“My husband is about to drive me crazy. He retired a year ago, and now that he's run out of projects to do around the house he's bored and constantly gets in my way. We always looked forward to his retirement but now I'm not so sure it was a good idea. Do you have any suggestions?”
“I wish you'd say something in your column about how grandparents should treat their grandchildren. My husband's parents are good people, but they act almost as if our children don't exist, while their other grandchildren get all the attention. Isn't this wrong?”
“I wish you'd encourage churches to have some of their people visit nursing homes from time to time. I've been in one for two years now, and it's very lonely here. All my relatives live far away, and I almost never have any visitors. Thank you.”
“Every year about this time, our pastor spends several weeks talking about our new church budget, and how we ought to give more to it. Frankly, I get kind of tired of it and wish he wouldn't spend so much time talking about money. What do you think about this?”
“Do you think we have a second chance to give our lives to Jesus and be saved after we die? I have a cousin who thinks we do, and he says he's depending on it because he doesn't want to live for God right now.”
“My mother died about a year ago, and I think about her a lot. Sometimes, I even find myself praying to her and asking her to talk to Jesus on my behalf. Do you think she can hear me and will answer my request?”
“My sister and I have been having a discussion about how good you have to be to get into heaven. Finally, we concluded that we'll probably not know the answer until we die—but then it'll be too late. Are we right?”
“I guess you'd say we have a very dysfunctional family, because we can't seem to get along with each other. Our mother is always upset at some of us, and most of us don't get along, either. I'm the only active Christian in the family, and I wish we could be at peace, but I don't seem to be able to do much. Why are some families like this?”
“I know you won't get this until Christmas is long past, but I've always been puzzled by what the Bible says about the virgin birth of Jesus. People in those days surely knew that things like that don't ever happen. Why did they claim it did?”
“I'm so confused I can hardly put my thoughts on paper. My husband finally admitted he'd been seeing another woman for the last year or so, but he says it's all my fault because I'm not a good wife. I can't imagine what I've done to hurt him. Where do I go from here? He says our marriage is over. Is it? I feel like worthless dirt.”
“Do you think God gives some people a glimpse of heaven before they go there? My mother always claimed that she had a glorious vision of heaven shortly before she died, and even saw my father waiting to welcome her. Was she just having a hallucination, or was this real?”
“If Jesus was really God (as I understand you Christians believe), how could He die? I thought God is supposed to be eternal and can't die. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, because I'd really like to find out more about your beliefs. I come from a country that is not Christian.”