By Brenda Cannon Henley
“People continually amaze me by their own choices and inability to see beyond their own nose.

“Don’t walk open eyed into a terrible mistake. If God is giving you direction and encouragement, be willing to accept it. Otherwise, you’ll be picking up the keys to Heartbreak Hotel over and over again.”

The above quote is something I wrote over the weekend to a very kind young man that I have come to know and love. He possesses a great personality, has a very good job, is kind to people of all ages, and wants to pay his fair share of any costs.

The problem that we discussed is his clear inability to make profitable decisions that determine his life course and future happiness. We also touched on how these choices affect others.

He earnestly described a prior relationship with a woman that turned sour, not once, but four different times. The consecutive breakups over a period of about one year drove him into a state of depression and physical illness.

Not only did he discover the woman’s fickle spirit, lack of ability to remain in a committed relationship, untruthfullness, selfishness, me only attitude, he believes there was drug use. From photographs, one can see that she can pull herself together and make a pleasing presentation.

Only a few days after the last noisy breakup, she posted publicly that she was “in a relationship” with yet another man for all the world to see. His family became very worried about him because of his deep depression over the matter.

That relationship did not last any longer for her than the others. She immediately began to call and text my friend wanting to “try again to work things out between the two of them.”

He asked my opinion and I was literally speechless that he would even entertain the thought of going back for the fifth round after all the heartbreak, discouragement, and sadness. I first considered that he might be teasing, but sadly, he was not.

Those who knew him well had been so pleased to see him gaining ground, reading his Bible, attending services, having a time of daily devotion, choosing service, and being happy. God was blessing him. He was doing well.

The woman seemed desparate and her contact became more frequent. He gave in and saw her again. He let down his guard and certainly did not follow principles for good relationship building or advice given clearly in the Book of Proverbs for both men and women.

He broke off all other close relationships and announced that they were “going to try to make it work.” I thought, “What a dismal beginning for a relationship.”

Satan is wickedly smart. He will use anything he can to deceive, defeat, discourage, and damn a man or woman to keep them from true happiness, the blessing of God, and a life of contentment. I challenge our readers to make a personal commitment to read one chapter of Proverbs each day for a month to be better armed against the devil. Make wise choices. Your life depends on it.

In this case that truly breaks my heart, Satan is laughing and his message to my friend is, “Hey, your room is ready at my Heartbreak Hotel and I left the bright lights on for you.”

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at 409 781 8788, or
[email protected]

[July-20-2020]