All Max needed was a few short minutes of loving attention from me each day to make him happy and cause him to behave as a model cat. In a larger way, our relationships with our children and spouses greatly benefit from our focused attention?as do our associations with friends, neighbors, co-workers, casual acquaintances, and even the strangers we encounter every day.

We all need to feel and know we belong. We all need to know that regardless of age, behavior, beliefs, social status, or economics, we are special, valued, unconditionally loved, and belong to a family group.

Consider the example Jesus set for us when He walked on this earth. He traveled through villages and towns, tending to the needs of everyone He encountered. We are told there were towns He passed through that had not one sick person left in them because of His compassionate and healing ministry (Matthew 9:35). He didn?t ask them if they were believers or even if they were in conformity with His law. Instead, He ministered to them and gave them His attention.

Jesus even acted with compassion toward His most vocal enemies. He did not neglect or ignore them. He reached out and gave them proof of His care for them. He makes His sun shine and His rain fall on both the good and the bad (Matthew 5:45). 

If you ever find yourself slipping from positive to negative in your mind, heart, or words, cry out to God: ?Help, Lord! Give me Your grace?those blessings, gifts, favors, and miracles You have for me in heaven. I desperately need You now! I?m falling into a pit of stinkin? thinkin?!? To refocus our mind and heart on God?s grace, there are hundreds of songs to sing, texts to quote, and poems to recite. Look immediately to heaven, where your help comes from the ?Father of lights,? and remember, ?Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need? (Hebrews 4:16). Also, ?For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them? (Hebrews 13:9).

God?s got practical, supernatural, immediate help awaiting us when life and the adversary, devil, roaring lion is pouncing on us. God wants all of us?His children?to be representatives of His heavenly family and to be known as upbeat, peaceful, and positive Christians. Each day I asked Him to make me a positive, winsome, infectious, happy, joyful, radiant influence for His glory, not mine. 

The woman (Babylon) of Revelation 17 is described as ?arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness: . . . and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.? Revelation 17:4-6.

The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome. The purple and scarlet color, the gold and precious stones and pearls, vividly picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by the haughty see of Rome. And no other power could be so truly declared ?drunken with the blood of the saints? as that church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. Babylon is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with ?the kings of the earth.? It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome, corrupting herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers, receives a like condemnation. ?The Great Controversy, p. 382.

The founders of the United States clearly understood that if a church draws its authority and power from the state, intolerance and persecution often follow for those who do not conform to the church?s mandates. These early American leaders were well acquainted with the tyranny of the state-church union in Europe. One of the reasons people left the Old World for the New was religious intolerance. Therefore, the founders wrote these memorable words into the First Amendment to the US Constitution: ?Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.?

George Washington, America?s first president and a deeply religious man, stated: ?I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.?

Thomas Jefferson coined the expression ?separation between church and state.? By this, Jefferson meant that all people?s religious convictions must be respected and that the government did not have the authority or right to establish a state religion or dictate the beliefs or nonbeliefs of its citizens.

Revelation 17 predicts that this will happen in the future under the auspices of spiritual Babylon. Verse 2 outlines this dramatic event: ?The inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.?

The fallen church, described in Revelation 17:3, 4 as a woman dressed in purple and scarlet, sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, influences the state to support her falsehoods (verses 3?6). She passes around her cup of erroneous doctrine. The world becomes intoxicated with these false religious ideas. Millions drink the wine of Babylon and are deceived. The Bible describes it this way in Revelation 17:3: ?And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.? 

Many Christians do not recognize that there is a deeper cause of many of their struggles. They do not recognize that Satan has snuck in through a back door and is binding them with his chains of deception. Thankfully, Christ came to set the captives free, to make our crooked ways straight, and to break apart the chains that bind us (see Isaiah 58:6 and Isaiah 45:2).

As we recognize that the enemy is trying to weaken our spiritual fortresses so he can overcome us, we should prayerfully ask the Lord to search our hearts. Before we can move forward effectively by repairing the breaches in our spiritual walls, we have to know exactly where the holes are and what access points he has into our lives. Praying Psalm 139:23, 24 will help show us where to look.

One thing is for certain. We cannot face the devil on our own strength. Prayer is the answer. Through prayer God bathes us with His presence and power. Through prayer He touches the hearts of our loved ones. Armored with prayer, we can face the enemy at the end times. It is impossible to live godly lives today with an inconsistent prayer life.

When our connection with God is broken, our power from God is cut off. When there is little prayer, there is little power. Prayer is our humble acknowledgment that we cannot live the Christian life without His strength. It is the admission of our inability to cope with Satan's temptations alone. Through prayer we are more than able to handle Satan's temptations. The devil is no match for the praying, trusting child of God.

Failure to accept responsibility for your own acts is a dysfunctional habit. It promotes irresponsibility and a self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude.

Living with an accuser is psychologically damaging because accusers blame everyone, including the innocent. Once the accusation is cast, doubts are planted in the minds of others. Who should others believe? You or your accuser? Your character is questioned. It takes a lot of willpower to keep from repaying evil with evil.

Don't let your family members succeed in blaming others; don't tolerate it in yourself. Let them know that it's OK to be wrong. Everyone makes mistakes. That's how we learn. Be quick to admit your own mistakes. Be an example for your children by saying: "I should have known better." "I goofed. Next time I'll ask first." "I shouldn't have gotten angry."

It's a magnanimous person who can own up to his or her own mistakes. Such a person commands respect. You'll respect yourself more when you, too, are willing to take personal responsibility.

 Which way do the streamers point? That is the direction the wind is blowing.

We can?t see the wind, but we can tell that it?s there because of what it does to our wind sock. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. We can?t see Him. We can see only what He does. But we know He is there, because God promised that the Holy Spirit is with us all the time, just like the air around us. Even though we can?t see Him, when we see what He does we know He is with us, and we can tell God ?Thank You!?

Dear God, thank You for the Holy Spirit, who is with us always. 

When a dog wags its tail, it is saying it is happy. Can you pet a dog with a wagging tail? Yes, if you know it. (We don?t pet animals we don?t know.)

When a cat wags its tail, it means trouble! If you tried to pet a cat whose tail was wagging you could end up getting scratched?or even having a cat bite. Ouch!

Aren?t you glad Jesus made a way for dogs and cats to tell us how they are feeling? He did that because He didn?t want to see us get scratched or bitten.

You can talk, so you don?t need a tail to tell people how you are feeling. And even if you don?t talk, Jesus knows just how you are feeling all the time. I?m so glad?you?d look funny with a tail! 

No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple, that every soul may have free access to God. His love is so broad, so deep, so full, that it penetrates everywhere. It lifts out of Satan?s circle the poor souls who have been deluded by his deceptions. It places them within reach of the throne of God, the throne encircled by the rainbow of promise.

In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. All are brought nigh by His precious blood. (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:13).

Whatever the difference in religious belief, a call from suffering humanity must be heard and answered. Where bitterness of feeling exists because of difference in religion, much good may be done by personal service. Loving ministry will break down prejudice, and win souls to God.

We should anticipate the sorrows, the difficulties, the troubles of others. We should enter into the joys and cares of both high and low, rich and poor. ?Freely ye have received,? Christ says, ?freely give.? Matthew 10:8.?Christ?s Object Lessons, p. 386.

Only the God of creation provides a true sense of hope and self-worth. The Creator of the universe created us. Each of us is special. When your genes and chromosomes came together to form the unique biological structure of your personality, God threw away the pattern.

Evolution is dehumanizing. If I am an enlarged protein molecule, if I am simply the product of fortuitous chance, or if I am only an advanced form of animal, life has little meaning. I am merely one of eight billion people clawing at one another for living space on a planet called Earth.

By contrast, creation provides a moral imperative for living. God has created me, and I am accountable to Him for my actions. The One who made me and holds me responsible has established absolutes in a world of moral relativism. 

Enoch didn't withdraw from contact with those who had chosen against God. He didn't lock himself away in some mountain retreat to meditate and pray 24/7 and thus become "holy." No, instead he left us an example of how to be in the world, yet not of it. "Enoch's walk with God was not in a trance or vision, but in all the duties of his daily life. He did not become a hermit, shutting himself entirely from the world; for he had a work to do for God in the world" (PP, p. 85).

For three hundred years, Enoch pursued God with all the passion and intensity of his soul. He came to know God intimately until "he was not, for God took him" Genesis 5:24.