In my last entry, more than a month ago (oops!) I mentioned a wonderful lesson my daughter gleaned from our study of Gideon. The events in Judges can be described as “a descending spiral of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation”.

SIN; The Israelites disobeyed God
SERVITUDE: God allowed their enemies to make life horrendous for them
SUPPLICATION: The Israelites in despair prayed to God
SALVATION: God sent a judge to help them

Well, my daughter really liked that lesson and nodded with appreciation when I pointed out to her the cyclical 4S's . She kept that "cycle" in her head and when she was reading through her Bible (she completed reading through the entire Bible on Christmas eve, praise God), she was able to apply it to some degree. She was especially excited when she read Judges, Kings and Chronicles herself. She asked me why the people just didn't get it and she would point out how the Israelites didn't break out of the cycle. I was glad for her insights. From there we were able to discuss man's sinfulness and our own stubborn nature, etc.