Guidelines For Living Devotional

Why Is Remembering So Important?

When we fail to remember the past, we are condemned to repeat our mistakes and failures, whether it be nationally, personally, or spiritually.  Do you believe that?  Even before the alphabet was developed in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley, parents passed on to their children the truths which they wanted preserved.  Oral history, we call it today.  Sometimes the stories were myths but most of them were factual—who did what and what happened to whom.  Those oral traditions included God’s dealings with people, and family history—battles that were fought, marriages which produced offspring, and cataclysmic events such as earthquakes, famines, and floods.

What To Do When You Fall Short

It was not without some scientific basis that the prophet Micah, some seven centuries before Christ, exclaimed, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?”  Micah believed that God would have compassion and would “hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).

This Is How To Overcome Failure

Long ago the writer of Scripture told us that he who does not offend in word or deed is a perfect man; and obviously, none of us qualifies.  No matter how loving or kind you are, sooner or later you offend someone.  You say or do something you know is wrong.  More likely it is a protracted dalliance with your conscience, but then you crash and burn.  That's when you come to the fork in the road.  Do you do what is convenient and try to deny the whole issue, or admit it and find help?  Sweeping the wrong aside, justifying yourself as being "human," is the path of convenience, and it's a well trod one, but it isn't a lasting solution which heals your brokenness.

If Not Now, When?

What you say can get you into far more trouble than what you do!  Have you discovered that?   It's much like the advice that the mother whale gave her young:  "It's when you are spouting that you always get into trouble!" 

What To Do When Your Faith Is Challenging

Eventually your faith will be challenged, no matter how strong or how weak it is.  It may be challenged by an agnostic professor; or perhaps more likely it will be challenged by the trials of life.  Sooner or later something happens and your heart cries out, "Lord, I just cannot handle this."  It may be a child's illness, or a marriage that turns sour, or a business deal which has not gone well.

5 Guidelines To A Meaningful Conversation

Men and women have always had difficulty communicating, and now we know why--at least, to a very small degree.  It's a proven fact that women listen with both sides of their brains, men primarily with one side.  But what we've known for ages is still true: though it may be a challenge, it can be done.  I am convinced that communication is the key to any relationship, whether it is your marriage, getting along with your neighbor, or succeeding in business.

5 Tips to Effective Communication

Speaking in public and talking in private are not the same at all.  There are people who are great public speakers.  They motivate, they inspire, they move people to tears, but talk to the same person one-on-one and it's like trying to get a dead fish to swim, or a corpse to tell you how he feels.

This Is The Difference Between Men And Women

"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.

Find God When You Lose Your Dream

"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.

Tomorrow Can Be Different

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.