Borge, the renowned pianist, once told a friend that he could tell time by his piano.  The friend wasn't convinced so Borge proceeded to prove his point.  He immediately began playing a resounding march.  In only moments there was a noisy banging on the wall and a voice on the other side screamed, "Stop that noise!  Don't you know it's 1:30 in the morning?"

Happiness Is A State Of Mind

"Happiness is a state of mind" believed Beatrice Eckelberry, who learned first-hand what sorrow and loss are all about.  The following is the advice she gave to a friend following the death of her four-year-old, written many years ago in the year 1933:
"Tonight is the anniversary of the birth of my first-born.  I've been lonely for a few days and thinking a great deal.  Memory takes me back to January, 1928, before the beginning of this world-wide thing called Depression.

I Feel Like A Failure

"I feel like a failure," said the mother of two young children, "because I never accomplish what I set out to do."  It's not only mothers who feel that way, but it's a fact mothers do face unique challenges when it comes to time and meeting possibly unrealistic expectations.

Your Words Can Be Deadly

Opposites attract, but when there are too many differences, opposites repel.  He likes to sleep with the windows open; she likes them closed.  He's a night person; she's a day person.  He prefers country western music; she likes classical.  She's well organized; he's a "take-it-as-it-comes" person.  Before they married, they both admired in the other the very characteristics which later became annoying.

God Had Planned Something Better

Hindsight vision is always 20-20, but seeing what lies in the future is totally something else.  The future is unknown, risky, and indefinite.  It's no wonder we hesitate to take the bold step whether it is launching a business or moving away from the security of the nest.  No business or marriage would likely fail if we knew the future, but neither does any endeavor succeed apart from a measure of risk.  The armchair critics risk nothing.  They are the ones who quarterback from the sidelines.  They are exactly right with their criticism, but they are worthless when it comes to playing the game.

Honesty

What would you do in this situation?  You are a repairman who has been called to replace the water heater in the home of an old gentleman who is 88 years of age and cannot go downstairs where the water heater is located.  When you examine the water heater, however, you discover that only a minor problem with a setting is causing the water heater to malfunction.  A new unit is an unnecessary expense.  He will never know that the old one could be easily repaired, and you'll make many times more money.  After all, he did call and asked for the unit to be replaced.  Would you make the repair, replace the unit, or ask him to indicate just what he wanted done?