Tiny Devotional for Tuesday, 01-26-2021

 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 me.)

Blessings are real, and relevant. But what about curses?

This passage says that curses without cause have no power; it follows, therefore, that curses WITH cause, DO have power. 

Should we then seek training in strategic and tactical cursing? 

Is “Take Out Your Enemies With Fire, Bears,  Blight, Locusts and Invasions” a yet-unwritten best-seller?

Having just reviewed the 169 references to curses in the Old Testament, and the 12 appearances in the New, I’m gonna go with “no.”

It’s not because I don’t think the training would be effective, or that the book would flop. 

It’s because our path, and our goal, is one of blessing. We get to blessing, by walking in blessing.

And so I say:

Peace be on your household.