Focus

Prepare yourself to discern what is and what is not of God today. Still yourself so you can hear how God is calling you.

Read

Psalm 90:12 17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.
Turn, O LORD! How long?
Have compassion on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us,
and as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be manifest to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands—
O prosper the work of our hands!

Reflect

For most of my daughter’s college years, we lived in an Orlando, Florida, suburb. Since we had moved to Florida from Tennessee right after her high school graduation, she did not have many connections to help her find a summer job, but she persevered. As an aspiring landscape architect, she applied to several local firms; but there were no openings for interns or temps. One business, however, referred her to a wholesale nursery a few miles from our home—Gateway Gardens.

She promptly applied and was hired to work in the fields, setting out seedlings. There she was, a fair-skinned redhead, fresh from the classroom, working all day in the Central Florida summer heat. She sometimes struggled, but she never complained, and she gained life-changing wisdom, experience, and self confidence—both from the job that she was expected to do and from her interaction with her co-workers. Her modest paycheck was just a small part of the many benefits she gained from those days of dirt, sweat, and exhaustion.

The girl who sweated in the sun at Gateway Gardens has become a woman of worth and character, respected in her profession and much loved by her family and friends. God, who surely led her to this experience, helped her to truly “gain a wise heart” and has graciously prospered the work of her hands.

Pray

Gracious God, we know that you are with us wherever and however we labor. Remind us that, whatever you call us to do, we can bring honor and glory to you in the way we carry out our tasks. Amen

Go with God!