Have you noticed how often we change our lives? We try to improve ourselves, other people, or our possessions. A desire to improve can be a wonderful idea. However, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (I apologize for the poor grammar, but that is the way we say it.)

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it tells us to leave things alone if they work well.

A word to the wise: Why cause problems if we have no need to change?

Small children who take things apart often fail to put them back together. So can we as adults. (Ask me about my one and only effort at plumbing.) When we try to fix something not broken, we may fail to get it to work again.

We often try to fix our lives with the newest, best, and most expensive of everything.

• Cellphones
• Laptops
• Televisions
• Cars
• Houses
• Clothes
• Shoes
• Appliances

And the list keeps growing.

We give away, sell, or throw away perfectly good items to buy similar items to take their place.

As a result:

• We stay in debt.
• Landfills grow larger with all our trash.
• We never find satisfaction with who we are or what we have.

Fix what needs to be fixed, but don’t try to correct a problem that does not exist.

We do well when we learn to live well whatever our circumstances. Certainly we want to:

• Take care of our health
• Improve our lives and the lives of others
• Make our world safer
• Stand firm for what is right

Yet, we don’t want to:

• Tear down progress already made
• Hurt others
• Destroy our world
• Compromise what is morally right

When we try to fix what ain’t broken, we get everything out of whack. Instead let’s live in such a way that we and those around us have reason to burst for joy.

“Correct and rebuke your people when they need it, encourage them to do right, and all the time be feeding them patiently with God’s Word” (2 Timothy 4:2 TLB).

Thanks to Charles Smithers for the suggestion.

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