The Devotional - A Look at the Book #868

 

by Jesse Abel

Thoughts from Papa “J”

 

The American Way of cash flow (We the people drive a financed or rented vehicle, on roads and highways that are taxed and bond assessed. Usually we are on the way to the gasoline station to purchase more fuel with our credit cards. Much of that fuel is expended going to the furniture outlet where we purchase on credit; stuff to fill our mortgaged houses) goes to government spending. Proverbs 22:6-7 as a way of life.

 

Good Morning

 

Soap box derby? Have you ever thought about driving one of those cars as a young boy or girl? When my dad returned from the war he promised that he would build me one of those cars to race in. There in our yard he placed two wooden horses and built what looked like a long wooden casket with a pointed front. That box sat on those props for several years without wheels it could go nowhere.

 

I am sure that my dad meant well, but he was tormented from the war, post dramatic stress syndrome had eaten a non-repairable hole in his mind and he became one hundred percent mentally confused about life and how to live and love. It has taken me at least fifty of my over seventy years to even consider that my dad meant no harm since so many things would prove otherwise.

 

In Ecclesiastes 7:1 – Solomon writes: A good name is better than a precious ointment and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. This statement of Solomon is absolutely practical since the living must endure to consequences of those who laugh at wrong and get violently angry at right.

 

You may not understand what I am seeking to say, but that is okay since this is more of a self-help search of parental love than communicating something out of Philippians 2:1-4 as I first intended to connect with Ecclesiastes 7. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, then to hear the song of fools. Yet I know that I am not alone in this, since many men and women feel abandoned by parents.

 

Well here is the rub! I am not looking for shiny shoes, sympathy or any of the “S” words found in the dictionary between the two. Yet I am searching (found outside of that “S” box) to understand Solomon when he says it is better to go to the house of mourning, then to the house of feasting. I suppose that as we live past those who die, it is the time after for us living to understand those who are gone.

 

Like when we leave the house of mourning and move on; wisdom follows us to the next event in time teaching us that the house of feasting is foolishness in action and in that house we have no choice but to live like the fool. This causes harsh and emotional thoughts in the mind that are strongholds of the devil.

 

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with every temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13.