“David encouraged himself in the LORD his God”

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This is a sentence that has intrigued me often, and I have been mulling over it from time to time for several weeks. That might have something to do with the fact that we’ve moved away from our two oldest sons, and though we keep in touch, it is not the same as hearing what goes on in their everyday lives and helping them put life into perspective or quietly praying when the time isn’t right for motherly advice. I want them to continue developing this habit and skill of encouraging themselves in the Lord.

As Christians we are supposed to encourage each other, but sometimes there is no one at hand to talk to, or sometimes another person doesn’t really understand, or even if they do understand and do try to help, it’s ineffectual if we do not take their wisdom and encouragement in for ourselves.

The passage that this verse comes from is I Samuel 30. David had been anointed king earlier, but he was not the acting king yet: in fact, he was in hiding from King Saul, who wanted to kill him. While David and his men had been away from their camp, Amalekites had swept in, burned everything, and taken the women and children captive. David’s men spoke of stoning him out of their distress over their families. And at that point, “David encouraged himself in the LORD his God” (verse 6b).

How did David encourage himself? Verse 7 says he asked the priest for the ephod and inquired of the Lord what to do.

We don’t have ephods these days — though sometimes that seems like it would be nice when we need a direct answer as to what to do next! But we have the whole word of God and the continually indwelling Holy Spirit if we’re Christians. One of the many reasons it is so important to read and hear the Word of God regularly is that, as we take it in, we get to know our God and His character better, and the Holy Spirit can then bring back to our minds the truths we’ve learned (John 14:26).

David wrote in Psalm 63 in an earlier situation (I Samuel 23:14, according to the reference notes in my Bible), “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice” (verses 5-7). All through his life you find him inquiring of the Lord or going back to what he knew of God’s character and His word. Near the end of his life he passed this same encouragement on to his son, Solomon: in I Chronicles 28:9 he told him, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever,” and verse 20, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.”

May we all encourage ourselves in the Lord throughout our lives.

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Just a further note — if you’ve posted a quote on your blog this past week, feel free to link it here as well. You don’t have to save it for Mondays. :) And please do read and comment even if you’re not posting quotes.

Here are some quotes that spoke to me this week:

From the Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotionals, this taken from her book A Lamp For My Feet:

How can this person who so annoys or offends me be God’s messenger? Is God so unkind as to send that sort across my path? Insofar as his treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience which only the Spirit of God can produce in me, he is God’s messenger. God sends him in order that he may send me running to God for help.

Sometimes the very circumstance in our lives that we’re chafing against is the one God is using to work something necessary into our hearts and characters that we would not learn or develop any other way.

That goes along with something I read at Washing the Feet of the Saints:

In a recent conversation with a delightful young friend, we considered what it means to die to self, particularly in the ordinary tasks of every day life, and to live sacrificially in our home and community to the glory of Christ.

The “dying” this young lady referenced was a simple household chore that had nothing to do with family/elderly caregiving, but it’s application was obvious. My friend lamented that it should be easier to put her desires and contentment aside for the benefit of other. “But then it wouldn’t be dying,” I countered.

That last line really hit me between the eyes. Thanks, Patricia, for that perspective.

From the August 4 reading from Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer:

The best way of increasing our knowledge of God s infinite nature, is by the reverent study of His Word. It is a flimsy religion which discounts doctrine. What the bones are to the body, doctrine is to our moral and spiritual life. What law is to the material universe, doctrine is to the spiritual.

This reminded me of some of the truths I wrote a few years ago about the importance of learning doctrine when we read the Bible rather than just looking for warm fuzzies. The warm fuzzies fly away like dandelion seeds if they are not based on the bedrock of doctrine that we can rely on no matter what the circumstances are.

Then from today’s reading of Meyer’s devotionals:

From Act 7:2-5, we learn that the Call to Abram to go forth, which originally came in Ur of the Chaldees, was repeated in Haran, after his father’s death. Probably Terah delayed his son’s obedience. Let us help our children to realize God’s call, even though we be left lonely on the other side of the river.

This was particularly potent as we just moved away from our oldest two sons and daughter-in-law and are experiencing those pangs of realization in everyday life of their absence. I have read more than one missionary biography in which a well-meaning Christian mother who was active in missionary support balked and resisted when it came to her son or daughter going to the mission field. I do not know if any of mine are called to the mission field yet, but I do not want to stand in the way of any of them doing whatever God’s will is for their lives out of a desire to keep them close to me.

If you have some family-friendly quotes you’d like to share, please leave the link to your “Week In Words” post (not just to your general blog) with Mr. Linky below. Of course, it is fine to just leave a quote in the comments section if you’d rather. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants, too: this is a small enough meme so far that it is not hard to visit around with others who love to glean quotes from their reading as well.

(Mr. Linky is now closed for this post. Please see the newest Week In Words post to add links.)

The Week In Words Participants

1. bekahcubed 2. e-Mom @ Chrysalis

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

We have Internet!

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Woot!

Well, the main desktop that I use isn’t connected because we need a certain cable. But my husband is letting me use his little notebook.

Still way too much to do to play for long, but it’s nice to know I can take a break online here and there!

The bathrooms and bedrooms are mostly set up and I am working on the kitchen today.

I just have to tell you this — the new house had a washer, dryer, and refrigerator, but we were going to bring our own from the old house, swap it out with what was here, and then take them back to SC to the old house for the kids to use. But when we got here and started to disconnect the washer and dryer here, we discovered the dryer was a GAS dryer! Somehow we had missed that before. So we swapped the other appliances out, but, of course, not that one! I didn’t know they made gas dryers. I also have a gas oven (yes I DID notice that was gas beforehand…), which I haven’t had since I was a kid, so that will take a bit of adjusting, but probably not much.

Going to a new W-Mart in a new town is an experience — especially when it is the TN tax-free weekend. That place was horrendous. Thankfully Ingles was laid out almost just like the one I was used to.

Looking forward to getting back to regular blogging…some day!

In Tennessee..

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…at a hotel. All our worldly goods will be delivered tomorrow, Lord willing.

Everything went fairly smoothly in the packing and loading process. Pulling out furniture uncovers all of one’s housekeeping sins…and a few found items that we didn’t know were lost…

After the house was packed up, good-byes said to Jason and Mittu, 😦 and we pulled out of our subdivision in separate cars on our way to TN, Jim called me on his cell phone and asked if I unplugged the iron. 🙂

I told him I hoped the movers did before the packed it. 😀

Jesse and Jeremy saw the house for the first time tonight — they seemed to like it.

More…when I can….

Packing up…

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(Photo courtesy of stock.xchng)

The movers come on Wednesday, and there are some things my husband wants to pack up himself before they come. Among those things are the electronics…like my desktop PC.

So I probably won’t be blogging for several days.

Over the next few days the movers will pack our things up, load them on their truck, deliver everything to our new house, and we will move Jason and Mittu to our house here  (the one we’re moving out of — they are going to live in it, keep the grass cut, do some repairs and painting to help us get it ready to sell. etc.) and move Jim’s mom into her new assisted living facility. Then, of course, we have to unpack the stuff in the new house. We won’t have Internet access there until some time over the weekend, but things will be pretty hectic for a few days anyway.

If I can borrow someone’s laptop during quick breaks here and there, I might pop in here or stop in over at your places. But if you don’t see me, know that I am thinking about you and looking forward to everything getting back to normal — or settling into a new normal — whatever normal is. 🙂

I so appreciate your warm thoughts and prayers during this busy, hectic, major transition in our lives.

So for now I am going to make like a tree and leave..

Or make like a banana and split…

See ya round like a donut…

Later, Gator…

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Just a further note — if you’ve posted a quote on your blog this past week, feel free to link it here as well. You don’t have to save it for Mondays. :) And please do read and comment even if you’re not posting quotes.

Here are a few I’ve read in various places:

Seen on Diane‘s Facebook status:

“I think sometimes a lot of the wear and tear on our lives is from fighting the circumstances that God has allowed to come into our lives.” Nancy Leigh DeMoss

I think that is probably true. It’s not usually surrender that’s the problem as much as the struggle against surrender.

Also seen at Diane‘s:

“It takes grace to give grace, takes hope to give hope, takes love to give love. I can give these to you because Christ gave them to me.”-Paul David Tripp

I can only minister to others what I have received from Christ.

Seen at girltalk:

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.

Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all.

When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased. 
~ C. S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (8 November, 1952)

So true!

And I am so thankful for this truth expressed in the Heidelberg Catechism (which I had not heard of before) shared by Chris Anderson at My Two Cents:

Question 60: How are thou righteous before God?

Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

Special note for next week: we’re moving this week, and I am not sure when we will have Internet access and when my desktop PC will be set up and ready to use. If I can set up The Week In Words next Monday, I will, but if you don’t see it here, that means I wasn’t able to, and you can hang on to those quotes for the following Monday.

If you have some family-friendly quotes you’d like to share, please leave the link to your “Week In Words” post with Mr. Linky below. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well: this is a small enough meme so far that it is not hard to visit around with others who love to glean quotes from their reading as well.

My fourth blogiversary…

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…was July 27, and I completely overlooked it!

I did think about it a few weeks ago, but forgot it again.

In the past I’ve had a giveaway to mark the occasion, but with getting ready to move this week, I think I’ll refrain.

My very first post is here. Since then I’ve had 2,002 posts, 20, 163 comments, and 74, 896 spam comments. 🙂

It’s been a very fun, learning, stretching, rewarding four years, and Lord willing, I plan to continue! Thanks to you for coming by. You’re a blessing to me!

Laudable Linkage and Which Famous Author Do You Write Like?

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Here are a few great posts seen ’round the web lately:

7 Things I Should Have Taught My Sons, HT to Lori. With a couple of them leaving the nest, I know I am going to think of such things, too.

Just Do Something, HT to Sharper Iron, on the subject of making a difference at church. Some ideas listed: “Give people the benefit of the doubt. Say ‘hi’ to the teen-ager no one notices. Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.”

The Secret to a Husband’s Love, Happy Marriage, HT to Lizzie.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies. Mmmmmm…

I have seen this site mentioned in several places: I Write Like, where you insert text of something you’ve written and it supposedly analyzes what author your writing is similar to. So I tried a few of my old posts.

When I tried The Storm and the Rainbow I got:

I write like
William Shakespeare

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Umm — I think I’m a far cry from The Bard!

When I tried Cakes Are My Culinary Waterloo I got:

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

…whom I had never heard of.

When I tried Encouragement For Mothers of Young Children, I got:

I write like
Oscar Wilde

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

So either I am a very versatile writer, or…the system needs tweaking. Probably the latter. 🙂 But it is fun to play with.

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday’s Fave Five so we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God gives. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Some of my favorites from this past week:

1. We had the closing for our new house in TN on Monday! That was exciting, plus it was nice to actually see it again. Though I am having mixed emotions — the excitement of the new place and the sadness at leaving the oldest kids behind — we’re already planning the first visits!

2. Finding more “treasures” in cleaning out boxes. One was a notebook of angst-filled teen-age poetry. I haven’t had time to go through it yet, but I am glad to have found it, especially since it wasn’t where I thought it was! Another was a newspaper clipping of a column I wrote in a local small neighborhood newspaper for our school when I was in 11th or 12th grade. My speech teacher knew someone involved with that paper and connected me to that opportunity. I had forgotten about it, and since I was throwing away most things that looked like newspaper clippings (because most of them were recipes or articles that I’ve lived without for all these years now), I was glad I spotted that without throwing at away. Another was a note from the business office of my college that someone had put $500 on my school account back then — that was a special reminder of a special blessing.

3. A good, soaking rain. We’ve needed it and had sprinkles here and there, but finally got a good rain in our area this week.

4. Scheduling the movers for next week. I mentioned a few days ago that in my husband’s preliminary conversations with them, it didn’t look like they could come in the time frame we wanted, but it all worked out well.

5. Helpful kids. I’ve had to call on each of them for various kinds of help — moving boxes, sorting through things, computer help, making goodies for Jesse’s party tomorrow, etc., and they’ve all graciously been willing to pitch in wherever needed.

I don’t know if I will be here for FFF next week — we’ll be in the midst of moving, and I don’t know when the computer will be set up and operational. Hopefully as soon as possible!

Flashback Friday: Early Religious Experiences

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The question for this week is:

Did your family attend church when you were growing up? What are your earliest memories of church? Did you attend VBS (Vacation Bible School) when you were young? Sunday School? Other church activities? Was faith a Sunday-only thing or did it impact your life and the things you did? If faith and church were not a part of your growing-up years, when and how did you begin and what drew you to God?

I did not grow up in a Christian home. My father never went to church then, and my mother only occasionally did. My mother’s sister and father attended a Lutheran church, and my parents let me attend with them. I do remember learning basic truths and Bible stories and learning in a general way that Jesus Christ died for my sins, but how to actually believe in a way to know that one was a Christian was kind of nebulous idea of having faith of some kind. I don’t remember it ever being brought to a personal level that I as an individual needed to repent of my own sins and trust Christ as my own Savior.

I do remember enjoying Sunday School and VBS. I enjoyed the crafts, singing, activities, Bible stories, and cookies and Kool-aid. 🙂  I only have a few specific memories: one was a craft we made that involved putting one glass upside down over another one with flowers inside and gluing it. I thought it was so pretty and gave it to my grandmother. I do remember gluing macaroni to a box and spray-painting it gold, but I don’t remember if that was VBS or Girl Scouts (what was the deal with macaroni crafts back then?!) I remember hearing in Sunday School teaching on the verse “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6: 24-26) and thinking at the time that that was ridiculous. Money problems were frequent at our house, and I thought, how could you not worry about it? I had a lot to learn about faith, and these verses became precious to me in college years and beyond. I also remember feeling bad one time that I had nothing to put in the offering, so I drew or wrote something on a piece of paper — I can’t remember if it was a drawing of money or an IOU of some sort — and put it in when the offering plate was passed. But my cousin’s grandmother — the one on the other side of her family through which we were not related — was a very well-to-do and proper lady and took my piece of paper out. That made me so sad, that I had given the only thing I could, and it wasn’t deemed acceptable. As an adult looking back, I think the ushers would probably have gotten a kick out of finding that in the offering.

When I was in about the third grade, my best friend at the time invited me to revival services at her Baptist church. My parents did not let me go to every religious event I was invited to (thankfully!), but my dad’s folks were Baptist on one side and Methodist on the other, and my mom’s, as I mentioned, were Lutheran, so they usually let me go to those churches if asked. On the second or third night I attended, the pastor was talking about being “saved.” My friend and another of her friends urged me to go forward at the invitation at the end of the service, so I did, but in later years I couldn’t remember what was said or prayed or who I even talked to.

So I struggled for many years with exactly where I stood with the Lord, and it wasn’t really settled until I was about 17. I’ve told this in more detail in my testimony. Then I still struggled with assurance for many years, but I am happy to say I am at rest in Him now.

As far as faith impacting daily life, my parents had something of a “God-fearing” upbringing, and though neither of them wanted to bring their lives under God’s influence and authority at that time, they wanted their children to be taught about Him and to “do right” (my dad did come to salvation later in his 60s: I have told his story here. Though my mom did not make a clear and open profession, I have reason to hope she believed as well, as I discussed here.) My dad’s two biggest issues were respect and obedience, and I think that and what religious training I did have gave me a good foundation and prepared me for learning more later on. I did have kind of an awe and respect and a childish affection for the Lord, but without a lot of discernment: if anyone from mentioned God, I thought that was so neat, not realizing that not everyone who talks about Him knows Him. I am so glad God protected me from cultist influences when I was vulnerable and naive enough to probably have been taken in by them.

I had thought my mother’s family has always been Lutheran, but a few years ago my aunt told me that her father, my grandfather, had been raised by an uncle who was a “circuit-riding preacher” (like Sheffey, for those familiar with him), and my grandfather had helped him in some of his campaigns when he was a boy. That was neat to learn about. I hadn’t thought I had ancestors who prayed for me beyond my own grandparents, so it’s neat to think that maybe even further back there were relatives who knew the Lord and prayed for their descendants. It will be nice to meet them in heaven!