"Times, Places, and People"
Reading habits are conditioned by three factors: the existence of privacy, the purchase of books by adults, and the presence of at least one adult who reads frequently.
C. S. Medina1
A single day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else. I would rather be a doorman of the Temple of my God than live in palaces of wickedness. For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk along his paths.
Psalm 84:10, 11
Once the decision has been made to pray, the time and place we decide to pray, and the people we associate with, all become crucial.
Carl Hines, a communications engineer for the Santa Fe railroad in Topeka, Kansas, credits some of these physical elements for stimulating his prayer life:
"I grew up in a home with a Christian mother and went to church regularly until I was five or six years old. But Mom got cancer and died when I was nine. Dad was an alcoholic, and we moved around a lot. I was bitter. From that point on, I moved far from the Lord."
He was searching, however, and when he moved back to Topeka, the need for a spiritual life became unbearable. His marriage had begun to deteriorate—his whole world seemed in danger of collapsing. Then he found Fairlawn Heights Wesleyan Church:
"I'd heard Pastor Ed preach once, and I remembered his name. So when I needed someone to talk to, I thought of him. I drove to the church. I had only visited the church once; I didn't know who to ask for. But someone there remembered me and called Pastor Ed. He and Pastor Tom came over to talk.
"Right there I made a commitment. It was December 3, 1981—an important date to me. As I look back, not a lot changed right then—and it didn't help my marriage ...
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