When all else fails read the instructions

Have you ever bought a piece of furniture from Ikea? They look so great in the showroom - all sleek and shiny and so, well, Swedish. You go to the warehouse and give them your ticket and they give you a flat cardboard box. And you think to yourself, "How can a TV cabinet/chest of drawers/four-poster bed possibly fit inside a box the size of a dinner plate?" But it does. You get home, open the box, and out pops a giant jigsaw puzzle. What do you do next? Do you reach for the instructions? Heck no. You're a man for crying out loud. Men build things. Do you think Noah had instructions when he built the ark?*

So...Tab A goes into Slot C...fold B so that A is perpendicular to the right participle of the convex parameter...no, wait...Tab A can't fit into Slot C...

And so it goes. And all the while your wife is saying "why don't you just read the instructions?" And then before you know it, four hours have passed and the TV cabinet/chest of drawers/four-poster bed looks nothing like the one you saw in the showroom, you have half a dozen screws left over and it looks like it may collapse at any moment. That's usually the point when we finally admit defeat and grab the instructions, only to find that there is no Slot B and that the one main screw that holds everything together is still in the little plastic bag keeping the tiny pieces of left-over dowel company. Does this all sound strangely familiar?

How often do we face things in life and think to ourselves "I can get through this. I don't need help. It can't be too hard." How many times have we bottled everything up inside because "that's what men do". How many times have we gone it alone, and ultimately failed? If you're anything like me, it's way too many times. But let me tell you, we have an instruction manual that has the answer to every question we ask, every problem we face, and every hurt we feel. It's full of stories of guys that have been through the exact same things as us. It shows their failings, their struggles, and their triumphs. And it shows how they did it. It's the ultimate Instruction Manual. So, don't wait until you have a bag full of screws left over - read the instructions first!

*Noah WAS instructed how to build the ark (Genesis 6:15-16)