Oh Dear!

Akk! I have let myself become too preoccupied with other things to keep this site updated!

One of my first goals and prayers when I finally got to OFFICIALLY start wedding plans was that I didn't want to obsess over it. That, even though my relationship with God has always been on-and-off shakey, that I wanted to continue to try and keep Him and my walk the central points. After all, that's what marriage is!

And even though I have still been turning to Him in prayer, trying to do my own Bible reading, and have my women's study, I find that posting on this blog is another great way for me to refocus during the distracting work day!

I am not sure what my current "wants" are - He provides for me so well! Perhaps just even more of His overflowing joy, peace, love! Those good ol' gifts of the Spirit!

Blank Spaces...

...For you to write in!

Neighbors

Proverbs 3 didn't have too much jumping out at me. Well, that's not true. But it was not anything super deep for the general population.

²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor,
"Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow"—
when you now have it with you.

Yeah, so, that made me think of how many times, at the end of the long work day, it's so easy for me to send away a mom who is late, or rudely trying to be seen as a walk-in, or whatever, when TECHNICALLY I do still have time to see her. So, this is a verse I just may have to post in my little office or something :)

And check your email for a big prayer request! Gracias!

Fear of God

Well, I am continuing to digress from Amy...

But today was Proverbs chpt 2!

And I thought it a good tie-in to April 1st's post about fools. Rather than be a fool, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Ps 111:10) But what does that mean?

According to some, the fear of God differs for the follower, and the fool. The fool should fear God's judegement. And the follower, more than fear, will stand in awe! http://www.gotquestions.org/ says this:

Hebrews 12:28-29 is a good description of this, "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." This reverence and awe is exactly what the fear of God means for Christians. This is the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe.

Provers 2:1-5 also gives us a few clues to help us understand. To understand the fear of God, you have to SLACK! Well, ok, better spelled SLACC, but I am sure I can find a way to tweak that! Paraphrasing the beginning of Chapter 2, Solomon tells his son to:

S tore up my commands
L isten to wisdom
A pply your heart to understanding
C all out for insight
K neel (in prayer) for understanding

"then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God."

(ha! I DID make that K!)

So, slack and know God!

Happy April Fools Day!

An interesting note when I was reading my Bible this morning. Proverbs 1:7 reads "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools [a] despise wisdom and discipline." And when I looked at the footnote there by "fools," it said "The Hebrew words rendered fool in Proverbs, and often elsewhere in the Old Testament, denote one who is morally deficient."

I just thought that was an interesting definition, different than the modern-day understanding we have of the word fool. And I also thought it appropriately timely that I just happened to pick up Proverbs chpt 1 today to read that.

And, another little verse on this day of fools.

Psalms 53:1a "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' "

Happy April, all you wise, wonderful people! :)