February 23

      "As Jesus worked in childhood and youth, mind and body were developed. He did not use His physical powers recklessly, but in such a way as to keep them in health, that He might do the best work in every line. He was not willing to be defective, even in the handling of tools. He was perfect as a workman, as He was perfect in character. By His own example He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be performed with exactness and thoroughness, and that such labour is honourable."

                   Desire of Ages, page 72 from the chapter, 'As a child'

     I was reading about Austin James who runs the family building business with his brother Kyle in an article in ‘the Messenger’ on page 8 and 9. In the article James says that, “The aim of our business is to give an excellent service to our customers.” You don’t deliver excellent service by accident. Excellent service develops with experience and training.

     In Kyle and James’ case that means they learned from their father.

Jesus, the prophet and future King, learned industriousness, exactness and thoroughness from his dad, the carpenter and from his mother, the homemaker.

     Now, could you develop a strategy in your family to develop those same qualities in your children?

     Of course, you could say, “but I have no children.” So why not begin to plan now what you need in your life to set the pattern for your unborn children?

 

     Housekeeping details for you

     The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.

     A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here