July 01, 2022
Sparkler in Imagine Fabrics
June 27, 2022
Enjoying Life
Devotion for the Week...
Before I go into today's devotion, I want to let you know that this will be my last new devotion until September as it has become my tradition to take the summer off from devotion writing. I'll still be sharing quilt posts over the summer, but it's nice to take some time and just let my Bible reading thoughts steep for a while rather than needing a new devotion every week 😊 I may sometimes re-post an old devotion, but I haven't decided for sure if I'll be doing that.
I am currently reading a chapter of Ecclesiastes each morning. Solomon writes a lot about everything being meaningless, "like chasing the wind" he says in chapter 1, verse 14. But then suddenly at the end of chapter 5, he takes a different view. "Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past" (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20).
I love that last sentence! "God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past." That's the kind of person I want to be! I want to be so busy enjoying the life I have that I don't have time to brood, or focus negatively, on anything.
So what is it that Solomon says gives people this kind of life? It's not that they have everything money can buy or that they never have to work a day in their lives. It's not even that they don't have any troubles. After all, we all know there isn't a person alive who has no troubles their entire life. Instead, Solomon says that it is people who enjoy their work and accept their lot in life who are too busy enjoying life for anything else to get in the way.
I have to confess that I don't always enjoy my work. Looking after toddlers can be hard. It can be monotonous, for sure, and it can be irritating. Not to mention it's work and I'd rather be doing something fun like quilting or reading. On the days I do enjoy my time with the kids, though, the day goes by faster and there's just a lot more joy. Usually, whether or not I enjoy the day has less to do with the kids and more to do with my attitude. If I'm focused on what I'd rather be doing, there's not much joy in my day at all. Being aware of our own attitude could do wonders for our enjoyment of our work, as a general principle.
June 20, 2022
Janitors
Devotion for the Week...
We have been the janitors for our church for 10 years or so and for much of that time the boys have helped in some capacity, too. One day several years ago, we were driving to the church to clean and in response to a complaint one of the boys had made, I pointed out that they sure liked the things we were able to do as a family because of the money we earned cleaning the church. From the backseat, Nathan said, “But we don’t get money for cleaning the church.”
“Oh, yes we do,” I said with a laugh. “I hate cleaning so we wouldn’t be doing this by ourselves every week if we weren’t getting paid for it.”
He was only small at the time, so he didn’t yet understand the concept of money or of being paid to do work. He also never saw the cheque we were paid with, so there was no way he could have known about it. Maybe he thought we took care of the church out of the goodness of our hearts?? I love remembering those funny moments from when they were little.