Ah, this has the feel of a true call and response: "for His steadfast love endures for ever!" Over and over. I think the Psalmist is trying to make a point! J Forever is quite a concept. Can you imagine? God loving you for ever and ever and ever......? And steadfast—dependable. You can ALWAYS count on God to be there for YOU. Awesome.
"O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever."
Thankful reading (Nov 2) – Psalm 106:1.
"Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever!"
Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you. You have the next few days, weeks, months, whatever... all planned, then God hits you up the side of the head with something completely different, something that turns your plans and your little world completely upside down and is even downright painful. Alright, you can put your hands down now. And it really isn't necessary to jump up and down, waving your arm wildly! (Though it is nice to know I'm not the only one!)
As you've undoubtedly guessed, this has happened to me. In fact, it happened to me this summer. My neatly planned summer that I was looking forward to so eagerly took an ugly turn and I--to coin an expression--belly flopped right into a painful pool of family relationship issues. After a couple of months of floundering around in self-pity and "why me, God?" and downright agony and "what do we do, God?", I think I'm beginning to be able to dog paddle a little now. I think I may be moving on to the learning stage, learning what it is God has to teach me, discovering the way through this morass we found ourselves in. It is still way hard, but a small light bulb went on this morning. This will be the summer that God began an amazing growth in me.
"Self-preoccupation, self-broodings, self-interest, self-love,--these are the reasons why you go jarring against your fellows. Turn your eyes off yourself; look up, and out! There are men, your brothers, and women, your sisters; they have needs that you can aid. Listen for their confidences; keep your heart wide open to their calls, and your hands alert for their service. Learn to give, and not to take; to drown your own hungry wants in the happiness of lending yourself to fulfil the interests of those nearest or dearest. Look up and out, from this narrow, cabined self of yours, and you will jar no longer; you will fret no more, you will provoke no more; but you will, to your own glad surprise, find the secret of 'the meekness and the gentleness of Jesus'; and the fruits of the Spirit will all bud and blossom from out of your life."
--Henry Scott Holland (b. 1847)
Put on therefore, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye.
"[Your cheerfulness] can only [spring up freely and healthily out of your heart] when [your heart] is truly at rest in God; when you are satisfied with His ways, and wishing no change in them."
My current spiritual search is--and has been for some time--for joy, peace and joy. And I set aside this Lenten time for a lifestyle reassessment. A lot of my discontent has been with homeschooling and just generally my relationship with my kids. I have caught myself crying out, "But I don't WANT to be a teacher, I just want to be a MOM!"
I am trying to take time this Lent to back off a bit and slow down and take a good hard look at what education and learning really are, what God means them to be, and see how that compares with what I am doing in my own family. To help organize my thinking I am reading Marilyn Howshall's Wisdom's Way of Learning books.
Here is some of what I have been (re)learning: First and foremost I must remember that the first step and the foundation of this lifestyle is MY heart, MY learning--my SELF-EDUCATION and my SELF-DISCIPLESHIP. (I think I finally have this part!) It starts with me--I go through a period of learning and worship and submission to my Lord and then I can model it for my children and lead them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some quotes from The Science, Art, and Tools of Learning:
Whatever you are now is what you are modeling for your children. ... Make a quality decision to no longer expect to see a love of learning demonstrated in your children if you yourself lack zeal for God, for life, for nature, for staying at home, for cleaning closets...
Valuable activity will include: --Contributions to overall home management --Service to other family members --Learning activities that contribute to ones own education.
Destructive forces of boredom may be present within the home. If this is true, than it may be necessary to begin tempering less desirable interests and indulgences, while at the same time directing activity into more fruitful areas. This can be a challenge with adolescents whose value systems are already set. Approaching change within the context of their personal relationship with God is the best place to begin. A pure, teachable heart is essential to developing a learning delight and learning process--FIRST IN OURSELVES, then in our children. (caps and italics mine)
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These are taken from various places in the book (and are only a FEW of the quotes that struck me!), but they all are pointing to the same thing. The first and most important step to setting up this Lifestyle of Learning, to creating a harmonious home of joy and peace and delight to learn and serve is with myself and my own heart. Seems rather a heavy load! But then I remember... I am LIBERATING my own growth! I am opening my heart to God and letting Him set me free! And in these particular quotes I have some guides for MY activity choices as well: contributing to home management, serving my family, contributing to my own education. And, above all, nurturing a zeal for God, for life, well, for EVERYTHING! :D
Whew! Still with me? Congratulations! :D I welcome any thoughts and input you may have!
MARCH! It's the first spring month! Already I hear the birds singing early in the morning as I stagger down the dark hallway at 6 a.m. to wake my eldest daughter for school. We never had the snow I longed for, though we did have a good hard freeze for a bit (good for the garden-- gets rid of pests), but I am more than ready for SPRING!
Two days ago was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I hope to make it meaningful this year. I'm looking for something and, over the past couple of years, I've thought that perhaps what I'm missing is joy--a true Christian joy. (What's the name of that C. S. Lewis book? Searching for Joy?) Perhaps a better word might be peace, that peace that passes all understanding...... So I hope to make my journey through Lent this year a quest for that joy, that peace.
I have had some thoughts on the avenues I ought to pursue. (I've done a lot of mulling this over at this stage of my life.) Done lots of reading, pulling ideas and directions from different sources of guidance. I can think of three areas I'd like to nurture in my life: strengthening my relationship with my Lord, building my relationship with my family, and recreating my homeschool effort.
Has sort of a Step One, Step Two look to it, doesn't it? And that first step is going right back to basics, back to the foundation of everything, a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. So I hope to be cutting back some dead wood of preconceived notions, of guilt complexes and "don't deserve it" feelings. I need to get down to that vulnerable green growing place inside of me, that place where God resides. And I need to look. And listen.
