Get started – today

Good morning. This is a devotional for single parents from Parenting Solo, but the message also applies to single adults without children who may one day marry a single parent and be a step-parent.

Note to readers: I’m back, refreshed and ready to go. Sorry about the delay of my return. I had to reproduce my e-mail list, so if you’ve asked to be removed and are back on, just send me another note. Thanks for being patient. Doug

Scripture: N/A (The Message)

The end of the school year was a busy time in my life. Golf season ended a month ago after a short postseason run, one stroke short of advancing to the next level. The past few weeks have been stocked with awards banquets, finals preparation, grading and graduation. My son has taken finals and is back from Arizona State for the summer. My step-son has graduated from 8^th grade and will be at Berean with me next year. Now I can breathe. For a while, anyway.

Fatigue had set in. After eight months of school, I am off for 2 ½ months. We may sell our house and buy another, taking advantage of the market and potential low interest rates. We are vacationing in Montana and Colorado. Somewhere in there, I need time for my family. During the summer, I must prepare for a new realm of teaching: boys physical education. Ugh. The school let me know they wanted to move me after not enough kids signed up for Writing and British Literature, the courses I taught this year.

All the while, my heart aches. My golf team should have played in the North Coast Section tournament in May. We stumbled and missed by a single stroke of advancing. Still, it was a great season, going places the school had never gone before. Each player knew they could have made up one stroke through their round somewhere. I told them to hold their heads high, that they must learn from their loss and grow through the process. Just don’t blame others; accept responsibility for yourself. Now I am formulating a plan for each of them to set new goals and get better as a team next year.

Isn’t that how our faith life is? We try, we stumble, we formulate a new plan. We have a loving God who knows when to discipline us and when to give us grace. The basic plan is always the same: Simply seek out God in all things. Through reading the Bible, through daily prayer, through regular fellowship with other believers, through being fed the Word by expert teachers, by serving others. My golfers are being told to hit thousands of practice balls in the next eight months in order to get to the next level. While that may seem slightly daunting, it takes dedication and desire to get started. In our faith life, it may be too much to look at reading the Bible in a year, but read for 20 minutes each day and maybe it isn’t as difficult as you first thought. Just get started. Stop procrastinating. Dig into your faith. It’s always about growing, because growth means knowing God more. That’s a winning plan.

How does this apply to my life?

Today’s prayer: Lord, help me to practice my faith today. Help me to not be afraid. Help me to get started and not look back. Thank you for loving me. Amen.

Doug Mead

Parenting Solo

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Vol. 3, No. 68

This week’s reading plan can found at http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/june.asp?version=51