Below is an entry from "A Quiet Heart Journal" about what occurred one week, in our "place." Hope it might encourage you in some way, in The Lord. Though it seems quite a while back now, God wanted us to record some lessons he was teaching us / me. He is so patient and such a Master Teacher!
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Jul. 30, 2007
Thoughts from this past week, from
our place to yours ...
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Jeremiah 33: 3 John 15: 4-5, 7-12, 14-17
I Corinthians 13 Ephesians 1: 15-21 and
2: 1-10 and 3: 14, 16-21 Colossians 1: 9-14
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How has your month gone? Ours has included the easiest of times and the toughest of times. This past week, some good, long-time mom friends greatly encouraged me, just by coming to my house with their children, to chat and share a great time of fellowship. They were here to help one mom's daughter as she leaves fabric with my oldest daughter to sew into 6 brides maids' dresses plus two flower girls' dresses, for an October wedding. The young ladies were here so they could "measure up." That same day, our oldest son, who had been home to visit us for 4 days, was to leave our family to return to work in another state... so my emotions, that day, were mixed. ;o)
We enjoyed singing a cappella (as a family of 8) with him again, at church, and at home, plus all the fun times playing together, and just talking, plus all the blessings / gifts he brought us, the help he gave his dad on some computer stuff, and the encouragement of his smiling face, and his fun-loving attitude, just enjoying being with us. He was "the center of attention," while with us. Of course, God is pre-eminent and is The Highest ! Our youngest 3 have missed him so much, they almost ache to see him again, and just "eat him up" while he is with us. He enjoys all that attention, though he does set a good example for them, now. Things used to be different in years past, but he has been growing up so much over the past year and a half, and especially while he has begun working for a ministry in another state. We are so grateful to God for giving him so many positive experiences there, many good memories of fun times there, and hard work, and some very Godly, zealous examples to learn from, who also "keep an eye" on him, for us. ;o)
Overall, last week was a real blessing, in more ways than one, partly because while our oldest son was in town, three of us were also able to visit a missionary who is suffering, and we all sang together, we sang for her, and we all talked together about what God does, and how wonderful He is -- about His glory. She shared with us that everything she has ever wanted, God has given her! She was sincere! What a grateful lady! We will miss her if she goes Home to Heaven soon, but we will remember how the Lord's Holy Spirit has shined through her life to all who have met her.
Our month in school: Our three youngest and I have all been studying in our Bibles, learning and sharing together about verses that shine forth from The Word, having fun jumping rope and otherwise getting some good exercise, and learning in our Wisdom Booklet #7, plus our other "learning books." Our WB #7 taught us much about mercy, sharing various examples of how we can show mercy, the medical benefits of forgiving and releasing others who offend us and transgress God's teachings, and God gave me many opportunities to demonstrate mercy. ;oD Some I messed up on. Others He showed me the way through.
And He inspired me to read to our children from books we have about the lives of believers such as George Muller of Germany, Albert Schweitzer, Florence Nightingale, and some quotes from others in early American history. We still have more to read, but their lives sure are inspiring! Some we listened to, using Your Story Hour audio tapes, we get from our friends at Sing 'n' Learn ... at www.singnlearn.com Fred and Sarah Cooper do a great job of offering wonderful educational lessons on many school subjects, and most all of it is taught using audio tapes or audio CDs ! wow!
Using inspiring teaching from Bill Ligon's (William T. Ligon, Sr.) book entitled _Imparting the Blessing, Your Biblical Heritage_ (and two audio tapes we have from a conference where he spoke about giving verbal blessings ...) God has also been teaching me that speaking a blessing to the one who has offended me is a powerful way to overcome feelings of bitterness, and promote healing. We can all speak blessings, as did the Israelites over their own children every Shabbat / sabbath, using God's Words and Godly character qualities as inspiration.
For example, if we see that one of our children needs to learn self control, we can bless them with the self control and Grace that Yeshua the Messiah / Jesus Christ demonstrated in His life. Or we can bless them with the Peaceful spirit of Yeshua / Jesus. And we can begin our spoken blessing with the words: In The Name and through the Blood of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), I bless you ... This shows that we mean we wish God our Father to build the character of Yeshua / Jesus into our child's life. And the enemy of God flees when he hears The Blood of Yeshua / Jesus mentioned, especially along with words directly from God's Word, the Bible. He will enable the Power of His Word, and its Life-giving qualities, to form within our child the character of Yeshua our Messiah / Jesus Christ.
How exciting! It is a wonderful way to build Godly character into our children's lives! They feel so special when we speak blessings over them! No wonder God put a special blessing in Numbers 6: 22-23, 24-26, 27 ... so that the priests (and the dads in our home educating families serve as God's priests in our families) would speak God's special blessing over the people of Israel. ! Many believe that the blessing Jesus / Yeshua spoke over the children who came to Him was this priestly blessing, taught to Moses to give to Aaron to speak to the people. God wants to bless all His children, especially the trusting, youngest ones. God is amazing! He teaches us new things every day!
~ Have a most blessed day in the Lord YHWH's presence, this coming day!
~ He is Jehovah Shammah -- the Lord Who is with you.
He will ever listen to your voice, and He rejoices over you with Joy. Zephaniah 3: 17
... from our place to yours. ~ blog owner's notes ~
