About Me

Hello. My name is Elaine Guthals. Thank you for checking out my blog site.

I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church in Illinois. I professed faith in my Lord and Savior when I was young. When I first went forward and was baptized, I didn’t go forward for the right reasons. Later, when I was older, I did, which meant I was rebaptized.

When I finished college and moved away, I became a member of a larger Southern Baptist church. I have also been a member of a United Methodist church for a few years. For almost 30 years, I have been attending what I would call a medium-sized Southern Baptist church before going back to a small church.

I have taught Bible Study classes on Sunday morning, usually older adults. I did teach a children’s class when I was younger.

I have been a member of the Praise Team and provided some offertory pieces on my flute. In the past, I have been assistant song leader, song leader, music director and children’s choir director.

I have even been involved in women’s missions and VBS director and teacher. I was also co-director of the Children’s Ministry.

For my day job, I retired from education after 34 years. No, I didn’t teach. (Well, I taught the faculty how to do institutional processes.)

I took a while to adjust to retirement and then asked God what He wanted me to do next with my life.

God’s answer was this blog. I have been writing devotions since the early- to mid-80s. I began writing these devotions as a way for God to talk to me. He kept talking, and I kept writing. Writing has always been enjoyable to me. I hope that He uses what I have written to talk to you, also.

So, I have been a single person, a daughter, a young person, an employee, a student, a wife, a mother, a business owner, a divorcee, a middle-aged person, a graduate student, and now a retired person, blogger, and pastor’s wife while I was writing these.

Hopefully, you see yourself somewhere in that list. Through it all, I have been seeking God’s direction and purpose in my life, listening for whatever He had to tell me. Hopefully, He can give you some direction and purpose through the words here.

I used these devotions one time when I became the Editor of our Singles newsletter at church. They were my Editorial. Other than that, I may have shown them only to a few people before putting them out here.

It excites me and scares me to put these devotions out on a blog. I know nothing about how to do this, but I feel God wants me to put them out here so that you could find them. Elaine Guthals Ministries was founded in 2018 to facilitate the business aspects of the blog. Seeking God with Elaine was launched February 1, 2019.

I am still mom to Adam, even though he is an adult. I tell him that I will always be his mom and have mom responsibilities even if he is 75. He loves me and humors me.

I heard this quote once as part of an acceptance speech. I really liked it and would like to share it with you. The purpose God has given me is a mighty one — the purpose of supporting His family. It is my privilege to serve you whenever I can.

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

George Bernard Shaw