Introduction

It’s very simple. I work nights. Our family devotionals work best at night right before bedtime. Therefore, I couldn’t be there for our family’s nightly time with God. So what could I do? Allow me to give a little background information.

As a teenager, I had a dream. I wanted to work in the health profession. I decided to start college pre-med. It didn’t go exactly as planned. My freshman Biology course got the better of me. I still had the dream, but not the drive. The summer after my freshman year, I was asked to teach a 4th grade class at our church. I was very hesitant but complied. I quickly fell in love with teaching and decided to make it my career. It was my life for 16 years. I taught mainly 6th grade History and loved it. However, I still had that dream in the back of my mind. I still had the itch to do something health care related. I finally decided to go for it. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I left the classroom as a teacher and went back to the classroom as a student. I was going to make a drastic life change.

Who knew I would be starting over in my 40’s and following a dream as I began a new career as a paramedic? I sure didn’t, but there I was, starting a new job and beginning a new chapter in my life. I absolutely loved it. The only downside is that the new job required that I work some nights shifts, so I would at times miss our bedtime routine which includes family devotionals. I hated that. I really wanted to be there as our family helped each other grow closer to God, but how could I possibly do both? I thought about this a lot and decided to write a series of brief devotionals that my family could read on the nights I was away. As I finished each one, I emailed them to my wonderful wife to share. She read and discussed them with our boys. She also came up with the idea to email me any feedback they had. I so looked forward to hearing back from them each time, and I cherished those return emails.

As I began writing, I knew I needed a main topic. I needed something I could center all of the devotionals around. It didn’t take long for me to come up with that. As a kid, I went to Disney World maybe three times. I enjoyed it of course, but never really knew the place. My parents’ preference was to travel to many different places which I also enjoyed. When I found my incredible future wife, I had no idea she had an addiction. I didn’t really discover it until we were married, and after that there was no going back. She influenced me to be an addict as well. Now I’m completely hooked. She and her family went to Disney World every single year growing up. She knew Disney. She was a fanatic, and she graciously turned me into one as well. I didn’t really know Disney at all until I met her. Now, it’s my absolute happy place. There is nowhere on Earth I’d rather be than at Walt Disney World. Of course, I’d settle for Disneyland if I had to. In our 18 years of marriage, we have now been to one of the two nearly 30 times together and have taken our two wonderful sons on most of those trips. We are turning them into Disney addicts whether they like it or not. I say all that to say that when I needed a topic for the devotionals I would send, it was quite obvious.

So that’s the story. Now you know the background of how these 100 Disney devotionals came to be. I humbly present them to you and hope you will read them, think on them and consider them. I hope you will read the Bible passages presented. You will probably not agree with everything I say, but that’s absolutely ok. I welcome your feedback, comments and questions. Please know that if you are reading this book, you have already been prayed for by me and my family. I am so grateful to Theme Park Press for publishing this book. I honestly don’t care about profiting from it. I simply wanted an avenue so I could share these thoughts with as many as possible. If you don’t read one more word in this book, please read John 3:16 in the Bible. I can’t say it any better than that. I promise you God is real. Heaven is real. No matter where you are in life, you can get there. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sinner. I’m definitely a sinner, but I’m planning to be there. I’m trying hard to help my family get there. I want you there, and I will help you in any way I can. May God bless you all!