August 31, 2025 – Flow
My small group of devotions has been extra small lately (which happens at times in actual small groups especially during the summer and over holidays); but, for this blog it has been due, as I’ve mentioned, to me traveling to DC to take care of my daughter, Carrie, after ankle replacement surgery. Though the heavy cast is very uncomfortable at times, she has done so well coping and figuring out how to keep on keeping on. (I think I just dated myself saying that. Whatever.) If I was in my actual small group, during the time of sharing prayer requests, I would tell about the donated hamstring that replaced her tendon or ligament or something and how we’re praying that it settles in well in her body.
I was looking through her paperwork packet the other day making sure we were following all the directions, and I found the special insert showing how she can write a thank you note to the donor’s family. That made it even more real to me that this wasn’t just a stitch and a heal. It made me think of the movie “Return To Me.” Such a great movie. And that movie makes me think of my mother. We used to watch that movie almost every time we got together (along with “Best Friends” and Neil Simon’s “Chapter Two”). I always remember, during one or more scenes, Mama telling me what the words were in the background music that was mostly from her era. Her knowledge and perspective made the scenes even more meaningful. God does that for us too in the daily scenes of our lives if we have ears to hear.
I didn’t share what I read for the 31st on the 31st because I didn’t write very much, but I realized that sometimes a little is enough (especially because some of my posts go way long). When some folks can’t make it to small group gathering, it is still meaningful for the few or so who are there. So here’s the 31st:
Utmost – “The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God’s Word….Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water.”
Power – Mark 8:34 – “If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself (forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interests) and take up his cross, and…follow Me.”
