Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

I am constantly going up against newer is better. In some areas of our lives this might be true but where it really counts nothing beats old school. There is nothing as good for the soul as getting personally involved with spiritual development.

One of the biggest problems today with spiritual development is a lack of time spent together, one on one alone, in the Word. It takes time and dedication and it is greeted all too often with excuses. If you examine an excuse between father and son when it comes to face time, you will find it all comes down to putting something or someone first before the relationship. Fathers have been just as guilty with a vast array of responsibilities as excuses. Sons watch and model in many ways their father’s behavior, consciously or not. So let me put the responsibility to act on the fathers.

My father taught me how to fish and hunt and “fix” things. When it came down to spiritual matters I received nothing. We spent time watching baseball together, we spent zero time in the Word. So when it was my turn I had no foundation of experience to pass on to my children. By the time I got saved I already had children that had an established norm with Dad.

You might think they are still young and you have time and try as you might, a pattern has already begun that is hard to change. Resistance to change is normal. Except when it comes to spiritual matters there is something even more important going on that a man in his forties coming to Christ often is not aware of when he has changed and is changing his world.

When we are new in Christ at forty, we are babes in Christ, and babies cannot teach babies. We are not mature enough to teach our children what should have been done for us from an early age. The cycle can be broken, but it is too late for men like me. I have to leave the old school approach to the younger men, to my children, who are now Christian, with babies of their own.

I missed out and I am saddened by that, but there is nothing I can do to change that past. I can however speak to the need for young men and women to lay aside new ways, new ideas, get involved and go old school with the most important experience your children will ever have; one on one with you, in the Word.

Psalm 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

This is one of my favorite verses. I aspire to be satisfied with myself, but I am not there yet. How I got to this verse this morning was a bit of a surprise to me. The Lord led me to another verse in Psalm 17 in which I am trying to deal with some personal issues.

I ended yesterday’s devotional with the advice “Get over it and get on with it.” Then as always when I open my mouth I am caught in my own words. Take you own advice, Larry.

Verse 7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

I am my own worst enemy. I am so blessed by my Lord I can literally say I have no one who stands against me, no one who is or will do me any harm. Except me.

I am extremely self-critical. Not because I am doing wrong or going in the wrong direction, but because I have placed a high expectation upon myself because of who I was before Christ. I am as far removed from being that person as anyone could expect, except me. I cannot get far enough away from that old dead stinking corpse that was me without Christ.

I don’t fear him coming back. Not everything about him was purely bad, some things about that old man were a victim, not of his own doing. Nothing can be done about that. Get over it and get on with it.

Easier said than done. I am reading Psalm 17 and reading all these declarations being made by David and I say to myself, “Who can you do that?”

Because I am in Christ.