The Devotional - A Look at the Book #823

A Word from Papa “J”

The road ahead always leads to someplace, yet there are many places on the road where one can go. This to me defines religion and how Jesus explains to His disciples saying: “Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate that leads to destruction…” Matthew 7:13-14. No doubt it is just coincidence that Jesus directed Ananias to the house of Judas in Acts 9:11… or is it?

Good Morning

Who are some of the people we deem as important in life? Family, a husband, a wife, children, parents, grand-children, grandparents, aunts, uncles and close friends; all of these people affect to some degree the maintenance of life and happiness to those around them. Yet within that mix of loved ones are people with bent views about life that do not line up in ways that produce or meet the needs that one may have.

For example; just down the street from where we live is a couple with two children. The older boy is from the man’s other marriage and the younger from the wife he presently has. These two are often outside when I take a walk with our two dogs. The man’s wife likes to bring her young son out to see the dogs and chat a bit with me. The husband owns a landscaping business and he and I talk shop since I was once in that business too.

Because I talk with both of them and sometimes separately I have gotten to know what it is that makes them close to one another and what it is that keeps them apart. The woman mainly believes in evolution and the man could very easily be of a cultish background. These are two unhappy people who are willing to clash and argue with each other while I am present. Yet when the other is not present there is a sense of need that both express and that is the need to have a friend, someone to communicate with and confide in.

Here is the rub: We need friends and relatives and we need to communicate with them, but there is one communication that belongs to the husband and wife alone and that is the conversation of a bitter heart. When a married heart becomes bitter it is mostly because that heart is left alone to suffer the results of loneliness. And when loneliness pokes its head into places where trouble is; trouble happens.

This is true with children too who need parental communication rather than peer pressure or another adult to confide in. Also know this that though the stranger is called in to provide joy, he or she will not be able to provide, except to provide more sorrow since most would be friends will choose a side.

Wickedness within the household overthrows it, even when the tent of the upright is just down the street. On the surface we laugh and play childish games of hide and seek. (I’ll hide from you the things I do not want you to know, even while you seek to find out) Yes we can laugh and frolic in our mirth; and in all this laughter a heart retains its sorrow while our mirth ends up in grief – Proverbs 14:10-14.