Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

FAMILY. The place where principles are hammered out on the anvil of daily living. Where character traits are molded and shaped under the watchful eyes of moms and dads. The batons in this relay are many.

WHEN WE SUFFER FROM clutter-holic syndrome, our lives are marked by mediocrity, haphazardness, and putting out needless fires.

AS I WRITE THIS, the thermometer registers in the nineties. The air is still and heavy. The dog is panting at my feet, the sun is high, and the birds are silent and still.

Some people can’t say no to a salesman at the door. Others have the hardest time passing up a litter of free puppies.

THE PACKAGE ARRIVED SAFELY, the reminder "Fragile: Handle with Care" affixed to the front. Oh, it had a few scuff marks and a bent corner or two, but by and large, nothing was damaged.

AH, PREDICAMENTS . . . LIFE IS FULL OF THEM. Sometimes they are of our own making. Other times they mysteriously happen to us, apart from anything we caused.

AT LONG LAST I AM FINALLY discovering that that stuff about Rome not being built in a day is true. And speaking of Rome, Paul’s words to the century-one Christians who lived there are truer than ever.

NOBODY IS A WHOLE CHAIN. Each one is a link. But take away one link and the chain is broken.

WHAT DO THORNS REPRESENT IN SCRIPTURE? Prickly issues that steal our joy, confidence, and progress in our faith. Jesus' own words describe the menace of thorns to our spiritual vitality.

YOU CAN'T TURN ON the evening news without being inundated with painful reminders of the shocking disregard for God's moral law in our culture.

EVER GET THAT cattle-in-the-corral feeling? Sure you have. Whether it's sitting in morning traffic or standing in a long check-out line at Walmart-it's easy to feel as if you're only a blip on the radar of some cosmic force.

SNAP A TELESCOPIC LENS ON your perspective for the next few minutes. Pull yourself up close enough to see the real you.

IF WE HAD THE unusual opportunity to spend a day talking to the apostles, men like Paul, Peter, James, and John, I think they'd emphasize an oft-spoken discipline-but one that's rarely deployed in our lives: praying for others.

THERE IS NOTHING QUITE like the charm and personal touch conveyed in a handwritten note.

AS YOU WAVED GOOD-BYE TO your friends at church last Sunday, what mental darts were left stuck in the target of your thinking?

SLICE IT ANY WAY YOU WISH, ignorance is not bliss. Dress it in whatever garb you please, ignorance is not attractive.

LOST IN THE SILENT SOLITUDE of recent days, I have been impressed anew with the vast handiwork of our incomprehensible God.

We who live in this fast-paced jungle, this never-slowing treadmill of our high-tech society, have no idea how deeply entrenched we are in the rut of routine.

WHO IS IT THE LORD HAS used to model His message and challenge you to change, to shake off that tendency to settle for less than your full potential, to stretch and pursue and conquer new territory you once never dreamed possible?

AT A BAZAAR IN NORTHERN INDIA, an old farmer brought in a whole covey of quail. He had tied a string around one leg of each bird.