From Our Readers

Helping Teens in Trouble (April 8, 2005) This series was very informative. At times, being a teenager is challenging, but having encouraging articles like these makes it a little less stressful. This is exactly the kind of information we need to spur us on during these “critical times hard to deal with.” (2 Timothy 3:1) The reminders in these articles will help us not to fall prey to “the machinations of the Devil.” (Ephesians 6:11) Thank you for providing spiritual food at the proper time.

K. S., United States

A Clean Home​—The Part We All Play (June 8, 2005) When I was growing up, both my parents worked and the three of us children were always playing in the house. It was a big mess. To this day I hate to clean. But reading this article made me feel as if my mother were kindly teaching me how to clean. I now have grown children, and they dislike cleaning. There are many things I have to teach them. I was encouraged by the article.

Y. E., Japan

For Family Review (May 8, 2005) When I saw this article, tears came to my eyes. I showed it to my daughter. Then she told me that she had already read the article about the injured sparrow and had answered both questions in “For Family Review.”

L. S., United States

Libraries​—Gateways to Knowledge (May 22, 2005) Kindly allow me to point out that the picture on page 18 is incorrectly described as King Ashurbanipal of Assyria. In fact, the picture shows Assyrian King Esar-haddon.

A. W., Germany

“Awake!” responds: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. As pointed out in the Biblical reference work “Insight on the Scriptures,” Volume 1, page 757, Esar-haddon was a younger son and successor of Assyrian King Sennacherib. *

The Amazing Maya Calendar (April 8, 2005) This article moved me to do research on the Internet. I found that there is a close connection between the Maya calendar and astrology. I feel that publishing articles such as this could induce readers to become interested in astrology and the magical arts.

J. K., Poland

“Awake!” responds: As stated on page 4 of “Awake!” this journal “reports the news, tells about people in many lands, examines religion and science.” This certainly does not imply that we endorse all that takes place in these fields. In the brief article to which you refer, we reported on the ancient Maya, whose skillful calculation of time helped produce an amazingly accurate calendar. The fact that this calendar was used in divination​—which is acknowledged in the article—​should in no way induce our readers to become interested in a study of astrology.

Occasionally we receive similar questions regarding artwork that appears in our publications. Depictions of idols, religious symbols, or spiritistic objects are not meant to arouse curiosity but to remove any mystique that surrounds these things and to caution our readers not to have anything to do with them. Many of the comments we have received indicate that our articles and artwork have had such a beneficial effect.

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