Just read the instructions

My sweet husband is fairly mechanically inclined, but I will have to say I am more so than he. Almost without fail, when he is putting an item together that comes out of the box in a gillion pieces, he will start assembling it, then after a few minutes, he calls me to see if I can figure it out. Of course, the first thing out of my mouth is, "Did you read the instructions?" Almost invariably his answer will be, "No", with a big grin on his face.

Does your man do this or is it just mine? He doesn't like to take the time to read the instructions. Because of that one overlooked detail, he usually finds himself with pieces left over, or worse yet, the item doesn't go together correctly. He fights it for a while then calls for help when he could have saved himself time and frustration by reading the instructions first.

I fear we do this same thing in our Christian walk. When trials come our way, we try to fix the problem by putting the broken pieces back together only to find they won't fit. Some pieces are left over or maybe even missing. That's when we give up and ask God for help. He responds by asking "Child, did you read the instructions?"

God has given us the best instruction manual ever -- the Bible. The answers to life, death, happiness, peace, riches, you name it, it's in there. We just need to invest the time each day to learn how to live out the plan He has for us. (Jeremiah 29:11) Let's just do the thing! It will pay off in the end.