My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.
Proverbs 3:11-12
Recommended Reading: 1 KINGS 17:1-6 “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.2 And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.5 So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.”
COMMENTS: Reflect with me for a minute in the memories of our youth. Do you remember a time you were corrected by a parent or teacher or coach or older brother or sister? What were the circumstances? How did you feel? I bet most of those feelings come back strong and fresh. I remember one Sunday evening I saw some kids sled riding on my hill. My parents were devout Christians. They didn’t allow me to sled ride with those kids. My memory says was because was Sunday but suspect real reason was because was getting dark. I don’t remember how old I was but probably 5-6yr old. I remember being embarrassed and feeling cheated at being deprived of some fun and freedom other kids were enjoying. I can remember my mom telling me not to go out of our yard. Well, I watched at the extreme corner of our yard but the temptation became too great. I went to bottom of the alley to talk to some of the kids and look at their cool sleds and watch better how they managed to turn the sleds at the bottom of the steep alley onto the sidewalk to avoid going out onto the busy street. I knew the danger of going out onto the street and knew that was the real reason why my mom didn’t want me to play with them.
I don’t know how long I was there but seems like a minute or two before my mom showed up and gave me a “painful whack on the bottom” and grabbed my arm tightly and marched me home. I was so humiliated and angry but dared not say anything but I was sorry. I don’t remember rest of the day or experience but am sure my parents didn’t dwell on it but am sure I stayed inside rest of the day. I probably watched from my bedroom window upstairs or maybe my sister’s bedroom window since had a better view. She was 8 years older so not sure if she allowed me that privilege that evening.
Emotions help us remember distant memories, don’t they? But we need to work at making those childish emotions and memories not distort our emotions and conduct as adults. If most of our memories of our parents are bad memories with bad emotions, they can definitely distort our opinions of our parents. Fortunately, for me nearly all my memories of my parents are wonderful memories and their example as devout Christians serve to guide me even now in spite of the fact they both have been in heaven for many years.
What about God’s discipline? I feel blessed and am grateful God has disciplined me mostly in private without humiliation like I felt that Sunday afternoon as a child. But fortunately, my heart has always been tender towards His correction so His correction has been quick and relatively gentle as I look back. Poor choices and risk of dangerous consequences were felt quickly. Maybe because I was slow and deliberate in making major live decisions and always involved and waiting for Him. Maybe because I accepted Christ at age 10 and developed a close relationship with Christ early in my life. But I was spared many regrets see in lives of many I know and many in my own family. But some regrets involve not going or doing what God did nudge me to do and out of fear I said no. Some choices I wish I’d made different involve financial investments. I lost considerable amount of money on my retirement fund especially a number of years ago when I was tempted to make some speculative investments with some of those funds that started out doing very well and then, when the company I worked for went bankrupt, I lost a lot. I shouldn’t have been so greedy and should have invested in much more conservative funds instead. I made a similar mistake with my personal investment portfolio but fortunately a smaller amount but with same result. Experience forced me to rely more on wiser investment advisors and follow their advice exclusively. Years that followed restored all money lost and more. But I’m sure if I’d continued the “get rich quick” mentality, I would have been tempted to risk more. Sound like gambling mentality. God was teaching and preparing me for greater and more important things. Satan was trying to tempt and distract me. I can see it clearly now but was less clear then.
I needed to seek Christ’s forgiveness and move on wiser and more disciplined. That is exactly what I did. I’m sure glad I did. Otherwise, I would not have been able to retire when I did and focus on this journal and sharing as I have. Just an example and additional reminder how important it is to seek and follow God’s Will early and consistently. We will fail and do ourselves and others great harm every time with Him, and satan is so skillful at helping us do that. But Christ is gracious and merciful and quick to help and put us back on track to His Will, which is infinitely better. After all, He knows best because He has already been in our future and the Holy Spirit is ready and eager to guide us there as He has so many faithful followers before us.
So, if He corrects us now and gain to put or keep us on course, don’t get angry or filled with false pride. Take the humiliation on the chin, repent, and let Him put you back on the right path. We never go down the wrong road too far that it still is better to turn around and come back to the crossroad to the right road.
“God’s house of correction is his school of instruction. “Thomas Brooks
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 225 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/Dondevotionals/
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 