by Alec Niemi
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My father was raised in a “Churched” family and my mother was not. She knew nothing about spiritual things until late in life. It wasn’t until after Dad had passed away that we found out about his spiritual life. He had been very involved in the church. Because he could read and write Finn as well as English he did a lot of translating for the church and even wrote articles for their church magazine. Yet the only spiritual leadership my father gave was in allowing us the freedom to go to Church or Sunday School but there was never any mention of God in our house.
Uncle Ike, Dad’s brother, showed us several of the articles that Dad had written and went on to say that Dad had been very much involved until he went into the army. For whatever reason this changed him and he turned his back on the Church.
Mom never gave any instruction because she had none to give. But I remember Aunt Jessie, Dad’s sister, writing letters every once in awhile that would include some encouraging words from the Bible. Mom would tell Dad, “It’s from your religious sister!!” He would just say, “Uh.” But Mom would read them and she would let us read them too if we wanted to. I would read them and always found them to be comforting. Although I wouldn’t tell anyone else that. They might call me a ‘religious nut’ too!
And I wonder how many people are the same way. If there was no spiritual instruction in the home where would the spiritual teaching come from? How do we react to ‘religious nuts’. Are we being ‘nutty‘ enough to give comfort to those around us? As a pastor I am always meeting people needing comfort. As a Christian, I know that the only real comfort comes through knowing Jesus. He is the one that calms the raging storms that come in our lives. It is through our faith in Him that we find true comfort.
My Prayer for you this week:
“Lord I pray that you would rebuke the wind and the raging waters; that the storms will subside, and all will be calm. Give us faith. Amen”
Luke 8:24 & 25
Have a great week!
You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/01/12/an_giving-comfort/