“It’s been a hard year for me, and to be honest I’m really dreading the Christmas season. I lost both my husband and my sister this year, and Christmas just won’t be the same. Is it a sin to feel this way?”
“You had a letter recently from someone who got addicted to painkillers after his back surgery. Well, I’ve done the same thing, but what’s wrong with it? Why should I endure pain when I can pop a few pills and make it go away?”
“I’ve fallen in love with this man I met over the Internet. We’ve never actually met, but he really loves me and now he’s asked me to marry him. My parents are totally against it, but how can they know how we feel? He’s older than me (I’m 17, he’s 34), but what difference does that make?”
“What is your definition of bad language? My wife gets after me for some of the language I use (which she says is blasphemous), but I don't mean anything by it. Besides that, what used to be called “bad language” is so common today that no one even thinks about it, so what's the big deal?”
“I don't know what her problem is, but my oldest sister (who's almost 70 now) has hardly ever had a good word to say about anyone. What makes some people so critical? My other sisters aren't like this.”
“Does our holiday of Thanksgiving come from a religious event that's found in the Bible, like Christmas or Easter do? If so, what did it originally celebrate?”
“My husband says it's because I have a friendly and sympathetic personality, but whatever the reason, people always seem to be coming to me with their problems. To be honest, I'm getting kind of tired of it, and anyway I don't really have any answers to give them. What should I do?”
“All I ever think about is my husband, who died last year of heart disease. I'd give anything to hear from him. A friend of mine says she knows someone who can put people in touch with loved ones who've passed on. Should I pursue this?”
“If God knows everything, then doesn't that mean He must have known the human race was going to sin against Him? Why, then, did He even create us? If I'd been God, I just wouldn't have bothered. Or maybe He didn't know what we were going to do.”
“Toward the end of the year we get dozens of letters from various ministries and charities asking for money. I'm sure they're all worthy, and we'd like to help them, but we can't support everything. How should we decide which ones to support?”
“I’m burdened with guilt because my husband and I had an argument one morning and two hours later he died in a car crash. I even wonder if the crash happened because he was upset at me. I don’t know why I’m writing, but maybe it’ll keep someone from making the same mistake.”
“I know the Bible says somewhere that we ought to honor our parents, but how can you do that when they’ve hurt you and even said they don’t want anything more to do with you? I want to do what’s right, but I’m not sure what it means in my case.”