Job 19:15

My slave girls count me a stranger,

   I have become an alien in their eyes.

 

‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’ 1 Cor 15:33. When I read this, I knew God was speaking to me as I struggle with my habit development. I do not really keep evil company, but I can see how others impact me implementing my routine. Mostly my problem is pride. But even cleaning up for the maid to come messed up my routine this morning.

‘Slave girls’ was also ‘serving girls’, ‘maid servants’, ‘maids’, and ‘house girls’. ‘Count’ was also ‘regard’, ‘take’, and ‘reckon’.

‘Alien’ was also ‘outsider’.

I have several business opportunities before me. I have been scrambling on several to try and figure the best path forward. One route ends up with my owning four companies. Another gets me down from two to one. The one feels easiest, but I am not sure it is the best, especially for others.

One of these routes puts a fair amount of cash at risk. As my primary goal with cash is to be a good steward of God’s resources, I struggle with risk taking. Christ tells us not to be the guy who buries the money, but the one who reinvests it and uses it to make more. But He does not tell us in text how to decide which risks are worth taking. I am praying for a clear sign.

One of the things that happens with baseball cards is that people who have collected for years decide not to continue, and they dump all their cards on the market. I have collected Mark Appel cards since he was drafted by Houston, and he had a bunch of cards released before his struggles got overwhelming. Someone recently decide to dump their Appel collection, and I was able to ‘win’ a few I did not have on ebay. One was rare (#/5), autographed, and graded (9.5) and the price went well beyond what it should have. And then the seller sent it to someone else and sent me the cheap card that someone else won. It will be interesting how long it takes to get the right card, if ever. (Update: I never got it and won’t as the person who won the cheap card chose to keep mine anyway.)

All this to say that being in a hurry is not the preferred path. God asks me to pray to Him and then wait for an answer. When I pray and then do it myself, I often get the wrong answer. Often as in every time. For this string of opportunities, I made a quick decision, and it was probably the wrong one. My goal is to learn from that and make the rest of the decisions only after God has made the path obvious.

Not that my kids are slaves, but I believe that each of them knows who I am based on my past actions. They know I only want the right thing to be done and know I am disappointed when they do not, or when I do not, or whoever does not. They know I do not want to waste money, except when I do. My goal is to not become a stranger in their eyes, something alien to who I have been. I pray (beg) that I do not become unable to function and unable to remember their names and admit those issues scare me more than anything. Job was so blessed to be able to think and argue before God. Makes me wonder how much he thought about that during his suffering.

Written 11/5/25, Posted 1/9/26, Job 415/~1070