MAKING DECISIONS – DEVOTIONAL
Howdy Friends! They’d been in the barn a while. Grandpop and the lad. I could see that as soon as I walked in out of the rain, by the size of the hay bale stack on the flat bed wagon. It was a cinch. Rainy days like this one, it was a sure bet you’d find Grandpop, and whoever had come to visit, in the barn. It seemed the barn was a magnet on rainy days.
“Howdy son,” Grandpop called out, and leaned up against the wagon’s end. “Had enough of city for the week?” He chuckled.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe city had enough of me.” I answered. “Movin’ hay?”
Grandpop laughed a good one. “Don’t even take city smarts to figure that one out.” Then he latched onto another bale and tossed it up to the lad on the wagon. “The hay ain’t movin’ itself.” After a thought he added. “Of course, maybe if I had any smarts I’d figure a way for the hay to move itself.”
I grabbed a bale, thought about tossing it up to the boy on the wagon, but sat on it instead. I leaned back against the wall, sort of making a show about settling in.
“Son,” Grandpop said, “Meet, Hank.”
I nodded Hank’s way.
“My real name is Frederic. Your Grandpop calls me Hank.” He told me.
“Well by golly, don’t this young fella just look like a Hank?”
Grandpop beamed. So did the boy.
I jumped up, paced a time or two. Made a big deal about studying Hank’s appearance. “Thinkin’ it over, you two just might have something there, Hank.” After another thoughtful pause I told Grandpop, “Could be that old frayed hat of yours makes the difference.”
Hank let go a young lad’s spirited giggle. “Might be better if Grandpop told my mom, though.”
We all got a chuckle out of that one.
“That brings us right back around to what we were discussin’ when you strolled in, Son.”
“What was that?” I asked.
Grandpop settled into a sit of his own on the hay stack. He grabbed a stem and chewed, waiting for a horse to stop nickering. “It seems ol’ Hank here got himself in a patch a trouble at school the other day.”
I had to keep from grinning. “You did huh?” I asked wearing my most concerned look. “How’d you manage that?”
“I’m not real sure.” Hank said, wearing an honestly concerned look.
“We sorta covered a bit of that already. Didn’t we Hank?” Grandpop prodded.
“Yeah. But it seemed lik a good idea.” He paused. “At least it didn’t seem like a really bad idea.”
“What idea was that?” My interest peaked.
“Well, I was ….” Hank started.
Grandpop interrupted, “We got that ironed out already. But there is a lesson in the happenings.”
Grandpop got up, tossed another bale to Hank. “Sometimes ya gotta trust what the Lord is tellin’ ya in yer gut.”
I was about to jump in and explain how that could work when Grandpop finished.
“That’s the funny thing about decisions. You don’t have to talk yourself into the right ones.
We finished staking the hay together. The rain never quit.
~ Gitty Up, Dutch.
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Bible Verse – Isaiah 30:21 – “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”
Bible Verse – Proverbs 13:20 – “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”
Bible Verse – 1 Corinthians 15:33 – “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”
Bible Verse – Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Bible Verse – Psalms 32:8 – “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
Bible Verse – Psalms 37:5 – “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.”
Bible verse – Proverbs 12:15 – “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
Bible Verse – Proverbs 19:20 – “Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.”
Bible Verse – Matthew 12:36 – “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.”
Bible Verse – Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Bible Verse – Proverbs 10:9 – “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”
Bible Verse – 1 Corinthians 10:23 – “I have the right to do anything,” you say, but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything,” but not everything is constructive.”
Bible Verse – Psalms 119:71 – “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”
