Priority #1 - My God - Commands, Statutes, and Laws

We listened to another good word preached by Rabbi Ralph Messer this Sabbath. This was a scripture that he highlighted:

"For Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commands, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 25:6 AMP

We as "New Testament" believers have rarely taken the time to break down what each of these separate words mean, and thus, have become poor in our heritage as children of God.

My Commands = This is the Hebrew word mitzvot. It has been translated as commandment, precept ("pre"- before the foundation of the world, "cept"- thoughts of God. In other words, the way He intended for us to walk from the very beginning). It has also been translated as law and ordinances.

My Statutes = This is the Hebrew word chukot. It has been translated in our Bibles as statute, ordinance, custom, appointed times, manners, and rites.

My Laws = This is the Hebrew word torah. It has most often been translated as "law." Unfortunately, we have a Pavlov's conditioned response to the word "law." Something in us automatically screams "rebel!" However, if we were to correctly translate this word, it would come out as the "instruction and teaching of the mind of God." This is the way in which, before the very foundation of the world, He desired His children to walk.

I gave one of my children an instruction one day. "Don't run in the house." I even gave a reason for the instruction. "The floors are slippery." My child ran in the house. To this day I still have the note that I wrote to my husband instructing him to meet us at the dentist's office for this child who transgressed my commandment and subsequently chipped their tooth.

If we would learn to go back to the original meanings of some of our culturally mistranslated scriptures and view them, as closely as possible in the light in which they were written, we would have the abundant life that the Messiah spoke of BECAUSE we follow the instruction and teaching of our Father BEFORE the consequences come.

Psalm 119:1-8 AMP

BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct {customs} and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God's revealed will).

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart.

Yes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]; they walk in His ways.

You have commanded us to keep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently.

Oh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!

Then shall I not be put to shame [by failing to inherit Your promises] when I have respect to all Your commandments.

I will praise and give thanks to You with uprightness of heart when I learn [by sanctified experiences] Your righteous judgments [Your decisions against and punishments for particular lines of thought and conduct].

I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly.

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John 14:15 AMP "If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands."

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Matthew 5:16 AMP "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds {mitzvot} and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven."

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Ephesians 2:8-10 CJB "For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but God's gift. You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. For we are of God's making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions {mitzvot} already prepared by God for us to do."

I am full from the word this Sabbath! Now, Father, help me to mix the word with faith and walk it out in my life this week!

Blessings!

Priority # 6 - My Ministry - Tick! Tock! I'm on the Clock

Time and I have never been good friends. It's like an untrained dog. It won't stay where I put it and if you turn your back on it, once you turn around again it has turned your life upside down. In front of my keyboard I have a little chart that lists how much money I could make as a medical transcriptionist. The variables are typing speed versus hours worked per week. On the bottom right under typing speed of 80 wpm and 40 hours per week, the figure quoted is $39,520. There are 2080 work hours in a year so that comes to about $19 per hour. Since I'm paid by the line, that averages out to a little more than 200 lines per hour. There are days that I CAN reach 200 lines per hour and there are other days that I'm lucky to be moving at half that speed.

I have been doing MUCH better than I used to. I credit a couple of things. First in learning to keep the Sabbath. One day I was reading something about Sabbath keeping and it said, "Not only has the Lord commanded us to rest on the seventh day, but He has commanded us to WORK on the six other days." Could I say with all honesty that I was working when I was supposed to be working on those other 6 days? How could I keep the sabbath if I hadn't kept the "work"?

It has been about a year since we have been keeping the sabbath consistently. What started off rocky has turned into something -- well, less rocky. I can now get off work on Friday afternoon, look back on my work week, and say, "It is good," and enjoy my weekend with family and friends. No more am I sitting at the computer until all hours of the night pretending to work because I'm already depressed because I have squandered my time this pay period and there is no way I can possibly make it up.

Secondly, I have also learned a LOT about productivity from reading blogs. One of my favorite is called Working Naked, for people who work from home like me (but choose not to be naked).

Yesterday's, blog was called 9 Ways to Increase your Productivity at Home. It has been INCREDIBLY helpful and I reward myself for my productivity by spending time with my favorite people on earth. :-)

"Six days you shall do your work, but the seventh day you shall rest and keep Sabbath, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your bondwoman, and the alien, may be refreshed." Exodus 23:12 AMP

"Blessed, happy, and fortunate is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold of it and binds himself fast to it, who keeps sacred the Sabbath so as not to profane it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." Isaiah 56:2 AMP

"If you turn away your foot from [traveling unduly on] the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a [spiritual] delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor Him and it, not going your own way or seeking or finding your own pleasure or speaking with your own [idle] words, then will you delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage [promised for you] of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Isaiah 58:13-14 AMP

"And hallow (separate and keep holy) My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:20 AMP

Blessings!

Priority #5 - Me - God Save the Queen

I have been through a transition year and I haven't been able to catalog it. I miss blogging on Yahoo! 360. I had it down to a science and it was part of my life's routine. I was faithful, and popular. Since Yahoo! shut it down, I have been wandering in a sort of blogger's wilderness. I switched to Multiply but didn't like the format. I switched to homeschool blogger, but that homeschooling mom doesn't encompass the sum total of who I am. So, I'm back to blogging here (hopefully consistently).

I ran across a work-from-home productivity blog that mentioned getting out old habits and routines that worked for you in the past. That works for me! When I blogged on 360, I limited myself to 15 minutes of whatever came off the top of my head in that period of time.

Monarchy has become a popular thing around my house lately, with the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. We also watched "The Young Victoria" on Netflix too. We are reminded that the scripture calls us a nation of kings and priests ["And You have made them a kingdom (royal race) and priests to our God, and they shall reign [as kings] over the earth!" Revelations 5:10 AMP], but given that we live in a democracy, we are not, as a body of believers, as a nation, even as families, not quite sure what that looks like. We try to have a say in everything. We, like the Romans of Julius Caesar's day reject anything that looks like a king. They rejected the thought of King Caesar and ended up with Emperor Nero. Rejecting godly authority is never a good thing.

But those who recognize authority in others learn to recognize it in themselves. I am the queen in this palace. My position is secure and I must learn further what it means to walk that out. While the king runs the country, the queen runs the royal household(s) and if she does her job correctly, it should run seemlessly. Like Will Smith's character in "Men in Black" says, "The difference between you and me is that I make this look good."

Proverbs 31:27 AMP, "She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat."

I Timothy 5:14 AMP, "So I would have younger [widows] marry, bear children, guide the household, [and] not give opponents of the faith occasion for slander or reproach."

Titus 2:5 AMP, "To be self-controlled, chaste, homemakers, good-natured (kindhearted), adapting and subordinating themselves to their husbands, that the word of God may not be exposed to reproach (blasphemed or discredited)."

Much Afraid and her Constant Companions Sorrow and Suffering

Priority #1 - My Relationship with My Creator, Elohim

"How happy the man whose strength is in you, in whose heart are [pilgrim] highways." Psalm 84:5 CJB

Have you ever read Hind's Feet on High Places? Sometimes I feel as if I am the protagonist Much Afraid and my companions, Sorrow and Suffering. The prophet Isaiah, in Isa. 53:3 CJB describes the then-coming Messiah as, "People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him."

On top of my grief for my mother, I have to add isolation, betrayal, slander, and just plain foolishness. When my daughter died, it took me a while to get to the point where I asked the Lord, "Why me?" His answer came swiftly. "Why not you? Do you think that sorrow and suffering are something that happens to everyone BUT you?" I accepted my rebuke, but I agree with the psalmist in Psalm 55:4-8 CJB, "My heart within me is pounding in anguish, the terrors of death press down on me, fear and trembling overwhelm me, horror covers me. I said, "I wish I had wings like a dove! Then I could fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would flee to a place far off, I would stay in the desert. (Selah) I would quickly find me a shelter from the raging wind and storm.

I have not had much sleep. I pray for a good night's rest and prayer in the morning.

Priority #2 - My Relationship with My Husband

Friend Hubby introduced us to a great study today in service about the Hebrew roots of some biblical words that have either been translated wrongly or without the depth of the true meaning. Here is the introductory video:

He also share some on getting those middle of the night calls by the Holy Spirit to get up and pray. I'm going to try to spend more time praying and interceding for him this week. As knowledge and revelation have increased, so have attacks from the enemy. I am finding new life in the scripture Isaiah 54:17 AMP, "But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord." LOVE THIS!!!

Priority #3 - My Children

Psalm 127:4-5 "As arrows are in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy, blessed, and fortunate is the man whose quiver is filled with them! They will not be put to shame when they speak with their adversaries [in gatherings] at the [city's] gate."

In spite of the circumstances, I'm glad that all my children were present for my mother's funeral. I'm glad of the way they conducted themselves in the face of relatives that don't speak and want to continue to propagate lies against our family. I will pray more this week for forgiveness for all of us and that the Lord will help us heal from the painful memories of that season.

Priority #4 - My Home

Okay, this is FlyLady's Flight Plan for this week. Let's pray that I can stick with it!

The first thing that I need to try to do is to establish regular sleep times, ideally in bed by 11 p.m. and awake at 7 a.m. (which I have already busted).


Priority #5 - Myself

I need a lot of emotional healing. I need to lose myself in a hobby or a project so that I can focus, when the time comes, on work and my family.


Priority #6 - My Ministry

I start a new job this week so I will have 1 account in the morning and 1 account in the evening. I pray that Adonai will help me to be faithful on both of them. Unfortunately, my iPod died so I will not be able to listen to teachings about this week's Torah portion, but hopefully, I will at least be able to listen to Daily Audio Bible to help me sleep Daily Audio Proverb as I do my morning routine.

This weeks Psalms readings are: Monday - Psalm 119:97-176; Tuesday - Psalm 120-134; Wednesday - Psalm 135-139; Thursday - Psalm 140-144; Friday - Psalm 145-150.

The Parasha are Exodus 25:1-27:19 (Torah),

I Kings 5:26-6:13 (Haftarah),

Apostolic Scriptures are: 2 Corinthians 8:12; 6:16;
Revelation 21:3; 11:19;
Hebrews 4:16; 8:1-6; 9:1–27; 10:1;
Matthew 5:14-16;
Revelation 1:12,20; 4:5
Ephesians 20:20–22;
Hebrews 10:19–22; 13:10–12

Just Another Day that the Lord has Kept Me

Priority #1 - My Relationship with My Creator, Elohim

"O God, you are my God; I will seek you eagerly. My heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a land parched and exhausted, where no water can be found." Psalm 63:1

My mother passed away on Saturday afternoon after a 19-month battle with cholangiocarcinoma. Though our relationship had been estranged for over a year, last month we were able to speak peaceably to one another and express our love for each other. Though I probably could have, I decided against going to see her. She was always very proud of her physical appearance; the original Diva (smile). I chose to remember her the way she was when she was healthy. After watching my daughter die, watching my mother die was not something I wanted to do.

Today, I have needed to contend with some of my emotions about her passing. I have some sadness, but also some anger. William Shakespeare in Marc Antony's funeral oration for Julius Caesar said, "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." I don't want to constantly remember the trouble between us. I want to get to the place of healing where I just remember the good and all the laughter.

Last week during prayer, Adonai (the Lord) spoke to us about idols. We have created idols in some of our relationships and when the "idol" fails to measure up, we are dejected and hurt. Some of us idolize our parents, our spouses, our children, our pastors. I have to accept that I didn't meet all of her expectations of me and she didn't meet all of mine of her. Yeshua (Jesus) warned us of such idolatry in our relationships in Matthew 10:37, "Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me."

I also have to contend (spiritually) with those who don't understand this and feel as though they can stand as a judge in our relationship. There is only One righteous judge and I have pleaded my case with Him on a daily basis. Though some may want to condemn me on cultural standards and try to superimpose their relationships with their mothers on top of my relationship with my mother, before Him I have chosen to keep my mouth shut except to those whom I know to be people of prayer. I have refused to slander her or dishonor her with my mouth.

Gary Oliver said something on his Facebook page jumped out at me, "Move past the pain. Stop trying to make the event make sense and understand who you are in the event. There is some good to be gotten from what you have gone thru!" Abba, Father, help me find the good!


Priority #2 - My Relationship with My Husband

"The congregations in the province of Asia send greetings to you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you in union with the Lord, as does the congregation that meets in their house." I Corinthians 16:19

The Lord has blessed our fellowship to move out of a building and back into the home. I say blessed because it didn't make sense for us to try to continue pay exorbitant amounts of money for a building we were using only once a week. Acts 2:42, "They continued faithfully in the teaching of the emissaries, in fellowship, in breaking bread and in the prayers." Acts 2:46-47, "Continuing faithfully and with singleness of purpose to meet in the Temple courts daily, and breaking bread in their several homes, they shared their food in joy and simplicity of heart, praising God and having the respect of all the people. And day after day the Lord kept adding to them those who were being saved." We are in awe at how the members of our fellowship are growing in the Word and at the new people He is allowing us to meet new people and learn from them, even if they don't stay connected.

My husband and I are reading a book together called, "Fossilized Customs." Like anything else, you "eat the meat and throw away the bones," but it does have a lot of interesting facts on where some pagan customs we have incorporated into our worship. A lot of it is stuff we learned about back in Germany, but some of it is eye-opening. Because it involves "sacred cows," I am taking it with a grain of salt until I can confirm the same in the "mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses" by searching out other sources.


Priority #3 - My Children

Isaiah 54:13, "All your children will be taught by ADONAI; your children will have great peace."

Dancing Angel - May her memory be a blessing.

My Diva - We were able to get her a coffee maker so she can energize at the crack of 9:30 a.m., ;-) No early classes, but I tell her she and her suitemates keep vampire hours. I hope to get her some cookware soon so she can keep up her culinary skills and impress her friends.

Boy Wonder - Excited because he has been invited to compete in the Civil Air Patrol drill competition. I need to stand on a corner and hold up a sign "will work for gasoline." He's going to have to downtown for practice. At least he has friend hubby to help him who also won drill competitions when he was stationed at the AFA.

Princess Butterfly - Cleaned up in the area of Girl Scout badges this past semester. Her vest is weighted down. We've got to get out selling cookies door-to-door though if we want to try to make it to 1000 boxes before the end of the season. One thousand boxes means free Girl Scout camp this summer. Especially helpful since Boy Wonder will be attending both Boy Scout Camp and Civil Air Patrol encampment (either as a participant or staff) from now until he leaves for college.


Priority #4 - My Home

Proverbs 31:16, "She considers a field, then buys it, and from her earnings she plants a vineyard."

In the area of cleaning, I confess, I have been lacking. I'm going to need to pick up the pace.

In the area of cooking, we have been trying new things, especially since one who attends our fellowship is a vegetarian. Cutting back on meat has been something I wanted to try, but now I have more excuse to.

In the area of gardening (Yay, me!), I have gotten my first seedlings planted. I have some lettuce seedlings started out in the kitchen. I know people would laugh at us to see our little fledgling sprouts but growing our own food is new for us. I heard on the news the other day about gas getting up to $4 a gallon heading towards the summer. We are going into survivalist mode and learning new things on saving money and cutting back.


Priority #5 - Myself

Psalm 9:13, "Have mercy on me, ADONAI! See how I suffer from those who hate me; you raise me from the gates of death."

I read a discussion the other day that was entitled "What do you do for you?" I remained silent. I don't even exercise like I used to. I definitely need to do "me" more than I have been. I do feed my spirit in reading the word and listening to podcasts, but I don't do anything positive for my body, nor have I met with friends outside of my fellowship for a while. Even cleaning my house would be good exercise, if I would get to it. Especially since my bottom gets so sore from sitting while I am working. I have also been hiding from my hair stylist. I'm long overdue for a trim.

I was laid off from my job of 5 years earlier this month, but because the Lord had warned me ahead of time, I already had a new job before it happened. Next week I begin training for yet another new job (my account with my 1st new job is only an afternoon account, this one will be a morning account). I'm praying that I will be able to help us to dig out of this debt hole faster, especially before summer hits.

I hope that blogging more consistently will help me to pay attention more closely to the way I walk and get back to ordering my steps better.


Priority #6 - My Ministry

James 5:16, "Therefore, openly acknowledge your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."

I confess that other than our Tuesday prayer meeting, I have been negligent in personal prayer. Probably because of painful issues that I don't want to deal with. Correction in that area is needed as well, and yet, there is so much to pray for it seems overwhelming. Pray for me.

Priority #2 - My Husband - Valley of Ono

I was so blessed by the word Friend Hubby preached yesterday from the book of Nehemiah and before the day was over, it had to be put to the test!

I don't believe in all my years of listening to Friend Hubby preach, that I have ever heard him preach from the book of Nehemiah. He has a "old" New Open Bible that has always blessed me in how it broke down the different types of opposition that Nehemiah incurred in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

1. Opposition through Ridicule [language or behavior intended to mock or humiliate, the act of deriding or treating with contempt].
2. Opposition through Threat of Attack [declaration of an intention or a determination to inflict harm on another].
3. Opposition through Discouragement [the expression of opposition and disapproval].
4. Opposition through Extortion [unjust exaction (as by the misuse of authority)].
5. Opposition through Compromise [an accommodation in which both sides make concessions].
6. Opposition through Slander [an abusive attack on a person's character or good name].
7. Opposition through Treachery [an act of deliberate betrayal of a trust].

I don't know about you, but I have experienced all of these at one time or another. Many of them through the same person. Friend Hubby preached about the necessity of a greater degree of discernment in the Body of Christ today. All that comes from God is good, but everything that "appears" good has not necessarily come from God. He preached today about the Valley of Ono. When the enemy tries to get you distracted from the purpose of God in your life, you tell that devil, "Oh, no!"

In this past year, I have been strengthened and encouraged by the ministry of Jonas Clark
who has exposed the characteristics of the Jezebel spirit running rampant in the church of America today. All of the examples of opposition that I listed above are arrows in Jezebel's quiver and she uses them skillfully.

I believe with all my heart we are living in the last days. The Lord is speaking to His called out ones and warning them of the attack of the enemy to come upon the people of God, those who are sold out to Him.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'" Matthew 10:34-36

I am on a mission to route out unbelief in my heart. Do I believe the Word of the Lord from Genesis to Revelation. Are there parts of the Bible that I believe and parts that I wish weren't in there?

I am seeing a divide in the church today. There are many who are seeking the Hebraic roots of Christianity and rediscovering that our Savior was, in fact, Jewish. (duh!) We have for so long tried to make Him relative to our own culture (I have been in the great cathedrals of Europe and seen a blond haired, blue eyed Jesus, and I have been in a church in New Jersey that had a black Jesus with an Afro). The Father could have chosen to present Himself to the world through the Aztec, Mayans, Zulus, Cherokees, Vikings, or any group of people He wanted, but He chose to reveal Himself through the Jews.

"The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt." Deuteronomy 7:7-8

Through Jesus we have been grafted in! Praise God!

"Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." I Peter 2:10

Look at what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 11.

"If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Does this mean we're supposed to become Jewish? No! THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE'RE SUPPOSED TO CONVERT TO JUDAISM!!!!!! If the Jews had always believed, we would have never had the opportunity to be grafted in. But if we ever want to really get to know someone (like a future spouse) we need to know where they came from. We need to know how they think and what makes them tick. It has a lot to do with how they were raised. Friend Hubby is from the east coast. It is a totally different culture from where I was raised in the midwest. To understand him, I had to learn about where he came from. For the longest time we had to come to a consensus about what to serve for Thanksgiving dinner. I was raised with mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. He was raised with baked macaroni and cheese and collard greens. He wins! LOL!

I want to KNOW Jesus. I want to know what idioms that He used in His teachings were unique to His culture, His surroundings. I want to sit on the mount with the others who listened to the Sermon on the Mount. I want to see it from what they were looking at. When John the Baptist told the people to REPENT [turn away from sin], what was He telling them to turn to??? The Law of Moses (not all the caveats that the Pharisees had put in - the fences around each law) but just the simple, plain words that the Father had given to teach us how to love Him). There was not New Testament, yet he was preparing them to meet the Lord. Isn't it also interesting that every Scripture Jesus used to come against Satan was in the book of Deuteronomy? We say, "I'm a New Testament Christian" yet we aren't even using the weapons Jesus used to fight the enemy! We are fighting a battle with only half an arsenal!

It is time to have a vendetta against the spirit of unbelief in our lives. Don't believe me? Think it doesn't take all that? Wake up!!!

Watch this Perry Stone video and tell me what you think.

Priority #1 - My God - Standing

There is one principle I try to teach my children and those who come to me for advice on dealing with difficult people:

If you will wait on the Lord, and do your best to stand in your integrity when dealing with wicked people, the Lord will either move you, or move them.

Psalm 37:10 puts it this way, "A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found."

If you look up this Scripture on Blue Letter Bible, you will find many similar Scriptures.

Selah!

My three children have been over-achievers this year. In the course of this school year they have achieved karate belt promotions, job promotions, new jobs, first-degree black belt, promotion to teen court judge, new scouting levels, troop vice-president, troop president, patrol leader, troop scribe, Timothy award, Provost's Gold Scholarship recipient, Science Olympiad bronze medalist, and high school graduation. Like many great achievers in the world, much of their motivation, unfortunately, stemmed from the pain of words of failure that were spoken over them from a mouth that was supposed to bless them.

Proverbs 26:2 (CJB) says, "Like a fluttering sparrow or a flying swallow, an undeserved curse will come home to roost."

During one particular martial arts test, two of my children were paired and with each kick and punch, they named their frustrations and hurts. I'm proud of them for that. They could have manifested their pain in self-destructive ways, but they channeled it through their self-determination.

Last year, a couple we have known for over a decade decided to "share" with us their distaste of our parental choice of not hiding difficult situations, what they consider, "grown folks business" from our children. LOL! I have to laugh at that one. My children have endured more "grown folks business" than many grown folks. Losing a sibling, financial issues, and let's not even mention all that goes with being a pastor's kid!

There is a method to our madness. Psalm 78:4 from the Bible in Basic English, "We will not keep them secret from our children; we will make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has done."

How do you show true praise? Just throwing up your hands and saying, "Hallelujah" when you are walking on the sunny side of the street and everything is going your way? Psalm 50:23 (CJB), "Whoever offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; and to him who goes the right way I will show the salvation of God." We are reading Leviticus in our daily Torah portions right now. Sacrifices were bloody. They were painful. They would have been an incredibly ugly ceremony to watch. The sacrifice itself probably wasn't to happy with it either.

Two things stand out in this verse:
1. Offer thanksgiving as your sacrifice.
2. Go the right way.

We have not been perfect parents, but I hope and I pray that as my Diva prepares to leave us in a few months for college, that we have demonstrated an effort to model those two things. Praising our way through death, discouragement, disassociation, and everything in between. And second, that they can see that righteous living is it's own reward.

And finally, when you don't have any answer at all, you can't hear a word from the Lord, and it seems like all of your efforts are in vain, don't go your own way. Stand, endure, and persevere until your help comes, for it will surely come.

If we hide our struggles, we will also hide our praise.

Blessings,