Daily Power-up: Proverbs 31:28
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
Personal Reflection: Blessings of Grandmothers
From Jim:
My paternal grandmother, born in 1902 in far western Oklahoma, was the second oldest of 13 girls and 3 boys. I know very little about her parents, but I get a sense of their values from an unexpected source. I have an aged photo of one of my grandmother’s report cards. It’s from her 5th grade class. What’s so amazing to me is that my grandmother was attending a Seventh- Day Adventist church school. I don’t know what my great-grandparents did for income, and I don’t know how they paid for church school education. I don’t know if tuition was charged in the early 1900s. The fact that she was in a SDA school is impressive in itself. And I have to believe that the values received, and the truths taught left an impression on her mind. To the extent that, though she married a non-believer, she remained a believer until her death. My father and my aunt and uncles were all raised as SDA believers.
Sometime after my parents were married, it was my mother who (she incidentally was not raised SDA) encouraged my father that they should begin taking us kids to church, and that they needed to give up their partying and drinking. It was my mother, the used-to-be-non-SDA mom, who encouraged the raised-SDA father of the home to take his kids to church. My mother, as it turned out, was more the spiritual leader of our home than my father. She taught me and my siblings how to pray and the importance of morning and evening worship, even if it were but to read a few verses from her Bible. Those principles have served me well over the years. We have no choice of who our parents will be, and I was able to say to my mother (as well as to my father) “thank you for being the parents to me that you are. I have been blessed.” Thank you, Mom. I love you.
From Renae:
My maternal great-grandmother lived in Ketchum, Oklahoma. She and Grandpa Skinner lived on a farm and raised nine children, all in the Seventh-Day Adventist faith. We traveled there every summer from Wichita, Kansas for a large family reunion. Going to church on Sabbath with this large family was always very impressive and joyful to my young heart. After church, we gathered together for a wonderful potluck. At the close of Sabbath, we had sundown worship. The reunions were joyful and spiritual. I have been blessed being born into a SDA family who followed Jesus and the health principles. We were also told that my great-grandparents were acquainted with Mrs. White. My Grandma Skinner was the spiritual matriarch of the family.
My maternal grandmother (to be) was asked by my grandfather (to be) to go with him to see a movie. Being a polite SDA young lady, she countered with her own offer, “I’ll go to the movie with you if you’ll go to evangelistic meetings with me,” which is how it all started.
As a child, my grandfather had immigrated with his parents from Italy, was a staunch Catholic, and was not allowed access to a Bible. Each night after the evangelistic meetings he would go home and diligently study the Bible my grandmother gave him. Consequently, he became a staunch SDA, the only one out of his family. My grandmother Cossetta was very kind, loving and gentle. She traveled frequently from Kansas City, Missouri to babysit me and my brothers. My family visited them multiple times a year. Visiting in their home was always a special time, because they loved the Lord, loved music, and loved family. Grandma sang in a church trio. She was health-conscious, and in one respect ahead of today’s admonition to wash fruits and vegetables after bringing them home from the market.
When my grandmother was seven months pregnant with my mother, she accidentally fell down a flight of stairs resulting in onset of premature labor and birth. As a result of that fall, my mother was an only child. She was very beautiful and enjoyed a privileged childhood. At age 25 she married my father, and they raised four children. I was very blessed to have a mother who raised us in a spiritual atmosphere. Four aspects of my home stand out in my memory: the spiritual life (worship together each morning and evening, Sabbaths with family and friends); music (singing, piano and clarinet lessons); physical activities (tennis, racquet ball, water skiing, etc.); healthy lifestyle.
From both Jim and Renae:
Our mothers possessed a simple faith in God. They believed in God, believed in the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy, returned their tithes and offerings, and because they had tender hearts, went out of their way to ease someone’s burdens. They taught those values to us and to our siblings. They were the very first pictures of God we saw as we grew up. Mothers are like that, you know, and we believe God is a lot like our mothers. Like all mothers, He loves us more than we can imagine, He hates to punish us, but knows it’s for our own good and growth, and He would do anything good for us, even to save the child at the loss of His own life. Yes. Mothers and God. God and mothers. Hard to tell them apart.
Jim and Renae Vickroy
have been more than abundantly blessed through the women that God placed in their lives as the mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. Those women provided a rich heritage in which they now live their lives. And part of those results are the grandchildren of Jim and the children of Renae who are representatives of sixth-generation and fifth-generation Seventh-Day Adventists, respectively. Praise the Lord!
Bible in a Year: Psalms 3-4, 12-13, 28, 55
This Bible reading plan explores The Word based on the chronological order in which it was written, and is unrelated to the daily character devotions.
The Word of Promise audio Bible is used by permission. For more information and to purchase the complete audio Bible go to https://www.wordofpromiseapp.com/.
Psalm 3
The Lord Helps His Troubled People
A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.
1 Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
2 Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.” Selah
3 But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
4 I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah
5 I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Arise, O Lord;
Save me, O my God!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah
Psalm 4
The Safety of the Faithful
To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
2 How long, O you sons of men,
Will you turn my glory to shame?
How long will you love worthlessness
And seek falsehood? Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly;
The Lord will hear when I call to Him.
4 Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And put your trust in the Lord.
6 There are many who say,
“Who will show us any good?”
Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.
7 You have put gladness in my heart,
More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 12
Man’s Treachery and God’s Constancy
To the Chief Musician. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud things,
4 Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?”
5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord;
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”
6 The words of the Lord are pure words,
Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,
Purified seven times.
7 You shall keep them, O Lord,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
8 The wicked prowl on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Psalm 13
Trust in the Salvation of the Lord
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 28
Rejoicing in Answered Prayer
A Psalm of David.
1 To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock:
Do not be silent to me,
Lest, if You are silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications
When I cry to You,
When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
3 Do not take me away with the wicked
And with the workers of iniquity,
Who speak peace to their neighbors,
But evil is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds,
And according to the wickedness of their endeavors;
Give them according to the work of their hands;
Render to them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,
Nor the operation of His hands,
He shall destroy them
And not build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him.
8 The Lord is their strength,
And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
9 Save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance;
Shepherd them also,
And bear them up forever.
Psalm 55
Trust in God Concerning the Treachery of Friends
To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Contemplation of David.
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and hear me;
I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily,
3 Because of the voice of the enemy,
Because of the oppression of the wicked;
For they bring down trouble upon me,
And in wrath they hate me.
4 My heart is severely pained within me,
And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me,
And horror has overwhelmed me.
6 So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Indeed, I would wander far off,
And remain in the wilderness. Selah
8 I would hasten my escape
From the windy storm and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues,
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls;
Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.
11 Destruction is in its midst;
Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets.
12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;
Then I could bear it.
Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me;
Then I could hide from him.
13 But it was you, a man my equal,
My companion and my acquaintance.
14 We took sweet counsel together,
And walked to the house of God in the throng.
15 Let death seize them;
Let them go down alive into hell,
For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
16 As for me, I will call upon God,
And the Lord shall save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon
I will pray, and cry aloud,
And He shall hear my voice.
18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
For there were many against me.
19 God will hear, and afflict them,
Even He who abides from of old. Selah
Because they do not change,
Therefore they do not fear God.
20 He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him;
He has broken his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,
But war was in his heart;
His words were softer than oil,
Yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction;
Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;
But I will trust in You.