READ THE MANUAL.

MAN.U.AL  /ˈmanyə(wə)/ (NOUN) – A book of instructions, especially for operating a machine or learning a subject. A handbook, guide or how to book.

Are there people in this day and age, who get a product and take time out to read the manual before attempting to use it? Well if there are, I’m definitely not one of them. Yes,  I usually start with trying to figure out how it works *because smarty pants* and when I get stuck I check the internet *honestly I’d rather someone pointed out the exact solution to me than read through a manual*, if that doesn’t work I check my manual.

So when I got my Fuji instax camera it was no different. It didn’t even help that the manual was mostly written in a foreign language and the part written in English had such a tiny font I truly couldn’t be bothered. I was going to use my head knowledge, how hard could it really be to operate a point and shoot instax camera.

How wrong was I. I put in the batteries and the film but the camera wouldn’t come on. I was so convinced it was the batteries *God forbid that I was doing it wrong* I put in new batteries and it still didn’t work. I did a casual scan through the manual *I wasn’t about to read the whole thing to fix just one problem* it didn’t work.

I was so upset, I googled what could be wrong and all the answers reiterated that if the camera was in good condition the battery was the only possible reason it would not come on. I concluded I got a defective camera and contacted the vendors. They apologized, promised to give me a refund as soon as they got the product back.

I was disappointed, I had great instant photography dreams. Just as I was packing the camera back into the box, I held the manual and decided to flip through to console myself. Lo and behold people, Lo and behold, I found I had been pressing the wrong button the whole time. I was pressing the capture button instead of the on button.

Yes, I had somehow repeatedly pressed the one button of the only two buttons on my “simple” camera that wasn’t responsible for turning the camera on.

Why didn’t you try the other button when the first didn’t work?

Digital cameras mostly have the on button in positions somehow related to the capture button, I did know that the other button was responsible for releasing the zoom. My knowledge of digital cameras told me zooms are delicate, I didn’t want the zoom out and stuck.

Problem is this wasn’t a digital camera, and even if it was; the manufacturers could as they rightly did decide that releasing the zoom should double as turning the camera on.

Hence the manual, an insight into the mind of the manufacturer.

Aren’t we all like this sometimes, with our can do bad all by myself attitude.

Oftentimes, we think we know what we should be doing with our lives, we get frustrated when things do not work according to our plan or when things do not pan out for us as they have for other people. We begin to seek solutions in the farthest places, listening to trial and error advice from people who do not know any better than we do.

O Lord, I know it is not within the power of man to plan his life and map his course Jeremiah 10:23 (TLB)

The Bible is more than a rule book of dos and don’ts, it’s an insight into God’s mind. It captures his stand on issues, and his desires concerning our lives. Our lives are not ours to direct, we belong to God. It’s easy to get comfortable and forget, to live day by day just winging it with occasional breaks here and there, we’ll never be able to reach full potential if we do not fully rely on God.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path. Proverbs 3 : 5-6

We can only trust in the Lord when we know Him, knowing God comes only from spending time with Him, spending time in the word. Studying the Bible.

Studying the Bible is connecting with God, It’s sharpening our senses. The sharpening of our senses is not to become independent of God, but to become more aware of how dependent we really should be *I pray you understand this*.

Every time I watch one of those life hacks videos on products I have, I’m amazed at how much I do not know about my product and realize the degree of needless stress I have been putting myself through *the most recent being how to identify what side of the vehicle the fuel tank is located from the dashboard*.

It’s the very same way we bear needless stress, all because we would rather seek answers to our daily questions everywhere else but in the manual.