I admire people who seem to have a built-in capacity to operate complex equipment without having to plough through countless pages of an instruction manual. Even with such an assist, I still sometimes find it difficult to work out what to do. Oh for the days of televisions that just had an on/off knob, a volume control and just one channel!

But life is more than just on/off and it is far more complicated than any equipment I have come across over the years. Yes, even more complicated than our modern televisions! But does it come with an instruction manual?

Babies don't come with a neatly packaged book of instructions. As a parent, you are expected to "learn on the job" although, to be fair, there is an enormous amount of help out there; ranging from baby food and babywear suppliers, nurses, doctors, grand parents and so on.

When I have a problem with learning how to use unfamiliar equipment, my instinctive reaction nowadays is to search for assistance online. All those YouTube videos and Google Gemini explanations, for example, are invaluable. And I suspect that huge numbers of new (and older) parents take the same route.

As babies grow into young children they become enveloped in our wonderful education system. No shortage of help there.

So from our earliest moments on this planet, we are well assisted and usually guided in the right direction until launch date, sometime in our mid to late teens. But still no actual handbook on how to steer our way through life!

So what do we do? An unfortunately large number of people muddle through, learning (or not learning as the case may be) by trial and error, often with disastrous consequences. Others are more savvy. They have discovered a really superb manual on how to live their lives and, even better, this manual is supported by 24/7 "online" help and guidance.

The fact that you are reading this on a Church website can leave you in no doubt that the manual I refer to is the Holy Bible, a book full of examples of and solutions to a multitude of life's problems and experiences. And the "online" help is Heaven itself, with God at the helm and ably assisted by Jesus. All this is accessed by prayer, with a guaranteed direct link. No need to search the Web!

So you've got a problem or need guidance? Then read the Bible and pray to God. That is some solution don't you think?

Thank you for reading this.

Ken.

PLEASE NOTE. This and all other entries in 'News and Notices' are usually listed in order of date published or amended.