Charlyne Cares

October 16, 2006

----Each Monday in Charlyne Cares we share a devotional written by a fellow standers. You can submit an
original devotional from - http://rejoiceministries.org/ccsubmit.html
-----

THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL

"It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way." Proverbs 19:2
I went to visit my friend at work the other day. We work at a college and her office is in the Student Union
Building. As I entered the expansive Union building, I saw her sitting on the floor outside her office door.
When I got closer to her, she explained to me that our Dean of Students had ordered a new desk and than
rather to pay for someone to come and build it, she was going to put the desk to- gether. She was sitting on
the floor in the middle of 28 pieces of wood of varying shapes and sizes. In front of her was the instruction
manual and approximately 200 little screws, bolts, nails, dowels, cam locks, hinges,... you name the part, I
think it was there! I pulled up a stool and watched my friend go to work on this massive L-shaped desk.
It seems that any piece of furniture you buy anymore has to be assembled like this, from bookshelves to
kitchen carts and entertainment centers. I have had my fair share of taking a pile of pieces and turning them
into something functional. It got me thinking about the way God is with us. We come before Him as an array
of wooden pieces with nails, screws, bolts and glue and anxiously wait for the Master to build us into the
person we are supposed to become. Well, theoretically this is how it is suppose to work.
I hadn't been there 5 minutes when I noticed that the particular pieces that my friend was working on were
supposed to form the shell for the drawers at the one end. She had the sides going the right direction, but she
didn't think the bottom piece was lining up quite right. Still, she grabbed her power drill and tightened the
screws. I tried to tell her that it was backwards - she had the finished edge facing the back and the raw edge
facing the front. All I could do was laugh - she was just so excited to be playing with a drill and putting the
desk together that she wasn't paying attention to ALL of the directions. Thus began the "destruction" of the
desk, as she had to unscrew the bottom piece and turn it the right direction.
With one end of the desk completed, she jumped to the other end. Having just finished a similar piece, she
knew how the next one would go together. We got the finished edges all facing the right way this time before
tightening the screws on the shell, but where are the rollers? There had been two rollers that she had
attached to the first shell, but now the directions were asking for another set of rollers that we didn't have. I
picked up the instruction manual to find out what the problem was. I had to go backwards several pages to
find out where we had gone astray. The desk has a cabinet at one end and drawers at the other end, but the
builder gets to decide which side will be the cabinet and which side the drawers. Somehow in my friends
excitement, she had skipped that line! After finishing the two components, we needed to move ahead past
the alternate construction option, to get back to how to assemble the individual components into one desk.

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How often do we, as Christians, skip ahead of God and what He is doing in our lives? How often do we not
pay attention to all of the directions? Or worse yet, how many of us ignore the "instruction manual" all
together? It is easy to get distracted by life and the things of this world. We go through our day just doing our
own thing - we don't need instructions! But then, some piece doesn't fit. We quickly grab the manual, call the
manufacturer or the store and do whatever it takes to correct the problem. Problem solved, and the manual
gets set aside again, until the next piece doesn't fit like we think it should.
"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a
depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil,
greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers,
God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they
are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do
such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who
practice them." Romans 1:28-32
I wonder who I would be today if I had simply given God my box of parts in the first place and patiently waited
for Him to skillfully build in me what he had originally designed me to be. At this point in my life I have tried
numerous times to put the pieces together myself, only to discover that the object that I have created time
and time again looks NOTHING like the picture on the box! So, I back up, pick up the Bible, and read the
instructions that God has laid out for me and my life. I am learning that this has to be done each and every
day. By relying on the manual (Bible) written by the manufacturer (God), I just may end up looking like the
picture (Christ) after all.
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3
In Him,
Crysy, in North Carolina
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Post Office Box 10548
Pompano Beach, FL 33061 USA
http://rejoiceministries.org (Ministry)
http://stopdivorce.org (Bookstore)
Devotional Copyright 2006 Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Scripture quoted by permission and are from the Holy Bible; New International Version Copyright 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights
reserved.
Printed from http://rejoiceministries.org/cc/view.php?id=2547
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Post Office Box 10548
Pompano Beach, FL 33061
http://rejoiceministries.org

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