IF WE JUST KEEP OUR EYES ON JESUS, THINGS TEND TO GET STRAIGHTENED OUT.

Bible Reading of the Day: Read Hebrews 12:1-2.

Verse of the Day: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish” (Hebrews 12:2).

“How do you get it so straight?”

Shelly’s Uncle Mike was letting her help with the plowing and planting on his farm. During the plowing, she noticed that when she steered the tractor, the row turned out crooked. But when Uncle Mike drove, the row looked as straight as a ribbon on a Christmas gift.

Uncle Mike shrugged. “Simple,” he answered. He pointed to the row of fence posts that stretched across the opposite end of the field. “I just pick out one of those fence posts and stare straight at it the whole time.”

“You don’t look around at all?” Shelly asked.

Her uncle shook his head. “Don’t need to. I can see everything around me just fine in my peripheral vision. But I keep my eyes fastened on the fence and never take ’em away.”

Late that afternoon, Shelly and Uncle Mike returned to the house for dinner. While Mike washed off the day’s dirt and sweat, Shelly told her aunt Cindy what she had learned.

Cindy nodded and faced Shelly with a smile. “You know, Shelly, what your uncle said about plowing sounds pretty much like how we should do everything.”

A look of confusion crossed Shelly’s face. She lived in the city, and she couldn’t imagine how staring at fence posts in order to plow and plant straight would work back home. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Aunt Cindy inhaled deeply before speaking. “A lot of people,” she said, “get confused in life and wonder what’s right or wrong, and they end up making a mess of things. But if we just keep our eyes on Jesus, things tend to get straightened out, because he’s totally righteous and true.”

Shelly nodded. “I see what you mean. … I probably should have taken time to pray this morning before I went out in the field with Uncle Mike. That would have helped me keep my eyes on Jesus today, huh?”

“It would have helped,” Aunt Cindy said. She winked at her niece. “It wouldn’t hurt Uncle Mike to wait sometimes, you know.”

“It wouldn’t hurt me to wait for what?” Uncle Mike asked as he entered the room.

“Supper!” his wife answered. She exchanged smiles with Shelly and left to prepare the evening meal.

TO DISCUSS: Why wasn’t Shelly able to plow straight? How can we keep our eyes on Jesus?

TO PRAY: “Lord, help us to keep our eyes on you every day to find strength, direction, and wisdom through you.”