<\/p>\n
\u201cBe cautious. Opportunity does the knocking for temptation too\u201d (Al Batt).<\/p>\n
WHEN WE\u2019RE CONFRONTED WITH DIFFICULT OR DANGEROUS CIRCUMSTANCES, WE NEED TO BE CAUTIOUS. There are forces at work in the world that will destroy us and our loved ones if we don\u2019t watch out. In the living of a human life, it pays to be careful.<\/p>\n
It is possible to be overly cautious, and if that\u2019s your problem, today\u2019s reading may not be helpful. But in my experience, those with that problem are in the minority. The swindlers of the world haven\u2019t reported any downturn in their business lately; you don\u2019t hear them complaining that people in general have become too cautious. No, I think P. T. Barnum (who said, \u201cThere\u2019s a sucker born every minute\u201d) would be tickled to death if he were alive today.<\/p>\n
We need to exercise caution in our beliefs.<\/em> When we\u2019re forming our basic beliefs, convictions, and opinions, we need to double-check for accuracy. \u201cOpinions should be formed with great caution \u2014 and changed with greater\u201d (Josh Billings). It\u2019s easier to verify the truthfulness of our ideas and principles than it is to rebuild what we\u2019ve destroyed by acting on false information that we carelessly accepted.<\/p>\n We need to exercise caution in our relationships.<\/em> Of all the damage that carelessness can do, none is more heartbreaking than the damage we do to other people. To a greater or lesser extent, everything we do impinges on someone else, and it\u2019s not sufficient, when we\u2019ve hurt someone, to brush the incident aside with a simple, \u201cI just wasn\u2019t thinking.\u201d That\u2019s the whole point, isn\u2019t it? We should<\/em> have been thinking. We owe it to those around us to use caution in our conduct.<\/p>\n When we\u2019ve been careless, we can\u2019t expect the laws of the universe to rescue us. Those laws operate with great predictability: the crop we reap will always be the one we sowed. If we sow incautiously, it\u2019s foolish (and also a bit arrogant) to expect the \u201claw of the farm\u201d to be set aside just for our convenience, as if we could make poor choices and still get the results that would have come from better choices. And in the real world, poor choices can be disastrous, not only for us but also for the friends and family members who are affected by our actions. It pays to be careful.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly: the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line\u201d (Ralph Waldo Emerson).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n