This is a book of seven chapters. Each chapter includes experiences me and my wife, Jody, have encountered. You will journey along with us as we share in detail each episode as it unfolds. We will remind you that even though your experiences are most likely different, there will be a common thread.

This common thread is, we all go through life and life's ups and downs. We all get up in the morning ready to see where the day will take us. Some days the lesson can be very obvious, and others more subtle.

Jody's and my experiences most often have a beginning, a middle, and an end--like any good story. There, of course, are exceptions to this generalization.

After chapter 3, you will read an addendum. Because as you know life, has its twists and turns. And things in life are not always in sequential order.

This having been said, we believe that we all have looked back and saw how God had to put the pieces together for His perfect timing to occur. As we read in Jeremiah 29:11-13, God has plans for us. We also read in Isaiah 55:8-9 that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. So to be good students here on earth, it definitely helps to surrender our will to God's will. No, we haven't been created to be robots. However, we all enjoyed hearing from our earthly teachers when they told us it was going to be an open-book test. His Word is an open book.

The one and only complete textbook is God's Word, the Bible. It's God-breathed, as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches. We all have gone left when we should have gone right or right when we should have gone left. God allows that so we can see for ourselves that His path is better for us.

You will read how Jody and I, like yourselves, have gotten off track. And it may remind you how God's Holy Spirit will gently nudge us back on the proper path to take. Unlike our well-meaning earthly parents or even our workplace bosses, God's correction helps us to grow our faith.