Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
RECOMMENDED READING: Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
COMMENTS: Education is a life-long pursuit. We learn formally by school in a formal classroom and teacher as children and young adults but our education has only begun at our graduation. Job skills and related tools needed for gainful employment and productive to sustain and maintain life and shelter and provisions for family and personal life are necessary. But they do not complete our education needs even though we may think so at the time.
No, but just as important as being teachable is discerning and follow valid, accurate, truthful teaching. How do we do that? Well, by looking at the school’s and teacher’s reputation from previous students and those using the skills and information shared by those students.
Parenting is so hard and at times heart-breaking, especially during rebellious periods when children will not listen to or follow their parent’s council and learn from their experience. How tragic when children repeat their parent’s mistakes and sins thinking they are smarter than their parents and will avoid their consequences. Or they think fun and pleasure now is more important and any consequences can be dealt with later when they happen. Likewise, sacrifices for future gain or blessings are not made. Such has been common in every generation but temptations are stronger and more appealing and accessible now than ever before.
But, free will is still the wild card that opens even children (and adults) who have had the best childhood and parenting to wonder down the dark path of evil and sin and rebellion. How many prisoners are PK’s (preacher’s kids) and hardened criminals from the best homes? Well, even the best of parents are still far from perfect and deeply flawed even though Holy Spirit lead and guided and forgiven.
Conversely, how many faithful born-again Christians came from broken homes or were raised by abusive parent(s). Free will not only means freedom to choose rebellion and sin, but free will to choose Christ’s way of forgiveness and redemption and eternal life. We need often reminded that God loves all equally and He died on the cross as much for the worst sinner as He did for the most respectful Christian. Both were equally lost in their sins and equally guilty and doomed, but both equally loved by Him. That means He strives to persuade both to come to Him with a repentant heart. When we pray for others, we partner with God so we open ourselves to be instruments of positive influence and impact on others and for those we pray for. We also open ourselves for Him to do positive change to us too. Both directions His goal is to bond us positively to each other as well as to Him. The transforming nature of His presence and Love and Mercy impacts those who yield to them and those who they cross paths with.
I have a step-grandson who is making some poor choices that put at risk completing high school with a welding skill and certification along with involvement in destructive behaviors. His father and step-mother and others, including us, are not able to persuade him otherwise because he is 18 of legal adult age.
How much more we must break God’s heart when we disobey Him and go down our own prodigal path! But truth is He wants our families’ redemption even more than we do, so when we pray in harmony with His Will and desires, we open tremendous opportunities for His influence and power and Perfect Will to move and progress. He is limited by our choices but not in finding opportunities to use even poor choices and rebellion to soften even the hardest hearts. When we anger or pride to deafen our longing hearts, we hinder God’s council guiding us too in our common desire. We can’t understand or comprehend how God interacts with everyone at the same time nor how He will be working in the future to His goals, but past history can give us a close and convince us to trust and follow Him to continue to do so.
So last point is DON’T GIVE UP AND DON’T QUIT PRAYING AND FOLLOWING HIM! The eternal life and future of ourselves but also of those we dearly love is at state. And many more beyond our current thoughts or imagination. New Year is a very good time to recommit and refocus. AMEN? AMEN!
“The secret of home rule is self-rule, first being ourselves what we want our children to be.”
Andrew Murray
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 345 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/ 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.
My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials 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
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