Focusing on other people's faults is a popular pastime. We seem to enjoy trying to decide who among us is the most or the least qualified. This happens in families and on the job, in churches and in the political arena.

"Who does he think he is, anyway? He can't treat me like this! Doesn't he know who I am?"

When hard times come, will you be ready? What will you and your loved ones do when you must face a famine, a natural disaster or a war?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 times during his or her lifetime. Yet although we are a mobile nation, we quickly become comfortable in our places and patterns of living.

Devastation! Wide areas of the beautiful hills and valleys of Southern California are now covered with the charred remains of once beautiful homes. And open areas are scorched and blackened by wildfires that ripped through the tinder-dry brush, fanned by Santa Ana winds that are so prevalent this time of year.

The incredible destruction and the resulting heartache and anguish over the loss of precious possessions experienced by the residents of this once beautiful area, moves all of us with compassion and sympathy for their plight.