Devotionals from Dad

Love to hear from and know who is listening When I was growing up it was just a given fact that on Sunday morning we would be attending Sunday School and Church. The same is true for my Father and his family. My grandparents and my fathers and his 7 siblings went to great efforts to be in church on Sunday morning. When my father was a boy the road to his home was dirt and sometimes it was very dif...

Love to hear from and know who is listening You've probably been there. Maybe it's a prayer group, and you are a very small group to begin with. It's time to start and several members of your group are still missing, so you go ahead and start the meeting, perhaps saying that Christ has promised if even where only two or three are gathered together, He will be with you.  Matthew 18:2...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I have a photo of myself, my father and my nephew sitting on the porch of my fathers home. It is not hard to see that all three of us are closely related. My sister and my middle daughter also share a striking resemblance. I guess you can say the quote, “The nut never falls from from the tree,” is a very true statement. In my family, we all share some ch...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Christmas is celebrated on December 25th and is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two thousand years, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. People in Europe celebra...

Love to hear from and know who is listening For most of us we don't have to put much effort into thinking of someone that has either offended or mistreated us. The most frequent reaction to being mistreated is getting angry. When someone is mistreated, they often feel a sense of injustice and unfairness, that leads to an angry response. Other common reactions to being mistreated include: feel...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Every year around the Thanksgiving holiday you start seeing lists of things that people are thankful for on social media. Common things you see people expressing thanks for include: family, friends and neighbors, health, their home and car, their job, food, pets, freedom of religion, a loving spouse, grand parents and even their favorite dessert on the T...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When I was a kid I used to watch the sitcom called “Hogan's Heroes.” The sitcom was about a group of men that were prisoners of war in a world war II German prison camp. One of my favorite characters was Sargent Schultz. Schultz was constantly encountering evidence that inmates of his prison camp were actively conducting anti-German espionage and sa...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Five year old little Johnny brought his shoe to his father, which he had gotten in a knot. Nobody can get a shoe string in a knot like little Johnny! Little Johnny's approach to getting the knot out is to pull the strings harder. Rather than bringing the shoe to his father earlier, he brings it later and the knot is so tiny and so tight that it is t...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I have a tendency to be a bit driven. Once I get mind set on doing something there is no stopping me! The carrier bearing in my wife's car had gone bad and it needed a new driveshaft. I had ordered the part and it was delivered on Friday morning. When I got home from work I decided that I would put the new driveshaft in. I had 2 hours to do the job...

Love to hear from and know who is listening What are the things that people treasure the most? According to a Google search the top 4 things people treasure are: the beauty of nature, the joy of friends, the love of family and the thrill of learning. However, I would tell you that all you need to do is take a quick look at someone's check book ledger and you will soon learn what they truly tr...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When I was a child Saturday mornings television was filled with cartoons. There was Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and the Coyote, Scooby Do, The Super Friends, The Land of the Lost and a few others that were educational like School House Rocks and Sesame Street. One of my favorite Sesame Street characters was Count Von Count. He had a comical resemblance to Co...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I have many fond childhood memories growing up with a large extended family. My father was one of 7 children. He had 3 brothers and 3 sisters. When I was younger I had 10 Aunts and Uncles and 24 first cousins, my fathers oldest brother died in a car accident before I knew him. When everyone was present there was about 50 family members and at some point...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Nothing is more demanding than a newborn baby that is hungry. The child will scream at the top of its lungs until the he or she gets what they desire. Newborns crave milk with a passion. When they are hungry, they have no patience, they cry out to be satisfied and to be satisfied right now! Their hunger is not some passive, “I can do that later,” kind of...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I can’t understand it. I make suggestion after suggestion that’s better than what other people propose and at best, I get but the most obligatory thank you, but no thanks. Then to make matters worse, the bad idea proposed by the group gets implemented. Why can't these people see that my idea and plan is in their best interest. Unfortunately, I do th...

Love to hear from and know who is listening For the most part I never have a problem voicing my opinion. Matter of fact I am pretty confident in my abilities. I have a sign over my dresser that says, “I am not a control freak, but I could tell you how to do that right!” However, when it comes to sharing about my faith it seems I have a shortage of words and lack of confidence. Why is it that I can...

Love to hear from and know who is listening A daily shower has many important health benefits. Most people need a daily shower. In addition to the most obvious benefit, the reduction of body odor, a daily shower also improves immune function, eases muscle aches and pains, reduces swelling, increases blood flow, improves concentration, lessens fatigue and makes it easier to breathe. Showering clean...

Love to hear from and know who is listening I like to show up unannounced at my good friend, Ginger Melvin’s, home. When she answers the door she uses the door like a shield to hide behind. She grips the door jamb with her fingers and slowly pokes the top of her head out from behind the door so that all you can see is her eyes and forehead. From her reaction it is not hard to tell that my unexpect...

Love to hear from and know who is listening All of us place our trust or faith in things everyday and most times we don't even realize it. Every Sunday morning, you find your favorite pew and you sit down. You didn't even think twice about sitting down, did you? You know what a church pew is and you know what it is supposed to do and so you trust that it is going to hold you up. So for t...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. I find that truth simply amazing,.. that the Spirit of God who is eternal, perfect, holy, all-powerful, and all-knowing actually lives within me! I also find it a bit humbling,.. scary even! Think about it! The Holy spirit is within me both physically and mentally. He goes...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Samson was God’s chosen man during a time when the judges ruled Israel. From birth, he was destined to liberate Israel from the Philistines. While Samson was incredibly strong in body, he was very weak in character. Time and time again, the Bible tells us that the power of God came upon him. Samson killed a lion with his bare hands, caught 300 foxes and...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Why do you go to church? Is it because the service makes you feel uplifted? Maybe it is because you need someone to bear your burdens. Do you go to church to get something for yourself? "Consumer Christianity" is a term used to describe an Americanized version of Christianity that focuses on the individual. Consumer Christianity can be debilita...

Love to hear from and know who is listening When we have an especially wet spring there is a creek in between my home and town that floods and occasionally covers the highway. This creek strangely enough is named “Big Creek.” One time the flood waters of the creek covered the highway. I pulled up to the highway and there was department of transportation trucks flagging people down. The road was hi...

Love to hear from and know who is listening Do you ever feel tired of waiting, weary of fighting to find your joy, and exhausted from hoping for better days? Do you push down feelings of despair and hopelessness because you don’t think a Christian is allowed to struggle with such “faithless” feelings? Well, let me assure you – you aren’t alone! For the most part I am a person that is optimistic an...

Love to hear from and know who is listening My wife and I share many household tasks. My wife does the laundry, cleans the house and we both cook meals. The only difference is when I cook, she does the dishes and when she cooks, she does the dishes. Don't know how it works out like that but is always does. On the other hand I take care of servicing the vehicles and mowing the yard, because I...

Love to hear from and know who is listening If you have ever paid attention to the roadsides in Missouri you have seen a Teasel weed. Teasels grow in open, sunny habitats, in wet or dry conditions. Teasel weed flourish in the summer months because they have a very unique and hardy design. The plant can grow to be more than 8 feet tall and the taproot may be more than 2 feet long and 1 inch in diam...