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Tag Archives | Bible reading

Worship Wednesday: Where Were You?

January 18, 2012 By Melissa

We’ve been reading through the Bible chronologically as a family. Our goal is to read through the entire Bible this year.

Currently we are in Job, and it’s been interesting reading Job’s dialogue with his “friends” and towards God, as well as his “friends” opinions about the cause of his troubles. It’s such a basic struggle of Christianity. Why do bad things happen to good people? It seems more just to think that if you do good, good things will happen to you, and if you do bad things, bad things will happen.

However, it’s been my experience this year that things don’t always happen the way I imagine they should. As I shared here and here, I’ve seen good, God-loving people face horrible tragedy and terrifying struggles this year.

We want answers. We want to understand. Sometimes we find ourselves demanding an audience with God, wanting Him to give us an account for why this is happening.

But then we get to Job 38 where God begins to answer Job.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements –

surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?“

Job 38: 4-7

Wow. Humbling. It continues for over two chapters, God pouring out the wonder of creation, and reminding Job (and us) of who He is and who we are.

Where were you?

The One who laid the cornerstone of Creation isn’t sleeping during our troubles. He is awesome, mighty, and powerful beyond all that we can comprehend, and we can rest in the fact that He understands justice far better than any of us. And He loves us. He loves us with an everlasting, unfailing love.

So in the midst of our struggles, in the times we cry out to God for an audience, we can find peace here. We weren’t at creation, but the One who was knows our name, and has us in His hand.

Read full story · Comments { 4 } in Scripture, Worship Wednesday

Worship Wednesday: Legacy – Sharing the Story of God’s Work in Our Lives with Our Children

January 4, 2012 By Melissa

There have been so many times in my life that I could not have survived without God. Times where His comfort has healed my heart, where His guidance has led me to where I needed to be, times where His grace has washed away horrible sin.

When I think of what He has done for me, I’m ashamed to admit that so often I forget. I’m busy. I’m distracted. I have children to feed, laundry to do, someone hit someone, someone spilled something, I just had to correct someone for the same behavior for the tenth time this hour….

And I forget. I forget how short the days are. I forget that little eyes are watching me, and little hearts are shaping their ideas of the Gospel itself from what they see in me.

I love the reminder of Deuteronomy 4:9, spoken to mothers (and fathers) who were delivered out of slavery, watched the Red Sea part, and heard God speak out of the cloud:

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Deuteronomy 4:9

Did He really need to remind them? How on earth could they forget such amazing wonders? Scripture shows us just how much they needed the reminder in Israel’s repeated history of falling into disobedience and idolatry.

But isn’t that our story too? Is the parting of the Red Sea more miraculous than a sinful, rebellious heart adopted and redeemed? And don’t we turn, over and over, to idols made with hands, letting the memory of His deliverance slip out of our hearts?

God reminded the Israelites not to forget, and I hear Him saying the same thing to my forgetful heart. My children need to know the story of God’s mighty work in my life. Your children need to hear yours. Let us not forget. Let’s leave a legacy, not only for our children, but for our children’s children.

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2012: Living Intentionally

January 2, 2012 By Melissa

Jeniffer and I both really enjoyed our week “off” from blogging. It was nice to have extra time with my family and to give my brain some time to rest!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s with your families! Here’s a few photo highlights from mine:

Isaiah (3) and Makaylah (8) enjoying the aftermath of snickerdoodle baking - an annual tradition here.

They were begging to open"just one" present on Christmas Eve.

Makaylah and Sophia painting a present for my mother-in-law.

Isaiah has a newfound love of Legos, so he had a blast building legos with his daddy at my aunt and uncle's. So many of my (almost all adult) cousins love building legos that there was even a lego building contest, and the legos just stayed out as a center piece afterward!

My sweet kids Christmas morning in their annual Christmas pj's. Makaylah (8), Nehemiah (11 months), Isaiah (3), and Sophia (6)

I’ve done New Year’s resolutions in the past, but not every year, and with limited success on achieving my resolutions. I’m pretty sure my resolution last year was, “Have this baby soon!” Ha! I vacillated about whether to make any resolutions this year. But after reading this post by Ann Voskamp, I felt newly encouraged to make some goals as we head into a new year.

1. Our family has committed to reading through the Bible in one year. We’ll be going chronologically, something I’ve never done before, and I’m excited to see how God will use His Word in the life of our family.

2. We’ve played games off and on with our children over the years, but last night was our first real “game night.” I made dairy-free no bake cookies, Daddy brought peanut butter M&M’s, and we taught the kids how to play Go Fish with a real deck of cards. It was a blast, and we want to make it a weekly occurrence – no phones, no T.V., just our family, food, silliness, laughter, and memories.

I did pick up my phone during the game long enough to snap a picture!

3. Financially, we’ve been working on paying off debt for awhile, but we want to be more aggressive about it this year. As part of that and an overall desire to be better stewards of our finances, we are limiting eating out to a rare treat. Because its a stress reliever for both of us, it had become a once, twice, or even three times a week event. To keep us from falling into that, I’m working hard to do a better job at meal planning, something I’ll share more about in an upcoming post.

I have other goals that I won’t take time to go into here, but there’s one word that those goals and all the ones I’ve shared have in common. Intentional. I want to be intentional about the way we spend our time and our money, and about the way we parent and disciple our children. It wasn’t perfect, but my intentional focus at savoring the season this Christmas was a wonderful experience, and I want it to spread to this whole year. Living intentionally.