Devotions

I have done a lot of devotional writing since I submitted my first freelance piece in August of 2009. Today, close to 75 devotions of mine have been published. I have decided to post some of them in my blog. This is the 1^st devotion I ever sold. It appeared in “The Upper Room” in Feb 2011 and a reprint was later published in “Word Aflame."

The Day of Small Things

Read Zechariah 4:6-10

 The prophet Zechariah asks the question, “For who has despised the day of small things?”

 -Zechariah 4:10 (NAS)

 “Mom! I’m bored!” This exclamation came from my twelve year old son just two weeks after school ended for summer break. My, how quickly a child can become bored.  Frankly, becoming bored with the mundane is something adults do too.

The prophet Zechariah poses the question, “Who has despised the day of small things?” One answer to this question would be my twelve year old son. But the question is a good one to be pondered by all. What are the days of small things? These are days when nothing out of the ordinary happens in our lives. We are a people who yearn for excitement, especially in today’s fast paced world. We would do well to learn to appreciate days when nothing of significance occurs–days of small things.

In my life, I have seen some difficult days when people I loved were hurt or died. When I compare these days with ordinary ones, I’ll take the ordinary every time.

May we learn to appreciate mornings when we wake up to nothing unusual. We face the ordinary challenges of home, work, and church life. We go to work, come home, eat dinner with our families, help the children with homework, attend Bible study or choir practice – the usual weekly church activities. Then, we crawl into our warm, safe bed for a good night’s sleep in the home God has provided for us. On those nights, may we be mindful of the extraordinary God who has allowed us to live another ordinary day.

Prayer:  Father, we thank you for all of the normal and ordinary days n our lives. Teach us to live each of them for you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thought of the Day

God gives us ordinary days and not so ordinary ones. May we learn to appreciate them all.

 

Quotable Susan

On Family:

“Except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain who build it.”  Psalms 127:1

In high school one of Susan’s son’s did not call her to let her know that he was going to stay after school and lift weights. When she scolded him for not letting her know where he was, his defense was that the only phone available to him was in the coach’s office and as he put it, “all the guys and even the coach were in there.”  Susan’s response to her son was, “I have earth shattering news for you. ALL of those guys and even the coach HAVE A MOTHER!!”

-Susan Siami

“I finally came to grips with the fact that my life was not my mother’s fault.”

  -Gina McQuellan (friend)

“I told my daughter, ‘we love each other in this house; whether we like it or not!’”

-Alisa Smith (my sister)

“My true brothers are those who rejoice for me in their hearts when they find good in me, and grieve for me when they find sin. They are my true brothers, because whether they see good in me or evil, they love me still.”

-Augustine

“Life is not about avoiding the storms.  It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

 -unknown