This is National Reading a Roadmap Day.

OK, you’re on a trip with your family and sitting in the backseat of the car. Overhearing the conversation between your mom and dad, you sense that you may be lost—their frustration level is rising. Soon you see your mother pull out a map, point to it, and say something like, “I guess we should have turned there!”

Whenever we travel, it’s good to have directions. Otherwise we’ll go the wrong way and be lost. Even if we think we know the right way and are very sincere about it, we should probably check a map to make sure. We could be sincerely wrong!

Life is like that. People travel along, heading in a certain direction. Kids go to school, go to college, get jobs, get married, have children . . . they make a lot of decisions and turns. Wouldn’t it be great to have a guidebook or map to show us the right way to travel through life?

We have one. It doesn’t look like a map, but it’s a guidebook all right. And you probably have one in your room.

It’s the Bible—God’s Word.

Look at what the verse for today promises. It says that Scripture teaches us what is true and right. In other words, the Bible puts us on the right road in life and keeps us there.

That’s why reading and studying the Bible is so important. When we read a passage and then ask, “What’s the point here? What does God want me to know and to do?” we will find our directions.

Don’t get lost. Check God’s map.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right (2 Timothy 3:16).

To Do

If you haven’t already started a regular Bible reading program, it’s not too late to start.

Also on this day . . .

1828—The process for making cocoa powder was patented.

1968—Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.