Encouraging Words Devotional

Do bedtime stories really matter? I mean, does it make any difference in the life of your kids whether or not at the end of the day you take the time to read them a story? ISIS thinks so. Islamic State has recently published a guidebook instructing mothers to tell their children bedtime stories about--get this, martyrdom and heroic jihadists. When I read that, it made me shudder.

She flipped over the page of the calendar. The new page--February--stared back at her, decorated with its lacey hearts and pink roses. Valentine’s Day? Love? Even though she was still in her late teens, she could not relate. In her despair, instead of going downstairs for a drink, she turned to her computer to reach out to a voice she had heard on a Christian radio program: “Guidelines, A Five-minute Commentary on Living.” She wrote,

It is the middle of the night, and here I am writing to you. What is bothering me is me—who am I? I am only nineteen. My mother and father are gone. I am the last of nine children. I have two children I love, and they're all I have to live for. Please write me back.

My friend Sonya Goodson posted this on her Facebook page: “I have crossed many bridges that I never came to . . . .”

            Oh, Sonya, so have I! And what a waste of time and emotional energy it has been!

Here’s a thought that challenges me: “Prayer is bringing your wishes and worries to God; faith is leaving them there.”1 The “prayer” part is easy, but the “faith” part-- that is, leaving our worries with God, is quite another matter, right?

“Just do the next thing” was the advice author Elisabeth Elliot gave to her daughter, Valerie, when she called on the phone one morning at a point of desperation. Homeschooling her eight children, Valerie had reached the end of her resources.

“What do I do, Mom? I just can’t go on.” “Just do the next thing!” her mother counseled her.

Sometimes when you open Facebook Notifications on your phone or computer, you see a face you’ve never seen before--that is, until you glance at the name and realize it’s someone you know well. The person has simply posted a new Profile picture--and you didn’t immediately recognize who it is. Chances are it’s a girlfriend of yours who has taken a new selfie in a stylish pose that she thinks makes her look prettier than the previous shot did. Come on, let’s be honest: who ever posts an ugly picture of herself on Facebook?

Courtney Ellis tells of the time her family was driving down the highway when a deer darted out from the bushes, colliding with their car before her dad even saw the animal. The airbags deployed. The car was totaled. But fortunately no one was seriously hurt.