Bringing Joy to Our Heavenly Father

Monday Devotional

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

3 John 4

At an end-of-the-season sports banquet, my son and his teammates slipped out of the restaurant where we had been eating pizza and went next door to a video store to scope out some of the newest video games. About five minutes later, Graham returned to the restaurant, alone. We thought it odd that Graham came back early, all by himself, but didn’t say anything about it.

When we got home, we found out what had happened. After checking out the video games, one of the boys said, “Hey, let’s go look for dirty covers on the movies.” The rest of the team fell into line; Graham said no and slipped out of the store, on his own.

I felt my heart swell with affection for Graham when I heard the story. We had been having a series of lunches discussing a hundred-year-old book, J. C. Ryle’s Thoughts for Young Men, in which Ryle warns of a young man’s temptations. It so encouraged me to see Graham taking this teaching to heart. I felt far more proud of him for this than for his outstanding play in the championship game.