The Top Ten from “Excellent or Praiseworthy”

Excellent or Praiseworthy is posted on Monday and Thursday nights.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about these things.—Philippians 4:8

Given that celebrations of God’s goodness are biblical, it seems appropriate to pause and celebrate God’s goodness reflected in His gift of our online devotional, Excellent or Praiseworthy (based on Philippians 4:8), which we began on September 11, 2007. This year was our fifth anniversary . . . 516 devotions read over 140,000 times in 177 countries around the world—and once referred to in a comment as “the spiritual glue which held our marriage together during deployment”. This is the whole purpose—for a couple to read the postings and “discuss” them in order to connect at a deeper level than only sharing the happenings of the day, as significant as those are.

To celebrate, we decided to share with you the “Top Ten Devotions” from Excellent or Praiseworthy. There’s nothing scientific about this selection—just postings which we know have been favorites. Just click on the titles and you can read or re-read some of these lessons:

1. “The Deployment Dare”—With the publisher’s permission, I took The Love Dare, the book from the movie Fireproof, and wrote a dare for each of the forty days to be accomplished during deployment. All forty days remain posted on the sidebar to the right on excellentorpraiseworthy.org and are the #1 favorite topic searched for on the blog.

2. “The Wedding Prayer”—The story of this posting is a story about my Mother, and the prayer she gave couples as a wedding present. We hear from couples and pastors telling us this prayer was also used at their weddings.

3. “People Are Watching You”—The military is a unique people group demonstrating character and noble sacrifice in many ways. This writing contains 15 ways in which people look up to our military and their families.

4. “These Two Things I Know”—Our favorite of the four categories of postings is “Lessons from History.” Based on Psalm 62:11,12, this devotion is about the writer of the song “Jesus Loves Me”, who is buried at West Point cemetery.

5. “Danger—Infatuation!”—We have many postings regarding marriage. This one is about emotional affairs and their particular danger during deployments.

6. “Beautiful Lessons in a Bad Day”—Bekah Lawing, an Army wife, wrote this entry. We have a total of 32 authors for Excellent or Praiseworthy, most of them contributing once or twice. Bekah’s story was so popular it is in the book Battlefields & Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Home Front.

7. “Mother’s Day Perspective”—I wrote this the day our son Jeff left for Afghanistan to fly combat missions in the F16. In seeking encouragement from the Lord, I also sought to encourage other mothers who are seeing their children go off to war.

8. “A Father’s Charge”—Legacy is the theme of this posting, from the wedding of a young couple from our church. The bride’s father gave this charge to the couple at their reception, and we will never forget it.

9. “The ABC’s of Long Distance Parenting”—Staying connected to the family back home remains an important topic for Excellent or Praiseworthy, especially if there are children.

10. “What Would It Look Like?”—Denise McColl’s great book, Footsteps of the Faithful: Victorious Living and the Military Life, is a favorite of mine. Denise passed away in 2008, and this posting is a tribute to her and to her family.

Questions to Share:

1.  How has communicating beyond the fact (what happened today?) level and into the emotional (how do you feel?) level helped you in connecting during deployment?

2. How has sharing what God is teaching you from Scripture or devotional readings helped you to stay connected during deployment?