In this book, Devotionals with Laura, we carefully examine how her favored Bible passages might have helped her at certain times in her life. If you are reading this book, we will make two assumptions. First, we will assume that you are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books. (Little House is a registered trademark of Harper Collins Publishers.) Second, we assume that you are familiar with the Bible. (Bible is a public domain collection of books, written by God, available for use by anyone.)

Many people, including our family, first became aware of the Little House books from watching the Little House on the Prairie television series. That show was related to Laura’s books in the title of the show and names of characters and places, but that’s all. There is almost no correlation between those stories and Laura’s stories.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote eight books; nine, if we include the First Four Years, an unfinished manuscript which was found after her death, but was not a finished book. Those books basically tell the story of her life until she was about twenty-two years old. One book, Farmer Boy, tells the story of her husband Almanzo’s boyhood. There are some variances between her actual life history and the stories, but for the most part those books are her early life, covering the period from about 1868 until 1888.

They are much more than just historical novels, though. They are works of art. Open any one of her eight books at any place, begin reading, and you will then find it hard to stop. People just love her books. I do. You do. After World War II, when the Germans and Japanese had fought so bitterly against us, the US government had Laura’s Little House books translated into German and Japanese, because the books gave such a favorable impression of America. The Germans and Japanese have been our allies ever since!

Pa Ingalls moved his family many times, even more than is recorded in the Little House books. That certainly makes for interesting reading, going from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to South Dakota, but actually living through all those moves might have been a little trying. Finally they stopped moving at De Smet, Dakota Territory, which became South Dakota. There Laura married Almanzo Wilder, whom she called Manly. He had two 160 acre homestead claims when they got married, but due to drought and other misfortune was not able to hold on to either of them. He and Laura both became seriously ill with diphtheria, which permanently affected Manly.

He and another young man had risked driving far out on the prairie during the long, hard winter of 1880-81 to find wheat for the starving town of De Smet, but after his illness, Manly had no tolerance whatever for cold weather. For a while after his illness, Laura and Manly lived with his parents in Minnesota, where they had moved from New York. Then Manly and Laura moved to Florida for about a year. She didn’t like the heat and humidity there any better than he liked the cold up north, so they moved back to De Smet.

In 1894 they learned of some railroad advertising billing the Missouri Ozarks as The Land of the Big Red Apple. The railroad had recently come through the area and wanted farmers to grow crops to ship on their new line. Southern Missouri is a lot warmer than South Dakota and not as sultry as Florida, so the Wilders moved there by covered wagon in 1894.

They fit.

They bought forty acres near Mansfield, Missouri, named it Rocky Ridge, and never gave it up. Their life there was far from easy, but they loved it. Their white clapboard, rambling farmhouse is still there, and is now a part of a museum. Thousands of Little House readers tour it every year.

Their only living child, daughter Rose Wilder Lane, became a nationally known writer early in the twentieth century. In 1911 Laura began to write articles for a farm magazine, the Missouri Ruralist. She did that up until the mid 1920’s. Her first book was published in 1932, when she was 65 years old. Her last book was published in 1943, when she was 76. All her books were immediately popular.

Manly died in 1949 at the age of 92. Laura followed in 1957, at the age of 90. She has been gone for better than half a century, and it has been longer than that since her books first appeared, during the Great Depression and the Second World War. They are still extremely well liked, very widely read, and have become classics in American literature.

In the house at Rocky Ridge is a rocker where Laura rested and read. After her death, Laura’s small Bible was found by the rocker. Inside that Bible were some handwritten notes, listing Laura’s favorite Bible selections. Here is what they said.

In facing a crisis read 46 Psalm
When discouraged 23 & 24
Lonely or fearful 27
Planning budget St. Luke chapter 19
To live successfully with others read Romans chapter 12
Sick or in pain read 91 Psalm
When you travel carry with you 121 Psalm
When very weary read Matthew 11:28 & 30 and Romans 8:31 to 39
When things are going from bad to worse 2 Timothy 3d
When friends go back on you hold to I Corinthians 13th
For inward peace the 14th chapter of St. John
To avoid misfortune Matthew 7:24 to 27
For record for what trust in God can do Hebrews 11
If you are having to put up a fight -- the end of Ephesians
When you have sinned read I John 3:1 to 21
And make Psalm 51 your prayer.

Those eighteen sections of the Bible were marked by Laura as being especially valuable. The fact that she did that tells us a lot about her.

What does it tell us?

It tells us that she loved the Bible and placed great value in its teachings. When she marked these eighteen passages, she did not do it for someone else’s eyes. These selections were solely for her benefit, for her life and her spiritual needs. At times of distress, despair, or determination, she turned to the Bible, to these passages.

We also know that she knew the Bible well. Her selections are not just from the Psalms or the Gospels, as a Bible dabbler might choose. They go from the middle of the Old Testament all the way to the book of Hebrews, near the end of the New Testament. Laura’s magazine articles were sometimes outright Bible lessons, quoting a verse right in the middle of the article. Those verses were not just “love thy neighbor” type verses, with very familiar texts. In fact, in one article she quoted from the book of Lamentations. How many sermons have you heard which quoted from Lamentations? Not many, I am sure.

To belabor the point, here are some examples of Bible verses that Laura included in her farm life articles. Take a moment to glance over these verses, King James Version.

Gen 1:26-28

(26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

(28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Exo 20:7

(7) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Psa 119:89-96

(89) For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

(90) Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.

(91) They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.

(92) Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

(93) I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

(94) I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.

(95) The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.

(96) I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.

Pro 31:25-30

(25) Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

(26) She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

(27) She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

(28) Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

(29) Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

(30) Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

Ecc 3:1-13

(1) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

(2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

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Devotionals with Laura

Laura Ingalls’ Favorite Bible Selections
What They Meant in Her Life
What They Might Mean in Yours

By Dan L. White

The author and his wife Margie and five children settled in the Ozarks some years ago on a forty acre farmstead about twelve miles up the road from Laura’s Rocky Ridge Farm.

Published by Ashley Preston Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2008 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Cover by Carrie A. White

Little House is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Smashwords Version 1, March 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4580-4154-8
Soft cover ISBN-978-1441432612

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Other books by Dan L. White include:

Laura Ingalls’ Friends Remember Her: Memories from Laura’s Ozarks Home

Laura’s Love Story: The Lifetime Love of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Most Inspiring Writings

with notes and settings by Dan L. White

The Long, Hard Winter of 1880-81: What was it Really Like?

Big Bible Lessons from Laura Ingalls’ Little Books

Homeschool Happenings, Happenstance, and Happiness:

A Light Look at Homeschool Life

Daring to Love Like God: Marriage as a Spiritual Union

The Jubilee Principle: God’s Plan for Economic Freedom

Table of Contents

Prologue