Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me your statutes. Psalm 119:12
Recommended Reading: Psalm 19:9-16 “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. 11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. 14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
COMMENTS: School is an essential part of equipping children for adulthood and becoming a productive part of their community and world. Historically boys would learn trade and skills from their father and girls would learn homemaking skills from their mothers. Times have changed and more men train and obtain jobs and careers in fields much different than their fathers. Likewise, women are training and seeking jobs and careers beyond the home and much different from those of their mothers. But such opportunities start with goals and dreams and follow through with proper elementary school and then high school to prepare for vocational and college higher education training. Public schools and vocational training schools and colleges were established in order to provide opportunities and training for anyone with determination and ability to work to achieve their goals.
Noteworthy is the most respected and successful hospitals and colleges and universities were founded and built by Christians or Christian organizations. That is not a coincidence or accident, but a vision and passion God instilled in Christians to accomplish.
Scripture encourages education and training for employment. Society insists that be the only purpose and goal of education.
Scripture, however, reveals an additional and even more important goal of education as God intended it to be. Proverbs 9:10 and Psalm 111:10 are two example scriptures sharing that goal.
Proverbs 9:10 “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
Psalm 111:10 “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever.”
When the United States was young and its now famous universities were young as well, education also included instruction with God’s Word. But the fear of God and discovering and exploring and building a close relationship with Christ typically started at home and in the local church congregation. That was the way God intended the early settlers to live and build this new country and the legacy to be passed on and observed to future generations. That legacy and vision and goal has faded and is barely noticeable. In fact, most of the universities and colleges founded with a Christian focus and mission have become so secularized that those promoting or even acknowledging Christian values and morals are at very lease criticized and more commonly punished or even expelled. Times have certainly changed and fruit of this change has become dramatically increased violence and evil in those schools but also in society.
History is supposed to teach us both the mistakes and wise choices of past generations so the wises ones could be repeated and mistakes and unwise ones avoided. Yet history is being rewritten to hide the wise choices and promote the unwise ones.
Scripture tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and following His commands is the way to life.
When we deny or even neglect God and our relationship with Him, we put ourselves and our families at great risk. The Old Testament is full of examples. It is also full of examples of how God blesses and helps and enables those who follow God and obey Him. The New Testament continues those examples but reveals to us how the Holy Spirit enables us to live in and sustain a real and meaningful relationship with God and enjoy His forgiveness, His council and wisdom, His strength and protection, and confidence of eternal life beyond the grave, while enjoying real purpose for living while on earth.
When will we learn that God’s ways are the best ways and ours are at best second best and at worse a sure path to misery and destruction? The proof and evidence of that fills the history books and includes examples from the lives of family and friends and neighbors near us and news reported every day.
“The Scriptures contain the deep things of God, and therefore, can never be sufficiently searched into by a careless, superficial, cursory way of reading them, but by an industrious, close, and humble application.” George Whitefield
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 158 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.
You may also access my facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
My hope and prayer is, they will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 .
I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
donsdevotions 