Papa Pat Tiny Devotionals

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, frozen strawberries are tasteless. Like a sparrow in its’  flitting, like a swallow in its flying, So a curse without cause does not come to rest. Proverbs 26:2, NASB Curses weren’t a part of Redneck Culture on the dirt road in Macon where I grew up.  Cussing? Yes! Saying “Gee!” or “Heck!” got my mouth washed out with soap;  my grandparents were old school. (They TAUGHT old school, literally). Those mild words were substitutes (euphemisms) for the BAD cuss words, and thus prohibited. I also didn’t have experience with blessings as a child, other than the words spoken over our meals before eating. It wasn’t until 1986, when I was a somewhat-new father, that I learned that blessings were not only a real thing, but that they were near-essential gifts.  Children NEED blessing from their parents. (Thanks, Gary Smalley and John Trent; thanks, Bill Gaddis, for introducing them to

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, zesty Italian dressing: don’t overlook it! As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, So the heart of kings is unsearchable. Proverbs 25:3, NASB What does THAT mean?  Does this apply to “rulers,” or exclusively to kings? What about queens and emperors and czars? I go to those older and wiser (or, at least PUBLISHED) authorities for answers. First, I found nothing that suggested that this only applied to hereditary monarchs. So, “kings” = “governors of all flavors.”  Second, this is a literary form, found not only in the Bible, but in common literature as well. Third, and finally, it reminds us that rulers have access to information not available to us, AND motives which we don’t know. (One time ONLY I had access to information related to regional and national security: when I volunteered at the Atlanta Olympics. The issue is not that authorities don’t have any info

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, we are yet holding on. A prudent person sees evil and hides himself, But the naïve proceed, and pay the penalty. Proverbs 22:3, NASB I wrote about this verse years ago. The occasion: self-treatment of gut issues. Unfortunately, instead of grabbing the bottle that calmed my innards, I had been taking doses of laxative.  Naïve? Check. Penalty? Check. At least I was the only one paying the penalty. That isn’t always true. One very Near and Dear to us has been naïve;  MANY have paid a penalty. Last year, just before hospitals went into lock-down due to COVID, our Dear One became ill. Vanessa, who has lupus,  recognized the “butterfly rash.”  It’s a bad disease, but people can live a great, full life, if they take the necessary treatment. Vanessa told  Dear One that, and provided many kinds of support. D.O. didn’t get treatment, worsened, and required hospitalization. But, becau

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, Alicia Ann goes to the dentist today. Righteousness guards the one whose way is blameless, But wickedness brings the sinner to ruin. Proverbs 13:6, NASB Righteous Gurkha Guards Important considerations:  “Way is blameless” is NOT the same thing as “perfect in heart, mind, and spirit.”  If it read the latter way, it would be a verse wasted on me (and everyone else I know).  This goes back to “feeling bad doesn’t mean doing bad.”  Restrain your behavior; work on your internal life at your leisure, while you are not in jail for assault. “Wickedness” is not the same thing as “sinfulness.”  I looked it up! Different words in Hebrew, as well as in English.  So, don’t expect you are gonna get busted upside the head just because you mess up. On the other hand, it’s a REALLY GOOD THING that wickedness (which is a matter of intent and determination) leads to ruin. Otherwise, the wic

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, do you remember this day in 1989? For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And rebukes for discipline are the way of life Proverbs 6:23, NASB I don’t know about other people. For me, the word “discipline” brings up an image of a small boy getting a spanking. AND I KNOW BETTER! First of all, let me disabuse you (SWIDT?) of any thought that my youth was filled with beatings. Not the case! I earned my share, true. Secondly, the root of the word (from Greek, through Latin) really means ‘apprentice.’ m It doesn’t just mean ‘student;’ you can be a student in isolation, but not a disciple. It’s also a WILLING relationship. This is not the Gulag! The instructions are given to take you to a place you WANT to go, IN SAFETY. That’s what the ‘light’ reference means. The rebukes are to provide early warning when you get off the path. From where I sit, I see five sources

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, count it all joy! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers, Nor incline my ear to my instructors! I was almost in total ruin In the midst of the assembly and congregation.” Proverbs 5:13-14, NASB Assembly: Wailing Wall, Jerusalem “I was almost in total ruin.” There is a difference between being crushed, and being in total ruin; at least, there is in the context of this verse. Here, the reasons given are a failure to listen and learn; ignoring the teachers. In my youth, I spent PLENTY of time almost in total ruin.  I always felt alone, even at a very young age; that worsened as I grew older. By the time I hit early adolescence, I was in need of SERIOUS intervention. Nothing like that was available in 1966.  What WAS available were a number of organic compounds (you might know them as vodka, or some such) that changed my mood, AND gave me a new peer group that accepted m

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, send pictures to Allison. LISTEN, my sons, TO the INSTRUCTION of a FATHER, And PAY ATTENTION so that you may gain understanding, Proverbs 4:1, NASB PAY ATTENTION! The educational system that we know today isn’t even 100 years old; at least not in the Great State of Georgia. I know this, because my maternal grandparents both taught in one-room schools. Bill Paulette, DOB 08-03-1899, and Bessie Anderson Paulette, DOB 11-30-1902, went on to do other things, but rural one-room schools like that described in “Tom Sawyer” were part of their employment history. PAY ATTENTION! Bessie told me that some of the oldest boys were bigger than her, but she made them behave. Bill was a veteran of WWI, AND a survivor of the Spanish Flu Epidemic, so no shrinking violet himself. On August 21, 1931, when my mother was 3, they moved to their last house on Edna Place, in Macon-Bibb County, whic

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, do your best; He’ll take care of the rest. Do not devise harm against your neighbor, While he lives securely beside you. Do not contend with a person for no reason, If he has done you no harm. Proverbs 3:29-30, NASB I don’t have a background that would permit doing harm against a peaceful neighbor; the closest I’ve ever come to this setting personally was a retired couple, living in the apartment below me, who were always complaining that my kitten made noise during the day. Not a lot I could do about it; apartment life just carries the potential to be disturbed. On the other hand, I have a LOT of experience with people contending with someone for no reason. I am, after all, a retired REDNECK, and a frequent (youthful) redneck behavior is starting trouble.  Not that I ever did that...of course… As a middle school counselor for 16+ years, one of the BEST things I did was es

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, ribs, collards and sweet-potato soufflé for breakfast. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, Proverbs 2:6-7, NASB Let us honor Our Mouth today; it’s the first thing we use, to take our first breath. We quickly discover we can be nourished through it. And although we initially don’t know how it works, it’s the primary way we have of communicating. And one day, many years later, we say “I do;” we hear “you may kiss the bride,” and we do so. Bessie and Bill Paulette, 1920s Much later, we use our mouth to tell the nurse “YOU ARE STANDING ON MY OXYGEN TUBE!” thereby extending our time on the earth. And what comes out of the Lord’s Mouth? Wisdom, knowledge and understanding. These are the things we need. A famous astronomer once criticized the Bible, be

 A great good RED FRIDAY HAPPY NEW YEAR morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family member who have dropped by, 33 years, and Vanessa’s black-eyed peas are better than mine. Hers                                   Mine Wisdom shouts in the street, She raises her voice in the public square; At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she declares her sayings: Proverbs 1:20-21, NASB You don’t have to listen VERY hard, in order to hear Wisdom, but you DO have to listen. I watched a cooking show last week. Contestant Pandemonia was trying to dominate by shouting over anything the other contestants were attempting to say. Shouting ain’t a bad thing when it is communicating; Wisdom does it. But Pandemonia wasn’t communicating; she was BLOCKING communication. (you may insert a statement re: politics HERE; I’m done with it) Almost without exception, folks are breathing a sigh of relief that 2020 is over. I, too, hope this