Skip to main content

What Do You Say? - by Dr. Jerry Walls

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." - Psalm 136:1

Dr. Jerry Walls used Psalm 136:1-9 in the devotion this morning but I wanted to share his thoughts that went along with that text: 

"When my children were growing up, I was constantly prompting them to do all kinds of things.  I would prompt them to open doors for people, prompt them to wash their hands and brush their teeth, and prompt them every other day to clean their rooms.  On some days, it seemed like all I was doing was prompting them. 

But more than anything else, I was constantly prompting my children to say thank you.  And I prompted them the same way every parent in the history of the world prompted their children.  When I saw they might have missed an opportunity to say thanks, I would simply remind them by saying, 'What do you say?'  When I said, 'What do you say?' my children knew this really wasn't a question.  I would have been surprised if one of them had said something like, 'It's about time' or 'See you later.'  My children knew that the answer was, 'Thank you.'  So let me ask you a question.  In light of all that God has done for you, what should you say to him today?"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Pray - The Object of Our Prayer

In our College & Career Sunday school class this week, we started a series titled, "How to Pray."  I plan to try to and share the lessons each week in case anyone wants to follow along with us here...or you can come join us Sunday mornings at Tabernacle at 10 AM in room 218. Any good speaker, teacher, or presenter knows that the #1 rule of public speaking is to know your audience.  You don't want to prepare a discussion about retirement for preschoolers and a presentation themed with Disney princesses most likely wouldn't spark the interest of a group of businessmen.  In order for someone to prepare a dynamic and engaging presentation, they must know their audience, who they're preparing to talk to. The same is true in our prayer life.  The Point of this week's study is: "A right view of God fuels how we pray."  The conversations we engage in with our friends about are often focused on topics that interest them: their favorite team, favorite ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Waves of Change

I often hear older people talk about the "good old days" or "back in my day" and they wish that things would go back to the way they were back then. That will never happen. And sadly, many of us in the millennial generation may even make the same statements one day, if we haven't already.  A.W. Tozer said this, " Regardless of where you look these days, change is inevitable. Things are not what they once were. I am not one that bemoans the past for the simple reason that the past was not as good as we remember." People, technology, industry, work, laws, morals, relationships, social media, privacy and so many other things will always be changing. If you want to survive the storms of change in your life you must have some constant that holds you on course.  There is only one things that never changes, that has never had to change because He has always been good and perfect - God.  Malachi 3:6 reads, "For I the Lord do not change......
Post a Comment
Read more