Christian Devotionals and Scripture Applied to Everyday Life

One of the worst feelings you will ever experience is the anguish of regret when you have hurt someone's feelings or done a person wrong. So often this happens when releasing frustrations on an innocent bystander who may even be a close friend or loved one. I have done this many times in my life. Though the release of the torrent of grievances may feel freeing for a few minutes, it is so often followed by chains of remorse that tie the gut in knots.

Ours is a generation of impatience. Who wants to wait for an oven-cooked dinner when you can microwave it? Who wants to wait for an answer when it is only a quick text away? Who wants to wait for the right opportunity when a sufficient one is staring you in the face? There is so much we miss when our impatience demands immediate action.

Ohio springs often bring strong winds. Living here for the past twenty-one years has given me several opportunities to experience the devastation that these powerful gusts can create. It was only a year ago about this time that a tornado ripped through our community, yanking trees out of the ground like dandelions, demolishing barns into a mess of mangled metal, and flattening farmhouses that had been long-time landmarks of productive rural life. One misplaced strong wind and a whole life-time of memories were instantly gone.

Have you ever noticed how things have a tendency to fall apart? Let's take our house for example. Regardless of how new something may be, things still regularly seem to break or fall into disrepair.

The well-known teacher and pastor, Erwin Lutzer, once said, "The deeper we go with God, the lower we are able to go with service."

"How am I supposed to know how to do this?" My frustration was building as I sat in front of the computer and stared with glassy eyes at the screen. I had been trying to set up a new program which seemed so simple to do when I googled and printed off the "Easy as 1, 2, 3 . . ." instructions. But, as usual, I had run into a glitch, and now my disheveled hair and mascara-stained eyes gave evidence to the vexation I was feeling at my loss of any further direction.