Tiny Devotional for Tuesday, 11/24/2020

A great good morning to my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by: we got our COVID test this morning.

Prepare your work outside,
And make it ready for yourself in the field;
Afterward, then, build your house.
Proverb 24:27, NASB

The proverb speaks of fields and outside work, but it translates perfectly to a day in which few of us make our living via agriculture. I was programmed by my family to go to college, which was a pretty lofty goal for a child of a single mom, living on a dirt road in the 1950s. It’s might be their second greatest gift, only surpassed by the examples they set of a Christian life. 

I don’t know that I ever seriously considered entering the world of work right out of high school. I worked, of course, starting at age 13, shining shoes in a barber shop. At first, it was a fun diversion from homework, but it was mandatory after my 16th birthday, for reasons (third greatest gift?). But always, I knew that whatever my career turned out to be, I had to get the prep for it by going to college, which I started in 1971.
It didn’t work out QUITE the way we planned, which was four years to get a degree, then become a teacher. That path WOULD have worked, though, and with some EXTREME modifications, it DID work. Twenty years later, I started my career.

Today, a four-year liberal arts degree isn’t The Golden Ticket it was for my generation. Technical training opportunities are both available and attractive. Regardless, the wisdom of the proverb endures: make sure you have means to support a family, before you have one.


Peace be on your household.

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