”If all else fails, try reading the directions.” How many times have we heard this advice after endless attempts to put together a simple child’s toy that comes ”knocked down.” We think, ”there’s nothing to this” until we try to piece together the many strange looking pieces and find to our dismay that we have several left over.

Many of us do this with life. So anxious are we to do our ”own thing,” that we run pell mell down the wrong road for miles before we stop and find that we are traveling in the wrong direction. Wise parents try to steer children right but the foolish child replies with the well known phrase, ”Mother, I would rather do it myself.” A wise parent would rather have the child believe the advice that the stove is hot than have to bandage up the burnt fingers that tested it to see.

Our Heavenly Father would also prefer to have us read His directions and accept in faith His instructions than get burnt in the fires of life that surround every one of us. Why is it that so few read His directions? In the words of the old church hymn, ”Oh, what pain we often suffer, Oh, what needless grief we bear, just because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” By listening to God (reading our Bibles) and talking to God (prayer) we can avoid the fatal mistakes that are claiming the lives of those around us.

David asked ”wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” and then he quickly answered his own question, ”by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” It is the only way to do it. David who was a man after God’s own heart, then proceeds to declare, ”With my whole heart have I sought thee: 0 let me not wander from thy commandments.” God assures us that ”Blessed are they that keep His testimonies: and that seek him with the whole heart.”

Paul tells us that those of the world ”did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” This is as true today as it was when Paul penned these words. Those around us do not think of God, of the directions He has given us, or His wonderful promises. True they mention His name frequently, but it is only in cursing. No wonder God has given them over to a reprobate mind. They are filled with all unrighteousness and wickedness. No wonder they do not know God’s plan of salvation, they have never read His directions. They are blind leaders of the blind and we remember that Jesus said they would all end up in the ditch.

Solomon told us that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. No wonder the world is in such a mess today. It is evident that the world is not thinking right, they do not retain God in their thoughts, their minds are filled with all kinds of wickedness. This is evident from the type of entertainment that is being offered today. Movies and plays have hit an all time low. It is embarrassing to even walk past a magazine stand. When people feed their mind garbage, crime and violence are the natural result. Can a clean thing come out of something unclean?

We cannot solve the problems of the world, Jesus told us it was going to get like this. We can do something about our own situation. If we will read the directions God has prepared for us and follow them to the best of our ability, then Jesus when he comes will be pleased to separate us from this evil world and give us eternal life in his kingdom. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The directions are worth following.