Devotional

Who’s Teaching You?

Who is your favorite Christian life teacher?

Great spiritual teaching today comes in many forms, including from a pastor, teacher or podcaster. Yet, we should remember that both Jesus and Paul told us that Holy Spirt is to be our primary teacher.

What has Holy Spirit taught you recently?

Sounds like an odd question yet it's one we should consider often. Firstly, here is what Jesus told us on this point:

That's as clear a statement as ever. Not only did Jesus promise Holy Spirit will be our teacher, but He promised He would teach us ‘all things.’ In the original Greek, the word ‘panta’ is used here to encompass any and everything. So what would you like to learn today? Instead of searching using your favorite AI tool, ask Holy Spirit. Get a divine lesson that is personalized and inspired from above.

Paul later reminds us of Holy Spirit as our teacher in his letter to the Corinthian church:

How often do we find ourselves in life situations where we can’t make earthly sense of what is going on and ask, why is this happening? Or when needing instruction in life we ask, what is the best approach? Rather than seeking the advice from a loved one, friend, or online, let’s ask these questions of our divine personal teacher: “Holy Spirit, please teach me what I am to learn, do, or say in this situation.”

Health Nuggets

The Low Fat Movement did not Make us Healthier, but Sicker

When fat was removed from processed food, it was replaced with sugar and refined carbohydrates which has led to a lot of health issues which we have previously discussed in articles like this one: Processed Foods.

Fat is the direct precursor to every steroid hormone in your body including testosterone, estrogen, and cortisol.

Chronically low-fat diets suppress testosterone in men and disrupt menstrual cycles in women.

Best foods for testosterone support:

• Oysters (highest zinc of any food - zinc is the primary mineral in testosterone synthesis)

• Grass-fed beef (zinc, saturated fat, and cholesterol as direct hormone precursors)

• Eggs with the yolk (cholesterol, vit. D, and selenium support steroidogenesis)

• Pomegranate (shown to raise testosterone by up to 24% in one clinical study)

• Brazil nuts (selenium is essential for Leydig cell function where testosterone is made)

• Cruciferous vegetables (DIM reduces estrogen dominance that suppresses testosterone)

Fat was never the problem - what replaced it was.

Note: Health Nuggets are opinions and not medical advice.

Financial Update

The $625 Billion Water Problem, and the Companies Helping Fix It

When we think about the word “infrastructure”, highways, bridges, airports, and power lines usually come to mind. But one of the country's largest infrastructure challenges is largely invisible, buried beneath our streets.

Thousands of water systems move drinking water through pipes, pumps, valves, treatment facilities, and storage tanks every day. Much of that infrastructure is aging, creating what could become a decades-long replacement and modernization cycle.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. drinking-water systems will require approximately $625 billion in infrastructure investment over 20 years. Roughly $423 billion, more than two-thirds of the total, is needed for distribution and transmission, including replacing or rehabilitating aging pipelines.

The problem isn't simply expanding water systems. It's maintaining what America already has. Previous research from the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated approximately 300,000 water-main breaks occur annually, or roughly one every two minutes. When pipes leak, utilities aren't just losing water, they're losing water that has already been treated, pumped, and pressurized.

Increasingly, however, the solution isn't limited to digging up old pipes.

Utilities are adopting smart meters, pressure sensors, acoustic leak detection, connected valves, and monitoring software that can identify unusual water usage or pressure changes before small problems become major failures. This creates an investment opportunity spanning both traditional infrastructure and technology.

The growth is already visible. Badger Meter, which specializes in smart water measurement and monitoring, generated $916.7 million in 2025 sales, up nearly 11%, while its utility-water business grew 12.5%. Xylem's Measurement and Control Solutions segment, which includes smart metering and monitoring technologies, generated approximately $2.1 billion in 2025 revenue, up 11.5%.

Key Takeaway

Investors looking for exposure can research companies such as Xylem (XYL), which operates across pumps, treatment, smart metering, and monitoring; Badger Meter (BMI) for smart water measurement; and Mueller Water Products (MWA) for valves, hydrants, leak detection, and distribution infrastructure. Watts Water Technologies (WTS) and Pentair (PNR) provide additional exposure to flow control, filtration, and water-management systems.

As America's water networks age, the companies helping utilities find leaks, measure consumption, control water flow, and replace failing infrastructure may become increasingly important parts of the economy.

Tech Update

Mobile Device Privacy

Many mobile apps—particularly those owned by major data conglomerates and social media giants—are designed to track your activity across other apps and websites to build a comprehensive profile of your behavior, preferences, and location. This data is then used for targeted advertising and sold to data brokers. Here are some steps you can take to restrict and limit your data being exploited:

Steps to Restrict Cross-App Tracking

For iPhone (iOS)

Apple’s "App Tracking Transparency" (ATT) is your primary defense.

1. Stop Tracking Requests: Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Toggle OFF "Allow Apps to Request to Track." This globally denies permission for apps to track you across other companies' apps and websites.

2. Turn Off Apple Advertising: Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising and toggle off "Personalized Ads."

3. Audit Permissions: Regularly check Settings → Privacy & Security. Look at "Location Services," "Photos," "Microphone," and "Bluetooth." Revoke permissions for any app that doesn't genuinely need them to function.

4. Use Private Relay: If you have iCloud+, go to Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Private Relay and turn it on to mask your IP address and browsing activity.

For Android

Android offers more granular control, though it requires a bit more effort.

1. Delete Advertising ID: Go to Settings → Security & Privacy (or Google settings on older versions) → Ads. Tap Delete advertising ID. This replaces your identifier with a string of zeros, effectively breaking the link between your activity and your ad profile.

2. Restrict App Permissions: Go to Settings → Privacy (or Security & Privacy) → Privacy Controls. Review your permissions, especially for Location, Camera, and Microphone. Deny access to any apps that do not absolutely require it.

3. Disable Web & App Activity: Open Settings → Google → Manage your Google Account → Data & Privacy. Find "Web & App Activity" and turn it off. This stops Google from saving your searches and activity across their services.

4. Check Privacy Dashboard: Many modern Android versions have a Privacy Dashboard (under Security & Privacy settings) that shows you exactly which apps have accessed your permissions in the last 24 hours. If you see something suspicious, revoke the permission immediately.

Best Practices for Privacy

• Limit "Precise Location": Turn off "Precise Location" for almost every app. Apps like weather or retail do not need to know your exact GPS coordinates.

• Use Tracker-Blocking Browsers: Use browsers like Brave or Firefox (with tracker protection enabled) rather than Chrome, as they block many of the common ad-tracking scripts by default.

• Uninstall "Bloatware": If you aren't using an app, delete it. Every app you keep installed is a potential vector for data collection.

• Install and Connect via a VPN: Check in settings to ensure that your virtual private networking (VPN) is not just installed but “connected’. Set to ‘connect on demand’.

• DNS Filtering: Consider using a private DNS service (like AdGuard DNS) in your network settings, which can filter out many tracking domains at the network level.

Note: This information is based on research and is not medical advice.

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