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, we start with leftover cherry pie. I’ve been utilizing the verse-by-verse, in order system of writing the Tiny Devotional since last May, and it both liberates and constrains. The constraint is that I HAVE to deal with the verse that is next up in the rotation; I don’t get to pick one I want to write about. The liberation is that if I am ever accused of writing AT someone, in reaction to something they have done or said, I can say, “Nope. It’s just the verse that came up in rotation.”  There is a kind of person who curses his father And does not bless his mother. Proverbs 30:11, NASB To get the full impact of this verse, you need to read verses 11-14, but putting it mildly: it’s not good to be KOP (for “Kind Of Person”).  We know nothing about KOP’s father and mother, because they don’t matter for this verse, because they don’t matter to KOP. His parents aren’t the...

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, it’s BACK TO SCHOOL DAY!!!! A man who flatters his neighbor Is spreading a net for his steps. Proverbs 29:5, NASB You look lovely today, Mrs. Cleaver! It appears the Almighty doesn’t care for flattery.  Why? Isn’t flattering someone just paying them a compliment? And isn’t that a good thing? Well, no; that’s not what flattery is. Yes, it’s paying a compliment, but it’s not JUST paying a compliment. It’s paying a compliment to win trust, with the specific intent to violate that trust.  It’s deceit + malice. The flattery doesn’t always sound like Eddie Haskell. For example: I’ve been flattered by scam emails that addressed me as “Dear Christian Brother;” I got one that informs me I’m to receive three million dollars because of my righteous reputation!  Lately, I’ve been praised for my wisdom and courage in getting aboard with the latest crypto-currency offering....

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, I’m waiting for white bread, so I can make a sandwich. Evil people do not understand justice, But those who seek the Lord understand everything. Proverbs 28:5, NASB The end of my second life verse is “and how I may reply when I am reproved.” (Habakkuk 2:1b, NIV) It changed my entire outlook. Here’s why: Everybody messes up. It’s NOT optional. What IS optional is our response when we are corrected. Now, correction itself is ALWAYS going to pinch, at least a little bit, because it means you were doing it wrong. So, a little ouch.  But then what? You can reject the correction.  You can ignore the correction. You can implement the correction. Rejecting the correction mostly takes the form of making excuses, offering reasons why you think your reason is right, or sometimes denying the knowledge or authority of the person offering the correction.  Ignoring t...

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, the ladies return home today! Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:6, NASB Let’s get this out of the way first: not everybody who wounds you is a friend, and not everybody who kisses you is an enemy. In fact, you want to bet the other way.  I feel compelled to write this, because I had a friend who just couldn’t handle nice treatment. He wasn’t able to receive sustained warm affection, and I was shocked one time when he accused me of bad motives after I gave him a present. He was neither a bad nor stupid guy; he had just been badly programmed, and had some issues with his wetware as well.  That’s REALLY not the sort of issue this verse is addressing, but too many people accept bad treatment because it IS a form of attention. So,  I mention it here.  This is what makes this verse work: a TRUE friend lov...

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, cherry pie and Murdered Out coffee. Like a thorn that sticks in the hand of a heavy drinker, So is a proverb in the mouths of fools.  Proverbs 26:9, NASB Thorns? GLOVES! As the cats say, I has confused. What I THOUGHT this verse said was that a drunkard grabs a thorn, and goes around sticking people. And yes, that is rather like a fool who quotes proverbs AT people: lots of irritation, nobody gets blessed, a fight might start. This morning, though, I read that the thorn is sticking in the hand of the heavy drinker, (aka drunkard). This is something I know about, having been a drunkard as a young man. Over the course of some 20+ years of alcohol abuse, I’m sure I got thorns/splinters/fragments in my hand any number of times. “Beer and Building” was a thing for me back then, and ANYONE who works with lumber is going to get stuck.  However, while I have a dim recollec...

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, let us not conflate turkey with thankfulness. One who plans to do evil, People will call a schemer. Proverbs 24:8, NASB On first glance, this is sort of bland wisdom. That’s really not like most of the wisdom in Proverbs, which I have found to BITE. So, I went to multiple resources to get a good sense of this verse, starting with the verse in Hebrew, then Google translate, and THEN, I got into the heavy hitters. My first read:  “if you plot, people call you a plotter.” Even the footnote (I didn’t include it) didn’t add depth. The Hebrew for this verse is:  מְחַשֵּׁ֥ב לְהָרֵ֑עַ ל֝֗וֹ בַּֽעַל־מְזִמּ֥וֹת יִקְרָֽאוּ׃ and the English translation for that is a bit richer. Instead of ‘schemer,’ we get ‘master of conspiracies.’ Better, but we aren’t there yet, at least in my opinion. I wish I could give you a definitive source citation for the next answer, but, alas: TWO f...

 I don't want to tell you what kind of day I had, but it's 6:33 PM, and I'm just taking up the writing. That might give you a clue. Seems later because it's darker. "Gonna write your traditional blog today, Papa Pat?" Here's the deal, rather, one aspect of the deal: I don't want to write anything on the verse that comes up in the rotation for today. That verse is: Do not withhold discipline from a child; Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die. Proverbs 23:13, NASB I don't want to write about it, because some people abuse their kids. I will say this:  I think there are times when the best thing you can do for a child is paddle their behind. Ask any of my kids, and they can tell you that they got paddled.  I also think that if paddling their behind is your answer for EVERYTHING, then you are messed up. Ask somebody for help. You can even ask me; just not today.   Peace be on your household.