The Upper Room Devotional 25 March 2026, Wednesday Message
More to the Story
Kimberly Butnick (Wisconsin, USA)
Today’s Reading
Ruth 4:1-17
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The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. . . . He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.” – Ruth 4:14-15 (NIV)
After 25 years of teaching high school English, I was retiring. In the past three years I had experienced verbal and emotional abuse, and though I wanted to continue teaching, my mental health couldn’t handle it. A career I had worked hard for and loved with my whole being was now causing tears, anxiety, and doubt. I was leaving behind students who needed me, and I worried that I had let God down. Like Naomi in the book of Ruth, I was ready to give up and simply live out my life to the end in a simple fashion.
But God had something new waiting for me in my part-time work at the local library. When the library wanted to start an adult writing group, I took on the challenge — glad for something to do. In guiding the writing group and writing my own teaching memoirs, I have found my voice again. I now have a growing writers’ group that both relies on and encourages me.
My health became better within six months of retiring, and I am happy again. When I thought I was useless and broken, God placed me where I was supposed to be. Now I know how Naomi must have felt, thinking her life was over and then holding her grandson, Obed, in her arms. Even then the story wasn’t done, and neither is mine.
Thought for the Day
God can make a way where there seems to be no way.
Prayer Focus
Teachers
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March 2026 Wednesday Study Questions
More from Kimberly Butnick
Today’s Prayer
Dear God, when we feel there is no other way, help us to trust you. Help us to be open to the new paths you lay before us, and guide us as we take the next step. Amen.
The Upper Room Devotional 25 March 2026 is a daily devotional magazine published in more than 30 languages and 100 countries around the world. The daily meditations are written by readers of the magazine and others interested in sharing their faith experiences through writing—both laity and clergy, published authors and new writers. Read More
