No.39
From Wendy Howard [Editor of Despatch magazine], Sunshine Coast, Qld, Australia.
Access Online  http://www.despatch.cth.com.au/Main/tabco_main

One day my boy cousin and I laid a trap!
We knew some other kids went across a empty block of land near our houses.
So we thought we would trip them up.
There was a winding path through the trees on the big block.
A cow was kept there sometimes.
On the path there were cow pads and mud puddles.
So, we got some strong string and tied it across the path.
We put it low down, tied from one tree to another.
Right in front of the string was a big old cow pad!
Weren’t we  bad kids!
We didn’t think that an old lady or someone else might trip themselves up.
We only thought of getting even with some enemy kids.

We made sure the string was nice and tight and wouldn’t come undone.
And then we hid and watched to see if our enemies would come along and trip.
No one came, so we played around at other things.
My cousin, Peter, finally went home to his house.
I went rushing off down the path to go home to tea.
Do you know what?
I forgot the trap was there and went for an awful trip over our string!
I fell right into the cow pad!
I had to go home with yucky stuff all over my knees and hands.
Mum was not pleased at all.
Served me right I reckon.

Doing wrong things always trips us up - ourselves.
We think we are getting away with our sin but we never do, really.
We get into trouble by doing wrong things, every time.

If you don’ t do your home work, you don’t know your school work.
You trip yourself up.
If you are not friendly to other kids, you end up being lonely.
You trip your own self up.
If you never talk to God, you never to get to know Him well.
You trip your oen self up
If you don’t respect your parents, you don’t have a happy home.
You trip yourself up.

The Bible leads us on paths that are straight and safe, with no traps to trip us up.

The Bible says this:

We live in a moral universe, because God created it. Life has a way of giving us back what we put into it ourselves. If we don’t exercise and eat too much, we get fat and slobby.
If we live by the rule “love ME!” we end up despising “ME!”
If we let it all hang out and take drugs and do the evil things of the world,
we end up messes.
If we just trust in ourselves and please ourselves,
we end up having only ourselves to depend upon.
We reap what we sow!
Often the Bible gives us two paths we could follow, one compared with the other.
Think carefully about these examples from God’s word of this comparing

REMEMBER ALWAYS-