A dear friend of mine related this story to me by phone this morning.
It seems that she and her husband are spending more and more early sunrise time enjoying their front porch in this, the early sunset of their lives. Along with the rocking chairs, the trusty old bench between them that holds Bibles, books, and journals, they both are deep into the daily devotionals of Charles Spurgeon and have been for a couple of years.
So it is here that they each read, meditate on, and discuss the Bible and these timeless mini-classics written over a century ago. In fact, she said her husband's copy of Spurgeon has so many marked up and dog-eared pages that you would never be able to find anything that really "stood out" to you. The whole book is a "stand out."
She has related to me many times through the years how God gets her attention or validates certain teachings in her life through old forgotten books that she "just so happens upon." Recently she randomly knelt in front of an old glassed-in bookshelf which she hadn't approached in years. Her hand went straight to a little red leather book which she pulled from the hoards of old volumes. It was a copy of the devotionals of Charles Spurgeon and written on the inside cover was something akin to this: "Happy birthday, Dad on your 43rd birthday. This makes a great read for morning and evening." Your son.
My friend was instantly taken aback. For you see, the son, who was a teen-ager when he gifted his dad with this book, is now forty-three years old and the book, while showing a slight bit of wear, had only one dog-eared page and relatively few markings.
Upon handing the book to her husband and asking him if he remembered receiving it as a gift from their son, his response after a time of silence and reflection was this: "We need to find God's speedometer for our lives and pay attention to it so that our lives don't exceed His speed limit and we miss the treasures he has for us."
Father God,
Teach us how to slow down and even to wait. Your Word has so many references to "waiting on You." Show us how to do this with peace and calm--to embrace the wait so that we will not miss the treasures you have for us today. Amen
It seems that she and her husband are spending more and more early sunrise time enjoying their front porch in this, the early sunset of their lives. Along with the rocking chairs, the trusty old bench between them that holds Bibles, books, and journals, they both are deep into the daily devotionals of Charles Spurgeon and have been for a couple of years.
So it is here that they each read, meditate on, and discuss the Bible and these timeless mini-classics written over a century ago. In fact, she said her husband's copy of Spurgeon has so many marked up and dog-eared pages that you would never be able to find anything that really "stood out" to you. The whole book is a "stand out."
She has related to me many times through the years how God gets her attention or validates certain teachings in her life through old forgotten books that she "just so happens upon." Recently she randomly knelt in front of an old glassed-in bookshelf which she hadn't approached in years. Her hand went straight to a little red leather book which she pulled from the hoards of old volumes. It was a copy of the devotionals of Charles Spurgeon and written on the inside cover was something akin to this: "Happy birthday, Dad on your 43rd birthday. This makes a great read for morning and evening." Your son.
My friend was instantly taken aback. For you see, the son, who was a teen-ager when he gifted his dad with this book, is now forty-three years old and the book, while showing a slight bit of wear, had only one dog-eared page and relatively few markings.
Upon handing the book to her husband and asking him if he remembered receiving it as a gift from their son, his response after a time of silence and reflection was this: "We need to find God's speedometer for our lives and pay attention to it so that our lives don't exceed His speed limit and we miss the treasures he has for us."
Father God,
Teach us how to slow down and even to wait. Your Word has so many references to "waiting on You." Show us how to do this with peace and calm--to embrace the wait so that we will not miss the treasures you have for us today. Amen
photo credits: my friend
location: beautiful NW Arkansas
photos taken by my friend
