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Check The Obvious
When Bill Husted walked into his 40th high school reunion, he shook hands and hugged people for 20 minutes before realizing there were two high school reunions in the building that day and he was at the wrong one.
Husted, a technology writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, used that experience to illustrate one of his enduring axioms of computer troubleshooting: Check the obvious first.
Before you replace the sound card, make sure the volume control is not turned down. If the modem isn’t working, check to see if it’s connected.
“Check the obvious first” can be a good principle for spiritual troubleshooting as well. Colossians 3:12-17 lists a dozen spiritual qualities that indicate a healthy soul. Prominent among them are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, and thankfulness.
Before criticizing our church or other Christian groups, we might ask the Lord to reveal our own shortcomings. Prior to ripping out the wires of relationships, we could check to see if patience and forgiveness are connected in our own heart.
It’s good to look inside our heart—to check the obvious first—even when it feels as if all our problems are caused by others. — David McCasland
I’ll check within my own heart first,
The obvious to see,
That faults I find in others
Are really faults in me. — D. DeHaan
Christlike love is patient with the faults of others.
When Bill Husted walked into his 40th high school reunion, he shook hands and hugged people for 20 minutes before realizing there were two high school reunions in the building that day and he was at the wrong one.
Husted, a technology writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, used that experience to illustrate one of his enduring axioms of computer troubleshooting: Check the obvious first.
Before you replace the sound card, make sure the volume control is not turned down. If the modem isn’t working, check to see if it’s connected.
“Check the obvious first” can be a good principle for spiritual troubleshooting as well. Colossians 3:12-17 lists a dozen spiritual qualities that indicate a healthy soul. Prominent among them are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, and thankfulness.
Before criticizing our church or other Christian groups, we might ask the Lord to reveal our own shortcomings. Prior to ripping out the wires of relationships, we could check to see if patience and forgiveness are connected in our own heart.
It’s good to look inside our heart—to check the obvious first—even when it feels as if all our problems are caused by others. — David McCasland
I’ll check within my own heart first,
The obvious to see,
That faults I find in others
Are really faults in me. — D. DeHaan
Christlike love is patient with the faults of others.
Ritningin
About this Plan
We want to encourage you into a thoughtful, daily, heart-to-heart relationship with God. Millions of readers around the world have turned to the daily devotional, Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.
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