Forty years ago, Margie Hall’s family was on a fishing trip at Lake Red Rock near Pella, Iowa, when they decided to stop and refresh themselves at a little wayside chapel by the side of the highway.
There they discovered the Today devotional and have been “refreshed and renewed” by its messages ever since. Today is produced by ReFrame Media, the English outreach of Back to God Ministries International.
“At first, I read it like a book,” says Margie Hall, now 78 years old. “Then I started reading the Bible passages too.”
She often read the Today devotionals at bedtime, but then she would take it to work and read the messages while waiting for starting time. Now retired, she still continues the practice of morning Today devotions and prayers.
Hall and her siblings especially enjoyed the 1990 Christmas edition entitled “The People of Christmas.” She and three of her unmarried siblings lived together and began an annual tradition of taking turns reading the daily message of that issue every evening during the Christmas season.
After her brothers died, she and a sister, who lived farther away, kept up the tradition by reading the Christmas devotions over the phone, until her sister passed away.
Hall is the last of her siblings alive, but she still reads that 1990 issue during the Christmas season. “Last year I started with the introduction on November 30 and finished on December 29 with the devotional about Jesus talking.”
Hall adds, “I find the Today to be the most enlightening devotional I’ve ever read. I don’t know how my day would go without it.”
How about you? Perhaps you could start a tradition by reading this season’s Christmas issue together—or over the phone—with family or friends. Today devotionals are available in print or online at Today.
About the Author
Nancy Vander Meer is a staff writer with Back to God Ministries International in Grand Rapids, Mich.
