Hi Reader,

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My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Egypt.

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One afternoon, we walked through neighborhoods to find local shops and markets - something we enjoy exploring.

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On the way, I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I held my stomach, hunched over slightly, and walked like an elderly person.

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Finally, we stopped at a restaurant to use their bathroom, and ordered something light.

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Thankfully, they had a "western toilet" rather than a squat toilet that looks something like this:

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On our walk, we came across a woman selling small items on the street.

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We looked at her collection of men's rings. I chose a couple and asked her the price.

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She wanted $1 each for them, so I gave her $2.

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While these rings might look great, they're definitely not silver. And the stones aren't real, either.

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A couple days later, this happened...

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Don't worry, I fixed it with superglue.

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When cleaning the old glue off, a tiny bit of the blue color chipped off the "stone," showing the white plastic it's made of.

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I was a little disappointed.

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Sometimes things that look great, down deep, aren't as great as they look.

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From a distance, shiny metal looks like silver. A gemstone looks real.

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With the rings, I didn't feel cheated or wronged, though. I knew what I was buying (though I was hoping the stones weren't plastic 😊 ).

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To the average person, these rings aren't what they appear to be, though. What they're actually made of is different than they seem.

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And here's the lesson...

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Have you ever felt you appear to others differently than you feel down deep inside? Or, to say it another way, do you feel who you are on the inside doesn't quite match how others see you?

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There's a Bible verse that says, "...the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7c).

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What can you do so that your heart is where you and God want it to be so that you're as "real" on the inside as you look on the outside?

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We all need spiritual "superglue" sometimes, but what steps can you take to become more of the genuine person you want to be?

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Thanks for being part of my reader community.

John Christopher Frame

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