Your worldview is like. . .

- your window on the world. This is the place where you view and interpret the world around you.

- your eyeglasses. You see reality through the filter of this lens. Everything and everyone that you come into contact with is viewed in this particular light.

- the foundation of your house. You don't visit it often, but you know it's there holding everything else together. . .hopefully. . .if you've built upon a firm foundation. It shapes everything else that is built upon it.

- your roadmap for life. It directs your steps. You may have a perfectly good map, but it might be leading you to an unintended destination. Your map may be incomplete for your needs. A map of Kansas will only help you for a short while on a cross-country trip, and it will be totally useless if you find yourself in a foreign country. A map is no good unless it is taking you where you need to go.

- a mental filing cabinet. It organizes all that you believe about life. As you would expect, the big files contain your ideas about all the big issues of life: God, man, the universe and beyond. The little folders hold all those connected beliefs--some as firmly-held presuppositions and others have ideas that you're not quite sure about yet.

No matter which illustration you prefer, your worldview will determine whether you will embrace or reject the new ideas that you encounter each day. I will never forget a sign that I once saw in a bookstore: "Ideas come out in a life." Ideas are not content to stay in the mind; they will eventually come to life in our attitudes and behavior. It really does matter what you believe. Everything depends upon it. We'll talk more about that next time. . . .Mrs. H.