15.  That’s the number we were looking for.  The speckled trout we were pulling in the boat last week on our annual men’s fishing trip had to be 15 inches long to be legal.  And most of them were coming up short.  14 inches. 14 1/2 inches. 14 3/4 inches. And then there were those I could push, squeeze, and pray for to get to that magic 15.  But still just short or a dubious 15 inches at best.  It pained me to throw them back, because when they would first hit the bait, they felt plenty big enough.  I tell you, the temptations to keep them were there.  If checked, I could tell the fish and game warden that my measurement was 15 inches, even though his might not be.  And someone in my boat (I won’t give my son-in-law’s name to protect him) said, “Just tell the game warden the fish hit the bait like a 20 incher.”  Right.  Actually, I learned something a couple of years ago.  A game warden met us at the dock and asked to see our fish.  As we pulled them out, we mentioned they were all legal.  But then he did something.  He pulled out his ruler and said, “This is the only thing that makes them legal.  My ruler.”  And yes, they all passed his ruler’s inspection.  As we were joking about that in the boat last week, a thought came to me.  In life, we love to make excuses or give reasons for how we think and live.  We justify things.  We find a way to make things “15 inches.”  But does that make it right?  Nope.  You see, God has a ruler, and His ruler is the only one that matters.  It’s called the Bible.  We can push, squeeze, and imagine every way possible to justify something, but that’s pointless in God’s eyes, because His ruler trumps all my measurements.  Let’s make sure we lay all we think, say, do, and decide alongside God’s word.  How does it measure up there?  Because only the Bible makes it a true “keeper.”