A Humble Thanksgiving - All Our Daily Bread Daily Devotionals for 2025

Bible in a Year : Ezekiel 30-32, 1 Peter 4

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6

Today's Scripture & Insight : Proverbs 22:1-6

One Thanksgiving I called home to greet my parents. As we talked, I asked my mom what she was most grateful for. She exclaimed that she was most grateful that “all three of my children know how to call on the name of the Lord.” For my mother, who’d always emphasized the importance of education, there was something more valuable than her children doing well in school and taking care of themselves.

Her sentiments remind me of Proverbs 22:6: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” While this isn’t a promise but more a wise principle, and many children do wander from God for at least a season of life, she and my father had strived to raise us to humbly, reverently love God (v. 4)—primarily through example. Now, by His grace, they were able to see us grow older and benefit from a personal relationship with Him. As verse 2 says, God is “the Maker of . . . all.” And although some children will respond to loving instruction in Christ, others might take longer perhaps to hear His voice. For those precious children, we continue to pray and rest in God’s timing.

Mom’s humble thanksgiving points to what’s most important in life. Reverently loving God yields spiritual riches for this life and beyond (v. 4). And while we can’t control what children will choose to do, we can rest in the hope that God will lovingly continue to work in their hearts.

By: Katara Patton

Reflect & Pray
How have you been shown the love of God? How do you reverently love Him?

Dear God, please help me to love and disciple others well.