Priority #5 - Myself - A Moment of Silence and Empty Nest Prepping

Before I get into the topic of this blog, I want to take a moment of silence to mourn an organization that I have loved since I was 6 years old.  Girl Scouts USA.  My aunt was a Girl Scout and I loved her uniform and her books and her chatter about all the fun things her troop did.  When I was in 1st grade, my mother took me to a Girl Scout informational meeting.  I learned there that I couldn't become a Brownie until I was in the 2nd grade.  My mother offered to let me join Campfire Girls.  I declined.  I was willing to wait a year to become a Girl Scout.  Girl Scouts taught me things I would have never learned from my family, like riding a horse.  When Dancing Angel left us, it was to the Girl Scouts that I turned to find a girl's only community and refuge for The Grand Duchess.  "Be a sister to every Scout..."  Some of my Facebook friends are Girl Scouts sisters that I have known for over 35 years.  This coming year marks my 10th anniversary of being a Girl Scout leader.  I have had a blast watching my girls overcome their fears of water, heights, animals, the outdoors, nighttime, travel, people, you name it, and rejoiced and celebrated with them over every accomplishment.  I was ready to leave Girl Scouts a few years ago.  I fasted and prayed about it.  I read the biography of its founder.  I felt led to continue, not because of the organization, but because of the bond I had formed with the girls in my troop.  Leaving them would have hurt them and sent them a bad message about adults who are committed to help them grow.  I had seen the pain that that had caused in the girls of another troop after their leader suddenly abandoned them.  I could never do that to them, so I stayed.  I also stayed because I have wonderful co-leaders who stand with me as a wall of defense between GSUSA policies and our girls.    

I am so heartbroken over their latest decision to admit confused boys I don't know what to do.  I am sure that it's founder Juliette Gordon Low would be turning over in her grave.  This hurts so much.  I now have a new drive.  To help my daughter get her Gold Award within the next school year.  By the end of the year, she will bridge to Ambassadors.  I think at that point, we will be done.  It will be the end of an era.

Which brings me to the end of another era.  By the time Princess Butterfly graduates from high school in 3 years' time, I will have been a homeschooling mother for a quarter of a century.  I dread the school year following that.  So much so, that I am preparing for it now.

Two things over the past month or so have confirmed my decision.  One was an arrow, a word that had the power of Yehovah behind it to wound me in the side.  I was sitting in an informational meeting about early college high school.  This is a pilot program by our community college to have homeschooled high schoolers earn their associate's degree by the time they graduate high school.  A question was raised as to whether this would be a help or a hindrance to those going on to universities.  The reply was that it would actually help because there are many people who have SOME college credits, but it would show the university that you are a person who finishes what they start.  BOOM!!!   Did you feel that?  Yah has been speaking to me about finishing things.  That is the reason I didn't want to pull my son out of Boy Scouts after being in it for a decade before completing his Eagle.  That's why I don't want to pull my daughter out of Girl Scouts after being in it for 10 years before completing her Gold Award.  The world is full of starters, not finishers.

Second confirmation came this week.  I had been fasting and praying on Tuesday.  I turned back to the Torah portion this week and read Leviticus 25.  In a nutshell, it is talking about the 50-year cycles of Jubilee.  It is at that time that all debts and debtors were released.  I misread it and was actually thinking that there was a 7-year release.  But let's say that a person became indebted at the age of 21, at the age of 71, they would be released.  Released to what?  If in the time that they had been indentured, if they had not learned to change their thinking about money, debt, wealth, covetousness, time management, diligence...all the wrong thinking that led to their having to their servitude, at some point in the future, they would have to start all over again.

That rabbit trail led me to look up statistics on bancruptcy in our country.  According to the data I found, 8% of people who file for bancruptcy once will do it again.  [Disclaimer:  I am not looking into filing for bancruptcy, I was just on a fact-finding mission.].  So 8% of these people don't learn from their mistakes and end up in the same place they started.

After I found that tidbit of information, I was about to close the page when my eye fell upon another statistic; one that I was not looking for.  This one said that the majority of people who file for bancruptcy are not people with college degrees, nor is it people who have never been to college.  The vast majority of people who file for bancruptcy are people who have started college but have never finished.  BOOM!!!  Did you feel that?

When Friend Hubby and I married, I left nursing school and my life as a military wife has been an amazing journey.  I remember praying about it once and felt confident that Yah was leading me to put my education in His hands for safe keeping.  I feel like now is the time, the open window that He is giving to me to go back and finish.

Financially speaking, it LOOKS LIKE this is a bad time to try to go back to school.  Do you not know that we walk by faith and not by sight?  On May 8th, I made a decision.  Boy Wonder is taking college algebra over the summer as part of his early college start. I'm going to sit myself down and do the homework with him.  At the end of the summer, I am going to CLEP it. One down.....  I am going to continue to do this with any classes he takes that I am going to need in order to get an associate's degree in general studies.  For some classes, I am going to have Princess Butterfly study with me so we can both CLEP.  When I have done all the community college classes I can do, I am going to enroll in the HBCU downtown and get a bachelor's degree in history.  When Princess Butterfly starts college (sniff, sniff), I will be ready to begin to teach history at our local co-op.

This is how I plan to treat my empty nest syndrome.  I hope my blog readers will cheer me on and hold me accountable to FINISH what I start.

Bible verses about finishing ~ 

Ecclesiastes 9:11 ISR98 - "I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the mighty, nor even bread to the wise, nor even riches to men of understanding, nor even favour to men of knowledge – for time and chance meets with them all."

Mathew 24:13 ISR98 - “But he who shall have endured to the end shall be saved."

1 Corinthians 15:58 ISR98 - "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Master, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Master." 

James 1:12 ISR98 - "Blessed is the man who does endure trial, for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which the Master has promised to those who love Him."

Hebrews 10:36 ISR98 - "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the desire of Elohim, you receive the promise:" 

2 Timothy 4:7-8 ISR98 - "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have guarded the belief.  For the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Master, the righteous Judge, shall give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all those loving His appearing." 

Romans 8:28 ISR98 - "And we know that all matters work together for good to those who love Elohim, to those who are called according to His purpose." 

Ephesians 6:16 ISR98 - "above all, having taken up the shield of belief with which you shall have power to quench all the burning arrows of the wicked one." 

Philippians 1:6 ISR98 - "being persuaded of this, that He who has begun a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of יהושע Messiah."

Proverbs 24:10 ISR98 - "If you falter in the day of distress, Your strength is small!" 



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Priority #1 - My Elohim: Counting the Omer, Part 2

Ladies,

If you are following Our Heavenly Father's calendar, then you are well into the season known as The Counting of the Omer.

Leviticus 23:15 ISR98  "‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths. ‘Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה."  

We know that this was the season that Yeshua's disciples were in following His resurrection of which He spoke in  Acts 1:8  “But you shall receive power when the Set-apart Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Yerushalayim, and in all Yehuḏah and Shomeron, and to the end of the earth.”

As we count the Omer toward Shavuot/Pentecost, I want to meditate on the gifts of the Spirit found in I Corinthians 12.  Last week, we looked at the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge.  This week, I'd like to look at faith and healing.   

4 Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. 5 Also there are different ways of serving, but it is the same Lord being served. 6 And there are different modes of working, but it is the same God working them all in everyone. 7 Moreover, to each person is given the particular manifestation of the Spirit that will be for the common good. 8 To one, through the Spirit, is given a word of wisdom; to another, a word of knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit; 9 to another, faith, by the same Spirit; and to another, gifts of healing, by the one Spirit; 10 to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the ability to judge between spirits; to another, the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues; and to yet another, the ability to interpret tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit is at work in all these things, distributing to each person as he chooses. 12 For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. 13 For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 For indeed the body is not one part but many. (CJB)

The Hebrew word for faith is "emun."  The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Deuteronomy 32:20 ISR98, "“And He said, ‘Let Me hide My face from them, Let Me see what their end is, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom there is no trusting."  

The Mechanical Translation of the Torah:  Lexicon of Hebrew Roots and Words, edited by Jeff A. Benner, defines this word as "Securely fixed in place.  The root word is derived from the firmness of the plant that comes out from the seed.  Something that grabs hold or supports something else.  the passing of strength or skill to the next generation."  HalleluYah!  I can see evidence of that in the full Shema.  

"“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."

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 CJB.  This is why it is so important for our children to see us act out our faith.  They can't see faith as mental ascent.  They can only see faith by our actions.  

James 2:17 ISR98 "So also belief, if it does not have works, is in itself dead."

*** The next is the gift of healing.  The Hebrew word for heal is "rapha."  

The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 20:17 ISR98, "And Aḇraham prayed to Elohim, and Elohim healed Aḇimeleḵ, and his wife, and his female servants, so they bore children, "  

The above mentioned lexicon defines this word as "To restore to health or wholeness.  In the definition of the Hebrew root, it says that wounds, sickness and illnesses are cured with medicines made from plan materials which were pulverized into a medicinal powder."  

For me, this indicates that healing does not only come through the laying on of hands and prayer, but also through the use of medicinal herbs and plants.  We typically only think of a faith healer as one who prays, but apparently this gift is extended to the knowledge of knowing how to heal as well.  Interesting!  

Look at some of what the Bible has to say about healing!  

Ezekiel 47:12 ESV "And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

Isaiah 38:21 ESV "Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”

Proverbs 17:22 ESV "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV "(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)"

Matthew 9:12 ESV "But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."

Luke 10:34 ESV "He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him."

Jeremiah 8:22 ESV "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?"  

Psalm 103:3 ESV "Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,"

James 5:15 ESV "And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."

Revelation 22:2 ESV "Through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."  

These were just the first 10 verses on this list.  There are many, many more!  

This coming week, I am going to be looking to increase my faith visibility to my children and looking for ways to be open to His using me for healing.  I think my job as a medical transcriptionist puts me in the hot seat because friends and family always come to me with questions.  "I tell them, I'm not a doctor, I just play one on the computer."  :-)





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Priority #1 - My Elohim: Counting the Omer, Part 1

Ladies,

If you are following Our Heavenly Father's calendar, then you are well into the season known as The Counting of the Omer.

Leviticus 23:15 ISR98  "‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths. ‘Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה."  

We know that this was the season that Yeshua's disciples were in following His resurrection of which He spoke in  Acts 1:8  “But you shall receive power when the Set-apart Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Yerushalayim, and in all Yehuḏah and Shomeron, and to the end of the earth.”

As we count the Omer toward Shavuot/Pentecost, I want to meditate on the gifts of the Spirit found in I Corinthians 12, the first one being the gift of the word of wisdom.  

4 Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. 5 Also there are different ways of serving, but it is the same Lord being served. 6 And there are different modes of working, but it is the same God working them all in everyone. 7 Moreover, to each person is given the particular manifestation of the Spirit that will be for the common good. 8 To one, through the Spirit, is given a word of wisdom; to another, a word of knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit; 9 to another, faith, by the same Spirit; and to another, gifts of healing, by the one Spirit; 10 to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the ability to judge between spirits; to another, the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues; and to yet another, the ability to interpret tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit is at work in all these things, distributing to each person as he chooses. 12 For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. 13 For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 For indeed the body is not one part but many. (CJB)

The Hebrew word for wisdom is "chokmah"  The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Exodus 28:3 ISR98 in reference to Aaron, the High Priest, "And you, speak to all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom, and they shall make the garments of Aharon, to set him apart, for him to serve as priest to Me."  

The Mechanical Translation of the Torah:  Lexicon of Hebrew Roots and Words, edited by Jeff A. Benner, defines this word as "The ability to decide or discern between good and bad, right and wrong."  Can you see how worldliness wars against this spiritual gift?  

Isaiah 5:20 ISR98 says,  "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"  How do we stir up this gift within us?  

Romans 12:2 ISR98, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you prove what is that good and well-pleasing and perfect desire of Elohim."

The second of these gifts is the word of knowledge.  The Hebrew word for knowledge is "da`ath."  A synonym for this word is discernment.  

The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 2:9 at creation, "And out of the ground יהוה Elohim made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  

The above mentioned lexicon defines this word as "The quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure.  It is also used to describe an intimacy with a person, idea, or concept."  

We are told in Romans 1:21  "because, although they knew Elohim, they did not esteem Him as Elohim, nor gave thanks, but became vain in their reasonings, and their undiscerning heart was darkened."   Proverbs 9:10 ISR98, "The fear of יהוה is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Set-apart One is understanding."

Of the prophet Daniel it was said, "because an excellent spirit, knowledge and understanding, interpreting dreams, and explaining riddles, and solving difficult problems were found in this Dani’ĕl, whom the sovereign named Bĕlteshatstsar. Now let Dani’ĕl be called, and let him show the interpretation.”  Daniel 5:12 ISR98  

In this season of the Counting of the Omer, let us all earnestly pray for a fresh outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit upon our nation, and ask Our Father to stir up these gifts within us as well!  

2 Timothy 1:6 ISR98  "For this reason I remind you to stir up the gift of Elohim which is in you through the laying on of my hands."

 



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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.