May 29, 2024 – Tears Tell The Story

Tears Tell The Story
May 29, 2024

DAILY PROVERB:

Proverbs 13:17-19
A wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health. Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.

OUTLOOK ON THE IN BOOK:

    As a young boy, I received my fair share of spankings. I know some of you can’t imagine me getting a spanking, right? Well, then again if you know me, you probably can. When I was disobedient, I would get a good old-fashioned spanking. My dad wasn’t abusive, but he sure got his point across.

    The strange thing is that, with the exception of just a couple of them, I really don’t remember the spankings. I remember getting them, but I just can’t recall the actual spanking itself. However, I do know this: the lessons my dad taught me through discipline helped me grow up to be the man I am today.

    Did I like the spankings? Not at the time. I would jump, howl, and scream as if someone were killing me. When I was spanked, the whole neighborhood knew it. Did my dad enjoy spanking me? No, I’m sure he didn’t. Still, he felt that it was his responsibility as a parent to correct me because he loved me.

    As a young teen, I began to follow my friends and started smoking. My dad had smoked for years and always told me, “Don’t get mixed up with these things,” but I did. I don’t remember many spankings, but I remember the day my dad found out I was smoking. I remember how he sat in his recliner and cried. My dad hardly ever cried in front of anyone. He didn’t yell or throw a fit. He cried. With precious tears running down his face, he looked at me and said, “I wish a thousand times I had never started smoking these things.” Before he died from cancer, he had quit. Even then, he said, “I think I quit too late.”

    Why does that stick in my memory? Because I could visibly see how much my disobedience really hurt him. When I think of God, my heavenly Father, I somewhat see Him this way as well. When He has to correct me out of love, I wonder, does He cry?     

 

THE WORD WALKING IN ME:

     “Oh God, I pray, help me so that I do not cause you to shed even one more tear due to my sinfulness.”

 

What might you have done that could cause our Lord to cry?

 

IF YOU ARE JOURNALING:

Ask yourself, what are MY THOUGHTS concerning this Passage, and todays Devotion?

 

Do I find within this reading a CHALLENGE for my life?

 

What are one or two things I WILL DO today or this week to accept that CHALLENGE?

  

GOD TALKING TO ME: May 29, 2024

THROUGH THE BIBLE WITH A DAILY PROVERBS
    Ezra 1-5
   Proverbs 13:17-19

THROUGH THE BIBLE OLD & NEW TESTAMENT DAILY
   2 Kings 4-5
   John 10:1-21