I know Father’s Day was two days ago, and this might be a day late, but I cannot help but share what I read each day with you. When I started writing these devotionals, our youngest daughter was in her freshman year in college. As she reads this devotional today she is married with two children of her own, and she is trying to pass along spiritual values to her little two-year-old daughter (and will pass them along to her 3-month old boy in time). I read a verse that gives me the motivation to continue writing these devotionals every day. As I read my Bible every morning, I am thinking about truths that I can put in these simple devotions that will help our four children, their spouses, and our grandchildren (the rest of you are just along for the ride – SMILE).
Today I read, “Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon the earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed” (Psalm 112:1-2). There it is … I am not very spiritual, but I believe the promises of the Word of God. As I understand these verses, my children have a better chance of being mighty on this earth and of being blessed, if I will delight in the commandments of God. I know the reality of these verses personally. I thank God for a grandfather who loved the Book; and for a father who not only loves the Book, but advertises to every young man he meets the importance of them loving the Book.
My grandfather dropped out of school to help on the farm at a young age. As a result, he never learned to read. When he was twenty-five, he trusted Jesus as his Savior. He told my grandmother; “I’ve lived for the Devil for twenty-five years, I want to live for God for the rest of my life!” He only lived another twenty-five years. But during those twenty-five years he had left, he made the decision that the Word of God would be the center of his life and the lives of his kids while he had the chance to influence them. My grandfather taught himself to read, by reading his Bible (don’t tell me you cannot understand the Bible – if you want to know what it says, you will work hard until you do).
Every night the Bible was opened at the dinner table before anyone ate. After dinner the Bible was opened before anyone left the table. Rules for their home were established on Bible truths, and those were passed from his generation through my mother, through us to our children. I am praying for our kids and their kids to love the commandments of God too. I’m praying that our children will be “mighty upon the earth.”