This post is part of the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge. Participants choose a category, in which to concentrate throughout the challenge and the host provides a daily writing prompt. My category is Devotional/Study and the prompt for today is BROKEN.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (NLT) 

Dad was a quiet and kind, a generous man with a certain inner strength about him. His last 20 years were fraught with illness. Dad was a recovering alcoholic. He went through detox and rehab at 58 years old and never looked back. This got him well enough to be treated for other health issues that often kept him in the hospital. Dad had a serious heart attack and bypass surgery, in the middle of cancer treatment. This was a rough time, but he recovered and beat the cancer. Then COPD eventually took his last breath. It was when we learned Dad had cancer that the Lord provided 2 Timothy 1:7 to keep me calm. Dad was always calm, and he never complained.

My dad was small in stature standing only 5”2” tall and 117 pounds (he was proud of that), but he was a giant in my eyes. He was kind and humble, he had a gentleness of spirit, always generous with his time in playing with us, teaching us, and volunteering to help a friend or in church activities. He was a hard worker, and he loved us.

While I was writing this, I realized that God illustrated the meaning this devotion’s guiding verse, 2 Timothy 1:7, through the life of my father. Maybe that is why it is so dear to me. By watching my father, I learned that we can face overwhelming life events with courage and strength, that even without money we can be generous, that in Christ we can control our actions and attitude, and that love endures.

It’s been 12 years now, and I still miss Dad, but I am grateful for how God used him. Yes, I am brokenhearted that he is not here to enjoy his grandchildren and their children, or to celebrate Mom’s 90th birthday, but I won’t complain.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the many ways you show us the meaning of your Word. Help us to see everything through your eyes and be grateful for the little things, even when big things happen. In Jesus name. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash