Texting Faith, Hope, and Love

By JoAnn Willoughby Hays

I started writing down favorite scriptures, quotes, and sayings in fifth or sixth grade. I taught children's Bible classes for 42 years and public school classes for 29 years and I always found a way to use many of the quotes and sayings in all my classes. I still get excited when I see a great quote in a book or magazine, or even on a T-shirt.

I have four grandchildren I adore, and I don't get to see them as often as I did when they were children, or during the pandemic. Cale is a graduate of Oklahoma Christian University and is busy with his career. Mackenzie will be a senior at the University of Oklahoma. Tate is a newlywed and is attending the Oklahoma State University's Fire Academy to become a firefighter, and our youngest, Danny, is a 6'4" basketball player who will be a junior at Edmond Memorial High School.

I found a quote a few years ago from the gymnast, Gabby Douglas. She said, "By now, you've probably caught on to something: my mother is always standing by with just the right scripture or inspirational saying to get me through any tough situation."

I was so blessed to have my grandchildren living in the same town when they were growing up and all four of them were in my sixth grade Sunday school class. I think all of us who are grandmothers want to be like Timothy's grandmother, Lois. I read Gabby's quote and realized how important that was to her. I can't stand by my grandchildren, but I thought I can text scriptures and quotes to them.

Also, Corrie ten Boom's book, The Hiding Place came out when my girls were babies. I read it during their nap times. I also watched as many of her interviews as I could. She and her family were Christians in Holland and hid hundreds of Jews being smuggled to safety in a secret hiding place in their combination home and watch and clock repair store. Her entire family was caught by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. They weren't allowed Bibles, so they taught people using the scriptures they had memorized. I heard her tell a story of finding a broken piece of pencil and writing scriptures down on little scraps of paper and giving them to people to give them hope. That inspired me to memorize more scriptures, so I could always have a Bible close to me.

I started texting scriptures and different quotes to my grandkids group once or twice a week. I prayed that this would keep them in the Word and remind them their words and actions need to glorify God.

One night I needed to send a new text and it took me about thirty minutes to write one and send it. I remember thinking I wish I could go online or go to Mardel's store to find a book that had the type of devotionals I wanted.

My next thought was why don't I write one. I'm retired and I already have over thirty devotionals finished. I could just add about a hundred more and I would have a book of devotionals. I said a prayer and started compiling my devotion "lesson plan" book the next day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886444988

Book preview

Table of Contents

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Preface

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About the Author

cover.jpg

Texting Faith, Hope, and Love

JoAnn Willoughby Hays

ISBN 979-8-88644-497-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-498-8 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 JoAnn Willoughby Hays

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Preface

I started writing down favorite scriptures, quotes, and sayings in fifth or sixth grade. I still get excited when I see a great quote in a book, or magazine, or even on a T-shirt. Of course, the internet has made it even easier to find new quotes.

During the pandemic I was like all grandparents. I missed my grandchildren. We were told our age made us the most vulnerable in catching Covid-19, so we had to be extra careful. I was a very spoiled grandmother. We lived in the same town as our grandchildren, we were able to be at the hospital when they were born, they sat on our laps during church services, and eventually they each made it to my sixth grade Sunday school class. We also attended most of their school performances, recitals and athletic events. Now, our lives were very different and I wanted a way to stay close to them.

About that time, I found a quote from the gymnast, Abby Douglas. She said, By now, you probably caught on to something: my mother is always standing by with just the right scripture or inspirational saying to get me through any tough situation.

That quote really meant something to me because I had notebooks full of favorite scriptures, quotes, and sayings I had collected and this would be another way to start using them. Other than having my favorite scripture monogrammed on a special blanket for each of them I don't think I had ever really thought about ways to use them with the grandkids outside of Bible study and memorization and verbally sharing quotes with them that I thought they would enjoy.

When my daughters were toddlers, I read Corrie ten Boom's book, The Hiding Place, and that book and watching several of her interviews on television convinced me of the importance of memorizing scriptures so I would always have the Bible with me. Even though Corrie and her family were Christians, they were arrested and put in a concentration camp for hiding Jews in a secret place in their combination home and clock and watch repair shop and helping them escape. When they were entering the concentration camp all personal items including Bibles were taken away. The Bibles were examined for hidden money and valuables and then they were destroyed. Corrie and her sister used the scriptures they had memorized to give hope and encouragement to the other prisoners as well as to themselves.

I am very technologically challenged, so one of my daughters set up a grandchildren group on my iPhone so I could text them a scripture and a quote or two all at the same time. I prayed that this would keep them in the Word and remind them their words and actions always needed to glorify God. Now I also text them birthday reminders and family news. They respond with a message, or a simple emoji to let me know they read the scripture or message.

It didn't take me very long to realize this was going to be a bigger project than I realized. Finding the scriptures I wanted to use was easy, but matching them up with a few quotes was proving to be very difficult. One evening while looking for some good quotes in my notebooks, I wished I had been a lot more organized in writing them down. I thought surely I could find a devotional that would help me by searching online. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find anything similar to what I wanted. Finally, it occurred to me that I was retired and I couldn't go anywhere, so I needed to get busy and compile the devotional I wanted. I thought if it were published it could be used by others to text their children and grandchildren, as an individual devotional, a discussion warm-up, in journals, in prison ministries, in homeless shelters, and to add personal notes to