Stay Straight

By Mollie Bond –

When I was a 5 year old, I often watched my mom get in the car, put the keys in the ignition, and turn the key. One day, as my mom wrapped up her day as the church secretary, she handed me the keys to the jeep. “Here,” she said, “wait in the car.”

Feeling the weight of her trust in the keys she handed me, I pranced outside. Thinking I could do something that would make my mom happy, I got in the driver’s side, and just like my mom, put the keys in the ignition. Look at me! What would really make her happy? Trying to do everything just like she did: I turned the key.

I think I screamed. The steering wheel felt unnatural in my small hands. The manual transmission had been left in neutral. The jeep lurched past the sidewalk, down the little embankment, and straight into…this is where my memory stops.

The top level of our church had two wings held together by a narrow hallway with offices on the right, and the sanctuary on the left. The hallway area also enclosed the entry way to stairs leading to the lower level and overlooking the basketball court. The jeep hit right between the two wings, smack-dab at the top of those stairs. I took out the front wall.

The following Sunday, plastic covered the front of the church. One beam remained unbroken. If that board had broken, I would have traveled in the jeep down the stairs and out to the lower level.

Gripping the steering wheel and making sure I kept straight, kept that beam steady enough to hold.

PRAYER: God, I might try to take hold of the wheel and do what I think will make me happy. Instead, I’d like to learn how to keep going straight, listening to Your voice before I put the car in gear. I’m giving You room to speak to me today.

“Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them” (Deuteronomy 28:14 NIV).

Hangnails

By Cheri Cowell –

Hangnails have to be one of the most annoying things of life. They are an irritant that won’t easily go away. We usually get a hangnail when we are nowhere near a pair of clippers and an Emory board. So we end up just dealing with it the best we can by either trying to ignore it or putting a bandage over it. Neither option actually fixes the problem, which only gets worse until we repair the damaged nail. God knows all about hangnails and other irritants in life. In fact, He allows them, sometimes to help us know our human limitations. What do I mean?

Much speculation has taken shape over ‘Paul’s thorn’ mentioned in today’s scripture lesson and what that thorn could have been. I actually like the fact that it was not spelled out. In this way all of us can relate his suffering to our own thorns, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. How assuring it is that Paul, who was loved dearly by God for his great faith, asked God three times to remove his thorn and God said ‘no.’ Because of that we can be assured He loves us greatly even when He has to say ‘no’ to us.

PRAYER: Thank-You, God, for being with me in whatever difficult situation I am in today. I praise You for being my strength and ask that my weaknesses may be used to glorify You in spite of life’s little irritants.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:7-9 ESV).

A New Season

By Judy Davis –

What new thing has God spoken into your heart this year? At the beginning of January as I reflected on setting goals I silently prayed, “What new devotion should I read this year?”

Within a minute I felt that still quiet voice of God speaking softly into my heart and spirit, “Write your own devotion, a 365 day devotional.” Did I hear correctly? That is a lot of writing!

However, I started writing the devotion the next morning. Since I have read the Bible through each year for many years, I felt it most important to write a Devotional for January through December using the whole Bible. This way the reader will also read the Scripture along with the daily devotion.

For over 20 years I have written devotions for various publishers. The way had already been prepared through attending writers conferences, going to college, even taking a class on writing nonfiction through Writer’s Digest.

I completed devotion number fifty this morning, writing one a day. My hope is to continue writing a page a day. But, if I can’t, I will continue working on this project until completion.

Is God speaking to you today? Are you listening? God never overlooks our obedience or disobedience. Peter Lord wrote in his book, Hearing God, “a person learns to hear” and that a hearing ear can be developed. What a challenge to learn to listen to God!

PRAYER: Father, thank you for a new thing you are doing in us today. May our hearts and ears be open to hear your voice. Then help us to act on what you would have us to do so others may know You.

“See the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you” (Isaiah 42:9).

Poor Me

By Charlotte Riegel –

I love to read, for myself, not just to engage a two year old. I love to relax with my crafts, alone, but am often interrupted by a youngster pleading for my help with a puzzle. By the time the children are settled for the night and the house is tidied for the morrow I’m too tired to read for personal pleasure or to do much of anything but go to bed. I know ‘this too shall pass’…something I have drummed into my children as they whine or complain about challenges facing them. Ah yes, now I must prove to myself and others these words apply to me as well as to those I challenge to buck up, dig in, and persevere all the while looking for anything that resembles the positive.

I had eagerly offered to help a family wrestling with health issues when anticipating a few weeks away from my regular routines. Then complications set in. Weeks beyond what had been originally considered for recovery time I slog on, remain positive and encouraging in the presence of others, yet fight to overcome feelings of ‘poor me’. I long for some ‘me’ time.

My thoughts often drift to thinking of Jesus coming to earth. He left so much behind, yet we are told he took no thought of Himself. He willingly ministered to others and taught about the Kingdom of God even when fatigued. Sometimes He snuck away to rest and to spend time with His Father and even then the crowds and His followers often found Him. When they did, He put aside His needs and desires, lifted up the fallen, healed the sick, and taught those who clung on His every word. I wonder if He got homesick for heaven and His Father? Did He ever long for more ‘me’ time away from the crowds? Did He ever feel exasperated by the disciples’ lack of understanding even after He lived what He taught and explained the Kingdom over and over and over? Yet He did not grumble or complain.

Prayer: Father God, I long to please You in all that I do. Forgive me for being selfish when others need my help. I desire to shine Your light of grace and mercy to the world I live in. Thank you for all the examples Jesus gave while living among us.

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life” (Philippians 2:14-16 NIV).

Waiting for the Right Word

By Cynthia Ruchti –

“Oh, that was unfortunate,” my husband said when a television reporter inadvertently chose a word that was so close to the right one, but not quite. It went something like this:

“Harmony Corners police officers were called to a rural home Saturday night to investigate an alleged claim of invasion of privy.”

We’ve heard and read others over the years. Comedian Norm Crosby made his living messing up words just enough to entertain his audiences.

My father-in-law’s battle with hearing issues created some laughable moments. We took a family trip to Lion Country Safari in Florida one year. He persisted in calling it Lion Country Sapphire. It wasn’t a one-time slip-up. Grandpa was convinced the right word was “sapphire.” So he said it…a lot.

Whenever we think about that trip, we remember elephants, water buffalo, lions, tigers, gazelles- and the color blue.

Was it all a hearing problem? He hadn’t gone far in school before his father needed him on the farm. But he seemed unconcerned that some words didn’t make sense. Like Pepsicola, Florida. Or calling his Oldsmobile Sierra a “Sahara,” his apparent desert-mobile.

My husband observed, “Maybe Dad felt self-conscious about his lack of education. Maybe he’d been bullied as a child. His poor self-esteem might have exasperated the problem.”

“You mean, exacerbated?” We broke into hysterics.

I’m grateful God was careful about the way He expressed himself to us through His Word.

“Cast your careers upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.” You mean, cares, Lord?

I can almost hear God saying, “Yeah. Those too.”

PRAYER: Lord, You, the unerring One, speak eloquently to my heart. Help me catch every nuance, the significance behind Your word choices. Help me keep my sense of humor about my verbal slip-ups, but walk so close to You and pay such careful attention to Your world and Your people that they are few.

“For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature” (James 3:2 Amplified Bible).

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