Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Read Psalm 128
Try all you like, you simply cannot find a substitute for the family. God planned it that way. In spite of all we're reading and seeing these days designed to make us think we've entered the family-phase-out era, don't you believe it! There is nothing on earth that comes close to the benefits derived from relationships revolving around our roots. Nothing.
Edith Schaeffer's book What Is a Family? offers some wise and meaningful answers:
Few characteristics are more contagious, more magnetic. I’m convinced that one of the reasons God gives us so many personal promises in His Word is to stir up our enthusiasm—to build a bonfire in the steam-room of our souls.
Enthusiasm is powerful stuff. And it isn’t important only to magicians and performers but also to ordinary folks like you and me...and to our God.
Are you an eagle-type, soaring to heights beyond your peers? Do you find yourself bored with the maintenance of the machinery...yawning through the review of the rules...restless to cut a new swath...excited rather than intimidated by the risks? Don’t expect pats on the back or great waves of applause. Not today.
Looking back, we laud those who refused to take no for an answer. We quote them with gusto. We even name our children after them.
“I want to know Him. I also want to model the power outflowing from His Resurrection. And I certainly want to be continually transformed into His likeness... which requires accepting my share of suffering.”
Looking back, I distinctly remember the turning point. No heavenly vision caused my attitude to change. My resentment toward God didn’t decrease because of some audible voice in the night. I can trace the acceptance of my circumstance and the shift of my focus to a single verse of Scripture.
Grandparents. What amazing gifts from God. Generation after generation He provides a fresh set of them...an ever-present counterculture in our busy world. Lest everyone else get so involved they no longer stop to smell the flowers or watch tiny ants hard at work, these special adults are deposited into our lifestyle account.
Webster—the old codger—would’ve been a good stand-in for Scrooge. Or maybe he was like the late W. C. Fields and just didn’t like kids. On the other hand, he probably played everything by the rulebook and didn’t let his emotions get in the way of his literary contribution.
We find ourselves making the extreme the standard. Periods are fast being replaced by exclamation points, “Nice” is no longer sufficient. Now it’s got to be “fantastic” or “incredible.”
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