Guest Post: “Keep Your Eyes on Jesus” by Hopie
Today, I’m thankful to share my blog with my 11 year old, Hope.
She came to me last night with something she’d written. She zapped it to me via google drive because kids are tech savvy like that now-a-days.
I’ve always kept a journal and my kids are “writers”, too.
I still cringe when I read some of the shallow things I recorded in high school journals, but it’s a reminder of where I’ve been and how the grace of God has changed me.
Donald Whitney, in his extremely helpful book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life says,
“The simple discipline of recording the events of the day and noting my reactions to them causes me to examine myself much more thoroughly than I would otherwise.”
and
“Edmund S. Morgan cites an entry from the journal of a godly young man during an illness from which he dies in the late 1600s. In it the young man evaluates whether he had shown sufficient love to others. Then says Morgan,
“The fact that many Puritans kept diaries of this kind helps to explain their pursuit of social virtue: diaries were the reckoning books in which they checked the assets and liabilities of their souls in faith. When they opened these books, they set down lapses of morality with appropriate expressions of repentance and balanced them against the evidences of faith.”
I’ve personally benefitted from reading the journals of long-ago Christians like Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry and others.
Not only does journaling help you solidify what you are learning, it reminds you of all of the former blessings of God. I love paging through to recount His watch care in our life, His provision and leading, and the many, many answers to prayer that we’ve had as a family. I’m glad that I wrote it down because sometimes we forget!
And I wholeheartedly agree with Augustine who said, “I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.”
So, without further ado, here’s a devotional thought from Hopie:
Enjoyed reading your post! Thanks for the reminder. Keep writing and following Jesus! Maybe in a few years I will be subscribing to your encouraging blog just like your Mom’s!
Great thought, Hopie!!! It is so easy to fall by the wayside! That is why we always have to have our eyes on Jesus! Thank you for the reminder! Feel better sweetie!
You are a wise young lady for your 11 years, Hopie. Thank you for allowing Mom to share your thoughts with us. Papa George and I are proud of you and love you so much!
Great job, Hope! I look forward to reading more from you!
Amen!
Thank you!
Great devotional thought Hopie! Keep your eyes on Jesus 🙂
Thank you!
Hopie! So wonderful! Great job! <3
Thanks, Emmy.
That’s one of the best Hebrews 12:1-2 sermons I’ve ever read, Hope. “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Keep your eye on Jesus and the sin falls to the side.
Great job!
Tim
Thank you, Mr. Tim.