Priority #1: My Elohim - Happy New Year!

Shana Tova (Hebrew for Happy New Year)!  

Do you remember the last time you anticipated something so strongly that it affected your sleeping, your eating,your ability to focus?  That's how I feel about coming into the New Year. The world celebrated it's new year in the midst of darkness when all the world is seemingly dead.  The new year of our Father and my brethren in His Kingdom began when the sliver of the moon was sighted over what Yeshua declares in Matthew 5:35, "The City of the Great King."  

My Father's New Year is filled with the promise of refreshing, renewal, and resurrection.  Psalms 81:1-4 ISR98 - "Shout for joy to Elohim our strength; Raise a shout to the Elohim of Yaʽaqob.  Lift up a song and beat the tambourine, The pleasant lyre and with the harp. 
Blow the ram’s horn at the time of the New Moon, At the full moon, on our festival day.  For this is a law for Yisra’ĕl, And a right-ruling of the Elohim of Yaʽaqob." 

I am shouting for joy!  Today is the New Moon and two weeks from now will be Passover, a solemn Feast.   We will celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lamb of Yehovah who takes away the sins of the world. He who has delivered our souls from bondage and put His name upon us, given us a new manner of life, freedom for our chains, joy for our sorry, community for our isolation, unity in place of assimilation.  
This has been a particularly difficult winter for me.  Don't get me wrong.  I have certainly known much harder winters than this.  I'm thankful that this winter didn't involve any funerals as so many of my winters have.  I think this winter I was just so frustrated with ME.  Have you ever gotten on your OWN nerves?  LOL 

I'm ready to start over.  I want to be better.  I want the opportunity to do get it right where I seemed to have continuously and repetitively gotten it wrong.  I told a friend a few weeks ago, only Yah is good and I fail Him every day.   

A young person that I love at one time seemed as if they were walking on sunshine.   They were setting goals and achieving them one after another, but confusion stepped into their path and they seemed to hit a wall.  Finally, after a couple of years of they seem to have caught their second wind and are running to make up for lost time.  That's why this change of season is so anticipated for me. I need to catch a second wind!  

I am reading Elizabeth George's A Woman's Call to Prayer.  She talks about praying about OUR personal needs.  I spend a lot of time praying for others, but sometimes it feels like going to remodel a neighbor's house while your own looks like an episode of Hoarders.  These are the things I need to commit to prayer for ME.  

Health and energy -- Zig Zigler said, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time."  I have been afraid to set goals for my health and fitness.  I am way closer to 50 than I am to 40.  I can't afford to take good health for granted.  

Attitude -- I want others to see the fruit of the Spirit in me. Psalms 128:3 ISR98 - "Let your wife be As a fruit-bearing vine within your house, Your sons like olive plants all around your table."  When my husband and my children come to me to pick fruit, will they find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustworthiness, gentleness, self-control?  

Faithfulness -- I'm a good starter.  This year, I want to be a good finisher.  The race is not given to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but to he that endures to the end.  

Finances -- Just like my health, if I don't set any goals, I won't get anywhere.  

Work -- One of my jobs has been the source of my anxiety lately so I He blessed me with a second job (I have 2 part time jobs now).  Not having to totally depend on the first job has lifted MUCH stress.  I want to learn to be faithful to do what I am supposed to do.  Like Yah told Cain, “If you do well, is there not acceptance? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should master it.”  Ultimately, I don't work for any man.  I work for my Father, so I need to be sure and give HIM my best.   

Wisdom -- Donalacasa's theme verse is, Proverbs 24:3-6 ISR98 - "By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches. Mighty is the wise in strength, And a man of knowledge strengthens power; For by wise guidance you wage your own battle, And delivery is by a great counselor."  I have accused others of demonstrating more of what they are against, than of what they are for.  My son, in his study of wisdom, shared a couple of weeks ago about how knowledge is just facts.  As a classical homeschooler, this is the grammar stage.  Understanding is like the dialectic stage.  You ask questions, based on your knowledge to gain understanding. Wisdom is like the rhetoric stage. It is the demonstration of your understanding through speech or writing.  I have to start, however, with knowledge. I want to spend more time studying things I don't know.   

Relationships -- I would like to see some healing in relationships with extended family.  I have seen it in other family relationships, but I would like to see more.   

Abba, may I fulfill all your expectations of me in this season!   

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Priority #3: My Children: What's my System?

When we were first married, Friend Hubby and I were involved in a car accident where a 5-year, son of an independent Baptist minister, had run across the street without looking.  Friend Hubby saw him out of the corner of  his eye and had already braked and gone into a skid by the time our car struck him.  His little mind, however, was so intent on getting across the street that even after he rolled off the hood of our car, he still got back up and continued running until his father was able to tackle him in their front yard just to stop him from running.

Later in the week, we went back to visit with the family to see that the boy was okay because we were getting ready to get on a plane to the Azores, Portugal.  During our visit, although we had only been married a few weeks, the minister gave us some books about child rearing.  I read some of it on the long plane ride to what was to be our home for the first 3 years of our marriage.  I can't remember now what it was called, but it was based on Susanna Wesley's 16 Rules.   It was two and a half years later before we became parents, but the ideals of that book stuck with us and we employed many of the rules once Dancing Angel was born and for every child born after.

Over the years, especially after we began homeschooling, we were exposed to many other child rearing systems and methods.  There were nursing methods, sleeping methods, potty training methods, teaching methods, reading methods, math methods, history methods, church methods, relationship methods, ad nauseum.  Exposure to each new system felt like we had discovered the cure for cancer.  Eureka!  This is IT!  THIS must be the magic formula that if I enter my children into THIS system, they will absolutely without fail grow up to be the woman or man of my dreams/imagination/idol.  We even judge other parents based on their the system they choose.  "She's STILL nursing that child?"  "Her son's not reading YET?"

In the months leading up to the Grand Duchess starting high school at home, it seemed like every former homeschooler I met had a testimony to share with me of how they had homeschooled their children and when they came of age, they turned their backs on God and became godless heathens.  What in the world???  Fear tried to creep in.  Second guessing kicked in.  Have we done the right thing?  Should we be more strict?  Should we be more liberal?  What a quandary!    

My sister posted this status on her Facebook page the other day and I don't think she realized how profound it was, "You know your days of sanity are numbered when your daughter is about 4 feet from the spot you originally placed her on the floor."  Yep, that's what it's like parenting by a "system."  You put your child in the system's spot or box and when you turn your back for a second, they have either crawled out of the box, broken down the walls of the box, or are lying limply in the bottom of the box because they are so miserable because it's not the right box for them.  

After much soul searching, I came into THIS method of child rearing.  Every morning when I pray for my family and each child individually, I would make this confession:  FATHER, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING.  I am clueless.  I don't know how to be the mother I need to be so that my children will become the men and women You want them to be.  I have searched and searched and have not found the magic formula for entering my kids into a system and having them come out a certain way.  I can't transform into the mother that my feelings tell me I should be.  I can't transform into all the mommy bloggers on Pinterest who must have it all together.  Not only that, but I can't fit into a system myself because the mother I need to be to the Grand Duchess is not the mother that I need to be to Boy Wonder.  The mother I need to be to Boy Wonder is not the mother I need to be to Princess Butterfly.  Paul said, "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."  (1 Corinthians 9:22b).  I must become different mothers to each of my different children.  For Dancing Angel, I became a choreographer.  For the Grand Duchess, I became a student of history.  For Boy Wonder, I became a cheerleader.  For Princess Butterfly, I am metamorphosing into a businesswoman.

James 2:17 NKJV says, "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."  I think one of the greatest acts of faith is child rearing.

Hebrews 11:8 reads, "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going."  In Donalacasa's translation, the verse reads:  "By faith Friend Hubby and Donalacasa, when they were called to be parents, through which they would receive an inheritance (as children are an heritage of Yehovah: and the fruit of the womb is His reward ~ Psalm 127:3), they parented, not knowing what they were doing."

But we don't lose heart along the way because 2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us, "For all the promises of Yehovah in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of Yehovah through us."  We are also told, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6

Ladies, let us parent in faith, not with our faith in a system, but with our faith solely in the Almighty.  "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to Yehovah must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."  Hebrews 11:6

That's my system.



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Priority #2 - My Husband: An Encouraging Word

Rosh Chodesh Sameach!  This post is actually going to come out a couple of days after the New Moon is sighted in Israel.

One day, I was online looking for some more to add to my prayers for my husband and I ran across the 30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge from Revive Our Hearts Ministries.  The initial response in my mind was not positive so I had to do some self-examination and ask myself why.  My husband and I have a great relationship.  We've been together for 31 years and married for nearly 28 of them.  The only answer that I can think of that would have caused that response is maybe some residual feminist thought patterns from my upbringing.

Every now and then, an article makes it's rounds on Facebook or Pinterest from 1955.

Even those who have very little inclination towards feminism are likely to look at this and say, "Oh, hold on one minute here!"

The 30-Day Husband Encouragement is NOT asking you to check your brain and sensitivities at the door.  It is giving us as wives the opportunity to put Yehovah to the test.  Consider the following Scriptures.

James 2:17, "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."  Faith is not fluffy clouds and feathers.  Faith is doing the hard things that YOU are able to do and trusting that the Almighty will do what HE is able to do.  If you have been praying for your husband to change, maybe the Father wants to work through you to do it, but you haven't been a willing vessel.

The Amplified Bible breaks down 1 Peter 3:1-2 like this:  "In like manner, you married women, be submissive to your own husbands [subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them], so that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives, when they observe the pure and modest way in which you conduct yourselves, together with your reverence [for your husband; you are to feel for him all that reverence includes: to respect, defer to, revere him—to honor, esteem, appreciate, prize, and, in the human sense, to adore him, that is, to admire, praise, be devoted to, deeply love, and enjoy your husband]."

Are you able or willing to be a wordless witness fit for the Master's use?  Do you REALLY trust Yehovah?  "Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."  Matthew 16:24  What if for the next 30 days, taking up your cross is bridling your unruly tongue and speaking positive words over your husband?  Hmm.

Proverbs 31:11:  

In this verse, the Hebrew word for heart is lev.  It is a spelled with the Hebrew letters lamed and beyt.  Lamed in Paleo Hebrew (pictographs like Egyptian heiroglyphics) is a shepherd's staff.  Beyt is a pictograph of a tent or house.  This word tells us that a woman of valor shepherd's her husband's heart.  Her husband is secure in the knowledge that his heart is in a safe place.

 Following verse, Proverbs 31:12 in the Amplified reads:  "She comforts, encourages, and does him only good as long as there is life within her."

I always say, this walk is not about how much Word you KNOW, but how much Word you LIVE.

This is the beginning of the 11th Biblical month, let's put some feet to our faith!



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Priority #1 My Elohim ~ The Shema

This blog has been long neglected.   Since I use Donalacasa's Daybook every week after Shabbat, I thought that I'd dust this one off to use from one Rosh Chodesh to the next Rosh Chodesh. 

Isaiah 66:23 ISR98 - “And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares יהוה."

Since Sukkot, I have been saturating myself with the subject of prayer.  I'm reading books on prayer. 

I'm listening to messages on prayer,  but most importantly, I'm praying.   Since last year, I've been instructed by Yah to rise earlier and earlier to pray.  Note the similarities between the habit of the Virtuous Woman and The Messiah.  

Proverbs 31:15 ISR98 - "She also rises while it is still night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her girls."

Mark 1:35 ISR98 - "And having risen very early in the morning, while still dark, He went out, and went away to a lonely place, and there He prayed."

Initially, I had started getting up at 6:45, but Abba made it clear that that was not early enough, so for the past 6 weeks or so, I have been getting up at 6:00 a.m. to pray.  From a chronic insomniac, I would say that this is quite an act of God.  

Since last year, He has been speaking into my spirit:  "Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it!"  James 1:22 CJB.  

I begin my morning prayer with the Shema.  What is the Shema, you ask?  

Mark 12:28-29 CJB, "One of the Torah-teachers came up and heard them engaged in this discussion. Seeing that Yeshua answered them well, he asked him, “Which is the most important mitzvah of them all?” Yeshua answered, “The most important is, ‘Sh’ma Yisra’el, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, O Isra’el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one],"

From a paper entitled “Praying Like Jesus: The Shema”, In contrast to the modern Shema in Judaism which has added additional scriptures, originally it consisted only of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 CJB, 

“Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.  These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates."

The author of the paper goes on to divide the Shema into 4 parts:  

A. “Hear, O Israel”

The first is the command: “Shema Israel” (“Hear, O Israel”). Etymologically the term

“shema” invokes not only hearing, but also learning, following, even obeying. ( U. Rüterswörden, “ע ַמ ָשׁ‚ ע ַמ ֵשׁ ‚ הָמוּע ְשׁ ,” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, trans. John T. Willis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 15:254).  

Where it involves listening to the spoken word, this term implies an engagement with the mind, an attentive listening, even a sense of “heed by acting” or “putting to practice.”( K. T. Aitken, “שׁמע,” in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. Willem A.

VanGemeren (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 4:175-178).  

When God calls Israel to hear, he expects more than just a listening. He expects action. The term “Shema”appears ten times in the larger text here, and beckons us to not only hear the words of God, but to take them into the very center of our being and doing.  (See Wyse, “Loving God,” 24-29).  

In other words, God expects a listening with a view toward doing. 

B. “YHWH Alone”

Among the myriads of other theological discussions that this point of the Shema could bring, the one that stands out to me is "that this part of The Shema is an affirmation of the first two commands of the Decalogue, that YHWH is God and Israel is to have no other (Exod. 20:1-4).  The opening line of The Shema has the force of calling Israel to cast off all other gods—like those they encountered in Egypt, Canaan, and Philistia—to worship and serve only YHWH.  In this sense, I think a better translation reads: “Listen, Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH alone.”  The golden calf incident die-cast Israel into a foreign-god-worshipping kind of mold, and The Shema was a twice-daily discipline to keep this temptation at bay. At the heart of The Shema is a call for the people of God to worship “YHWH alone.”  (For For a compelling case for translating echad as “alone” rather than “one,” see Jackie A. Wyse, “Loving God as an Act of Obedience: The Shema in Context,” in Take This Word to Heart: The Shema in Torah and Gospel,” ed. Perry Yoder (Elkhart, IN: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2005), 48-51, esp. n. 79; Dean McBride,  “Yoke of the Kingdom,” 291-297).  

C. “Love YHWH Your God …”

Another thing The Shema teaches us is that our doing is inextricably tied to our loving. The

Shema calls us to “love YHWH our God” with all of our being. In Deuteronomy the command to “love YHWH” is always set alongside obedience to his commands, or rather, obedience to the commands that YHWH give is the way to love him. Consider the following examples:

Deuteronomy. 11:1: “Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge,

His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.”

Deuteronomy. 11:13-14a: “And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments

which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all

your heart and with all your soul.”

Deuteronomy. 11:22-23: “carefully keep all these commandments which I command you

to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to

Him.”

Deuteronomy. 19:8b-9: “if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I

command you today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways.”

John said it this way: “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not

burdensome” (1 John 5:3). 

Do you remember Jesus saying, “If you love me, then keep my commandments” (John 14:15)? (Perhaps there is a subtle claim to deity in Jesus’ statement there.) The way to love God—and the way to love Jesus—is to obey his commandments.  Love for YHWH has nothing to do with feeling and everything to do with action. The commands that The Shema has in mind are specifically the Ten Commandments repeated by Moses right before the recitation of The Shema. “Deuteronomy 5-6 functions as a literary unit, a unit that purposefully connects the Decalogue to The Shema, and vice versa. The implication is that obedience to God’s commands (embodied in the Decalogue) and loving God (embodied in The Shema) are actions intricately bound up with one another.”( Wyse, “Loving God,” 36.)  

The Shema and the Ten Commandments go hand in hand (The interconnectedness of The Shema and the Decalogue is further evidenced by the Nash Papyrus (c. 150 B.C.), which contains the Ten Commandments and The Shema as a guide for daily prayers), so that to live by the Ten Words is to demonstrate love for God.  Contextually, the result of all of this commandment-obeying and God-loving is life!  Over and over again the Old Testament (in part, owing to what we’re about to discover next) lays out two ways that we can all choose: the path of life, or the path of destruction. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it only leads to death” (Prov. 14:12). It’s embodied in Psalm 1:  “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked … but who delights in the law of the LORD” (Ps. 1:1-2). Jesus said it this way: “Wide is the road that leads to destruction, and narrow the way that leads to life” (Matt. 7:13-14).  And so it is in Deuteronomy. There are two ways set before the people, one of obedience and life, the other of rebellion and destruction

Deuteronomy. 30:16: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in

that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to

keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and

multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to

possess.”

Deuteronomy. 30:19b-20: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;

therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you

may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling

to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.”

That’s what The Shema is doing in the larger context of Deuteronomy: calling Israel to

remember her history and to obey His commands as a sign of love for Him and His deliverance

from their captivity in Egypt. 

D. “With All Your Heart, Soul, and Strength”

The author of the paper expresses this portion of the Shema in modern terms we can all understand.  "The Shema is calling us to do: love God with ALL OF OUR BEING.  With all my heart, with all my mind, with all my strength, with all my work, with all my computers, with all my Facebook, with all my wallet, with all my home, with all my time. This is what it means to “love YHWH your God.”

Well, I guess I'm done.  Posting this article blessed me and confirmed what I have been being led to do by the Ruach HaChodesh (Holy Spirit).  I hope it will bless my readers as well.  

Priority #3 - My Children: One Selfish Day

I am a wife to one man that I have loved for 30+ years.  I am a mom to three living, active, competitive, very social homeschooled and college attending children.  I am a pastor's wife of a congregation that meets weekly in my home.  I am a full time employee.  I am a mentor to women who are are walking through any of the above life journeys.  I constantly try to make myself available to as many people as I can on a daily basis for 364 days of the year.  I counsel, I pray, I teach.  

The one day that I keep for myself is December 25th.  If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know our family doesn't celebrate Christmas, as we believe the Messiah was born during the Festival of Sukkot, which occurs in the fall.  

On December 25th, I turn my phone all the way down.  I don't hear any text message notifications.  If anyone calls, I don't answer.  That's not completely true.  I do answer for one person.  She and I have walked hand in hand through grief.  When we suffer a loss, we usually turn to one another as the only other person who truly understands, doesn't give platitudes, and allows one another to be as expressive of our grief as we want to be.  

On December 25th, I'm afraid I am not very reverent, holy, or nice.  I do try to keep my mouth shut and recognize that at least my immediate family shares the grief of this day.  One loses all sense of humor, another posts angry words on social media, but we do at least TRY to consider that each of us feels the pain of our loss in our own way.  The younger ones just try to stay out of the way of the older ones.  We certainly don't want to wound well-meaning people who don't understand.  

On December 25th, 1989, my husband and I became parents for the first time.  Our firstborn Dancing Angel changed our whole way of living.  Like all first time parents, we thought every single thing she did was amazing.  She very happy and very healthy until December 2002 when she suddenly became very ill for three weeks and then in January 2003, suddenly died of a brain tumor she had been diagnosed with 72 hours earlier.  She had just turned 13 years old.  

If December 25th, 1989 changed who we were, then January 15, 2003 changed us yet again.  We became a family that flies in missing man formation.  Have we moved forward with life?  Absolutely.  We have had and are looking forward to achievements, graduations, and other celebrations.  

But on one day of the year, December 25th.  We are different.  I am different.  On that day, I acknowledge the hole in my heart that was created the day she left us.  I acknowledge that I wish life had turned out different for us.  I acknowledge that each of us bears our grief in our own way.  I don't like to give much attention to January 15th, although I know it exists.  I know what happened on that day, but I choose to give more attention to the day she was given and not the day she was taken away.  December 25th was HER day in our family.  We didn't give attention to January 15th when she was here, I see no reason to give it special significance now.  That's one reason why my grieving friend calls me on December 25th and I call her on May 11th.  We acknowledge that our children were born and they lived, no matter how short that time was.  
On December 25th, I am sad.  I am angry.  I am hurting.  I want to hit things.  I want to yell, scream, and cuss.  I don't, but I want to.  I am a bereaved mother.  I grieve much because I love much.  

On December 26th, I will go back to being wife, mother, mentor.  I will bow my heart and give thanks to Elohim for all His wonderful gifts, including the one that was given and taken away, blessed be He.  I will also thank Him for giving me December 25th.  

Priority #2 - My Husband: Revival

Recently, a friend recommended my listening to a message from a certain Hebrew roots minister.  The message was good, but by the end of the message, I found myself wondering what his wife would have said on the subject.  I felt like what he was teaching was a decidedly male response to a gender-less issue.  I looked at their website to see if there were any teachings from his wife, but I couldn't find any.  That day, I developed such a hunger to be fed by women's ministry.  Among Hebrew roots ministries, there just isn't anything with depth out there directed toward women.

Our ministry has grown to the point of being able to have our own women's meetings and I want to make sure I have something to share.  I don't believe in doing all the teaching, we can all grow from one another.  I began searching and reaching out to other sisters in Torah and then another amazing thing happened.  During Sukkot, my cousin texted me from two feet away and said, "Let's get the women together for our own breakout session.  I texted my husband, who was also two feet away,  so he could politely interrupt the speaker so we could leave.  LOL

It was amazing, it was painful, it was revealing, it was refreshing, but it was so NECESSARY!   So much so that my cousin wants us to get the two groups of women together quarterly.  Awesome!

Part of my search for women's ministry lead me to a program called Revive Our Hearts by a teacher named Nancy Leigh Demoss.  Because I taught on Abigail and David at our last women's meeting, I began to listen to her series of teachings on Abigail.  I have the message A Soft Answer saved in my phone.  I have been listening to the same message over and over and it has been stirring and reviving me.  She says, "When you have a heart full of love, you can say a lot and be a lot more effective than if you’re just being a contentious, domineering, controlling woman. You can say hard things to the most difficult men when you say them with a gentle and gracious spirit and with genuine concern and compassion."  Oh how I long to be THAT woman!  I recognize this kind of response can only come as a byproduct of the overflow of a heart that is totally surrendered to Yehovah.  

  
Recently, I played this video for my husband and our assistant congregational leader because I feel does a good job of illustrating the differences in male and female communication.  I was amused at the look of confusion on their faces.  They don't get it.  My husband has been married long enough to know how to pretend to get it.  LOL.  Male and female are two different elements of creation of Elohim and it is amazing that we have learned to communicate as well as we have, I think.  Sometimes my dog hops up and puts her front paws on my leg.  When I lean over and ask her what she wants, she just stares at me.  She would like for me to read her mind, but unfortunately, I can't.  Sometimes she goes away in frustration, running to shake the life out of one of her toys because she can't communicate to me what she wants.  That is how male and female communication can be at times, especially in the unfortunate event of H-A-L-T (too hungry, too angry, too lonely, and/or too tired).    

I recognize that men rarely understand all the thoughts that are conveyed in a woman's words, but a woman's actions can effectively break through that communication barrier.  The phrase "actions speak louder than words" would certainly be applicable here.  I have been teaching my daughter the same thing.  Don't come to Daddy with, "Please let me go see Suzy because she's leaving for three weeks and she's my best friend, well not my first best friend but my other best friend, and I haven't spent time with her in like forever and I'm so going to miss her because I'll only be able to text her because where she's going there might not be internet and Facebook won't be available (sniff, sniff)...."    He's not going to hear you.  You will have wasted all of those words because he will only be focused on whether or not your room is clean.      

So at this point, I am revitalized in my excitement to communicate with my husband in ways other than words, through my cooking, through my touch, through my availability in a crisis, through my listening ear.  I am excited to make first contact -- again!  To boldly go where no woman has gone before --  okay, I'm getting carried away.  

I leave you with a scene from one of my favorite Star Trek TNG episodes where Captain Picard is having to learn to communicate with another humanoid life form who communicates only within their cultural legends.  

Priority #1 - My Elohim: Great is Thy Faithfulness

While cleaning her room, Princess Butterfly came across an old diary once belonging to my firstborn Dancing Angel (1989-2003).  Like everything else Dancing Angel and My Diva owned as little girls, the diary was Lisa Frank.  I had read it before, but it had been many, many years.  It made me laugh. She never could finish a paragraph. She starts telling a story of how I yelled at her for no reason, but didn't finish it. She mentions meeting her two best friends for the first time and had planned to bring them some gum.  She didn't date anything, but even though few pages are written on, it spans a few years, from life in Okinawa as an Air Force brat to moving to Texas.  It's a treasure. I'm so glad we have it.

I laughed while I read it, and then cried like a baby until I fell asleep. There is not a moment that goes by that I don't wish she were still here.  The following morning after reading the diary, I thought I would get up depressed, but I got up remembering that His mercies are new EVERY morning. GREAT is His faithfulness. I'm thankful for every one of my loved ones who have passed on, but I'm not going to lose one minute of the joy of being with the ones that I have with me. "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Bless His name!

As soon as I got on my computer, I saw a video posted of my cousin giving her testimony in church recently.  She and I have lost two shared relatives this year, but on her mother's side she has lost so many more, back to back.  It has been rough.  

I will let her testimony be the completion of my blog today.