August 1, 2025 – Value
After I posted yesterday’s blog, I noticed that the time stamp was way off. I wanted to ask Don to solve this for me because all I’ve been able to figure out on my own so far is how to put the blog in this space and to add tags (both of which, to me, are big deals). I didn’t want to click a wrong button and watch everything disappear, but since Don was enjoying some peace and quiet on the deck after work, I decided to tackle this myself. Though it didn’t correct the date stamps of previous posts, I think I’ve corrected it going forward…maybe…not that you really needed to know that, but maybe it does help to explain why this blog is not all that eye-catching. My blog, and I, are a work in progress.
In the middle of the night, while trying to fall back asleep after my shoulder pain woke me, I began thinking that I need to get a job…after I help Carrie, and after I find out what needs to be done with my shoulder, and after the visit in mid-September with our friend from Japan (her uncle was my father’s helper in the barracks in Japan in the 40s. I was hoping that would be the next book my father would write. It’s quite an interesting story; but now, if I write it, it will be much shorter and less detailed than if Daddy had written it).
Getting to mid fall should give me the time and motivation to tackle the clutter – at least the major areas – so that I’ll feel better about leaving the house every day. When I first stayed home with the children, I used to think I’d get so much done; however, the busy-ness of children in a home doesn’t lend itself to much more than maintenance cleaning for quite a few years. And then, I thought that when they started school I’d get so much done, but what I realized then was that free time doesn’t necessarily lend itself to productivity. I think busy, working people (who work away from their homes) get more done around their homes, for the most part.
So, Lord, I need help with cleaning and decluttering; and, if You want me to go back to work, I’m asking You to show me when and where. I’ve worked small jobs a handful of different times in the last ten or so years, but I’m talking about a real job with real income not just WAM or walking around money as Don calls it. He’s not asking me to do this. I just sense a change coming…from You Lord? Besides contributing to our income, I would like there to be additional reasons for me to work someplace. Of course, I will share my faith as I can and be uplifting to people, but I also I want to, really want to, contribute to the work. I want to be helpful and valued in a different way than I was to my father all these years. I would like for the job to scratch my creative itch as well if possible, Lord. But, mostly, I want what You want for me and for the people I will interact with.
Oh wow.
Power is entitled, “Adding Value to Others.” I just can’t express enough in writing (unless I change the font size and color) how it affects me when You answer me so directly. I don’t doubt that You are really here with me, but wow, just wow, You really are here with me. You hear me and You want to guide and help me and You are speaking to me in ways that are meaningful to me. Thank You. The verse Joyce chose is Hebrews 3:13 (and it even has my favorite number in it, 3 – I know numbers are meaningful to you so that’s a big deal too). “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
Joyce writes that “even if encouraging others is not a gift you particularly have [bingo – You know me, Lord – direct hit], you are still responsible to do it.” I really do have to force myself to speak up in that way. Even if I’m thinking encouraging thoughts, I don’t always share them. “Since God is an encourager, we should be the same way….you can be assured you are doing the things that are right and that will produce joy, peace, and power in your life.”
Streams – Romans 6:13 – “Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life.” Dead, in my case, refers to my career. That was by choice though. I’m grateful that I was able to stay home with my children and then to be available to my parents. I don’t regret giving up my job with great pay, benefits, and potential. I trusted God to care for me (through my then husband and now through Don) and He has. It was a big deal to quit my job when my children were young and rely on God to provide and then it was a big deal for me to give up my provision through my ex after the divorce and rely on Don. Now I’m being led, I think, to give up my perceived “freedom” and submit to a boss and other peoples’ purposes. I guess that’s sort of what I’ve done throughout my adult life anyway. I will trust Him again.
This whole Streams entry is so meaningful that I don’t know how to really pull the piece parts in that speak to the question I asked God about work when I started writing today. I’m never quite sure who “I” is in Cowman’s devotions because she doesn’t always quote people directly and instead just puts a name at the end of a section. When I first learned of this book, I had heard that these devotions were taken mostly from her husband’s sermons after he died, but after googling today, I learned that she wrote these devotions at her husband’s bedside during the years he was sick before he died.
One account I read said the first printing was only 500 copies (which to me seems like a lot for 1904) for family and friends. Another account said it was 3000 copies (which is difficult to believe). Whatever the real truths are, this is a divinely-inspired 101 year old gift to the world that I discovered in my lawyer’s bathroom in Feb 2004 as my then husband and I worked out our settlement from separate rooms through our lawyers. The book was so impactful in getting me through that day (something I didn’t want nor ever saw coming) that I bought a copy on my way home. Cowman kept me company for months (and now years) and I have given the book to many people since then.
Anyway –
I still don’t know who to credit for this impactful entry today because there are only initials (J.H.M.) at the end of the last paragraph and this person is not listed in the back of the book. It appears that this may be a man; and, in the devotion, though he tells of his many areas of Christian service, he realizes that, “I had never yielded my life to God with a definite act of my will.” He felt that if he yielded, God may ask more of him than he realized he was willing to give. “Yet as I thought of my own ‘precious’ plans that might be thwarted, my beloved hopes to be surrendered, and my chosen profession that I might have to abandon – I was afraid… I completely failed to see the better things God had for me.” Homemaker is my chosen profession, but I do indeed sense a restlessness in my spirit – to contribute in a different way while still caring for my family.
J.H.M addressed the reader in the last paragraph saying, “Dear friend, you can trust the Man who died for you. You can trust Him to thwart each plan that should be stopped and to complete each one that results in His greatest glory and your highest good.” I realized that the only reason I already think this way is because of the years of reading Cowman’s and other author’s ponderings (as well as God’s Word). My goodness. We are only two books in today. Is there more God?
JC – The cover page that starts the August devotions has this verse – John 7:38 – “Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” I pick these books up randomly each day and here’s a mention of streams after reading the Streams entry and God seeming to tell me that living water will flow from me…through my blog! Just wow….
In today’s devotion, Young wrote, “Most of mankind’s misery stems from feeling unloved….Be assured that I never abandon any of My children….” That’s partly why I want to write and share all of this (too much sharing maybe) so that people can see how He interacts with me and that He wants to do that on a very personal level with all His children!
Utmost – “He Comes Where He Commands Us to Leave. If, when God said, ‘Go,’ you stayed because you were concerned about your people at home, you robbed them of the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ Himself.” Gulp. Umm. Wow. I hear You, Lord. “…as long as you would not obey, you were in the way.” I remember hearing these words many years ago when I was trying to connect with my then husband through talking and through articles, books, and devotions. I asked God why he wasn’t responding, and I distinctly heard in my spirit – because you and all your resources are in My way of talking with him. So, I stopped sharing and that’s when things really ended. And, sadly, that’s when I could breathe again.
Chambers continues, “He Teaches Where He Instructs Us Not To…Are we so noisy in our instructions of others that God cannot get anywhere near them?” In my case, apparently yes. “He Works Where He Sends Us to Wait…To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told.” Perhaps I didn’t wait long enough and I didn’t do what I was told and something was lost that didn’t have to be. But still, as Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” He makes the latter better than the former (Haggai 2:9)…perhaps for both of us.
Prevail 213 – Larson bases this devotion on the “yet” part of Habukkuk 3:17-18 (I purposely sometimes don’t write every verse and every line in the devotions so readers can go look and discover for themselves). She writes, “We all walk through times of testing, discipline, or even reduction, all of which are critical for developing our faith….We have an incredible propensity for shifting our weight onto the things that we want….when we come to a place with God where we can look at our devastation, heartbreak, or not-yet, and then look at Him and sincerely say, ‘And yet…’ we find Him to be everything we need and more.”
JA – The cover page for August in this book has Acts 2:28 – “You have shown me the way of life, and You will fill me with the joy of Your presence.” He is really all that we need. Young writes, “The best time to seek My Face is in the morning, soon after you wake.” I have indeed discovered how much comfort and direction I have missed on days that I’ve let my readings slide ‘til later in the day. Maybe I’ll become more efficient at writing these blogs and get them posted in the mornings. One can hope! “Connecting with Me early sets the tone for the rest of the day.” Makes me think of the author Becky Tirabassi and the picture she paints in her book Let Prayer Change Your Life about our time with God. I really want to get this correct, but I can’t find the book on my shelf; so, I’ll save it for another time.
Max writes about people being “moody, fickle, and stubborn” on the heels of sharing the verse from 1John 3:11 – “We should love one another.” He continues, “If we are going to find the joy that comes through giving joy away, we need a plan” and then he shares a nice handful of Bible verses to help us with that. “I’m thinking you will discover what the Bible teaches and research affirms: doing good does good for the doer.” That is what I’m finding in these blogs. And, even though they are long, I hope the readers that find me, find some good and find God.
