Hey, Everybody!
I am writing to you on Sunday afternoon since this post needs to go up first thing Monday morning and I am typing away on my laptop from Jackson and Annabeth’s room in our home. It’s the room where Keith and I get the best internet hookup. I like it anyway because it is filled with expressions of the only two kids on the earth I love as much as the two that I birthed. From Annabeth’s twin bed where I’m sitting, I can see a pink and green doll house, a blue and yellow race track, a dark green, fairly-convincing rubber lizard, a kids’ brightly colored exercise bike, a cardboard playhouse and a cardboard castle. It’s full on here in this room and, boy, has it had a work out in the last week.
Keith and I are blessed out of our minds to do lots of life with our grandkids because they only live about 20 minutes from our front door. Delightfully, their voices often reverberate off of these walls and their sweet feet are slap-happy on these wooden floors on a regular basis. We get to have sleepovers on occasions through out the year but once every summer Keith and I have them for the better part of a week and let their darling parents get some time together all by themselves. This last week was that segment of time – Camp Bibby we call it – for the summer of 2013. We kissed them goodbye on Friday night after a good, solid 5-day dose of them. I hate to admit to a small lump in my throat when they drove off with Amanda and Curtis, although I needed a nap in the worst way. Grin. It may be of some encouragement to you mothers of young children that, on Day 1, I did not shower until 3:00 PM. Yes, I do indeed remember what it was like to be a busy young mom whose life is not her own and when I forget, my two sweeties help me remember. Good grief, I would not trade them for anything in this world.
We do not have the time or space here for all the new quotes that have been added to my repertoire in the last week. Jackson and Annabeth are each hilarious, even when they don’t mean to be, so I try to have a pen nearby at all times. Annabeth announced to me on Friday afternoon that, when she grows up, she most definitely does NOT want to have a baby. “Why not?” I asked. “Because you have to go to the hospital,” she replied. And I thought to myself, whoa baby, that’s not all you have to do. As my mama always said, you also have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Translation: you think you’re going to die but, ordinarily, you do not, although at times your husband could be in considerable harm’s way if he spouts another word. Of course, I kept these thoughts to myself.
Annabeth paused for just a moment then spoke back up. “I just want a chihuahua and a cat.”
And that was that.
Jackson asked me how old I was while he was here because I recently had a birthday. He’s asked me that kind of thing before and it always ends up following the trail of whether or not I will still be his Bibby when he is in college. Curtis’s grandmother died a couple of years ago and I think he’s got it in his seven year-old head that grandmothers are tenuous creatures, here today, gone tomorrow. So, I said to him, “You know, Jackson, both your grandmothers are actually pretty young to have a grandkid as old as you. Because we all started so early, I think you can probably assume we’ll be around a while and see you grow up.” He sat on that a few moments then said, “Bibby, that makes you a rookie grandma. Do you know what a rookie is, Bibby?” Ah, yes, I do, Mister. I was a rookie mom with your mommy and a rookie grandma with you and I cannot think of two people on the planet through whom I’d rather be cast into those auspicious, busy, and often humbling roles.
I guess you’re wondering what all of this has to do with our Scripture memory. Well, I am getting to that right now. We have a daily verse at Camp Bibby and Psalm 32:9 out of the New Century Bible was our verse for Day 3 and the immediate favorite and clear winner for the fastest memorization. I taught the whole verse to Annabeth and Jackson but we only memorized part of it. Perhaps you will see why Jackson all but claimed it as his life verse. Kids totally love this kind of thing:
“Don’t be like a…donkey.” Psalm 32:9a
It made them almost as happy as talking about bathroom sounds. If I heard this verse once out of their mouths since Wednesday, I heard it 50 times. They could tell you what it means, too. I’ll stick the phrase back in the wider Scripture segment so that you’ll know what it means, too:
8      The LORD says, “I will make you wise and show you where to go. I will guide you and watch over you.
9      So don’t be like a horse or donkey, that doesn’t understand. They must be led with bits and reins,
or they will not come near you.”
Jackson would tell you that it means that God doesn’t want to have to tie us all up, or sit on us, or be all hard on us to get us to come to Him and to walk in His gracious and good will for our lives. He doesn’t want to have to make us obey Him so He can bless us. His deep desire is that we’d want to go with Him because we know that He is always for us, always leading us to triumph, always trustworthy, always right, and forever wanting to crown us with love and compassion and lead us away from bondage and such unnecessary harm.
I know it’s basic. But my mind’s been on the basics this last week with a seven year-old and a four year-old either one foot from me or on my person. I guess the question I’m throwing out on the table this week is this: Why do we continue to fight God and lash about in His grasp like He’s a big Taker instead of a Giver? What is it we think He’s trying to rob us of? To whom have we compared Him so that we’ve assumed we cannot trust Him?
Don’t be so stubborn, the psalmist is saying. Cooperate and go with God some place beautiful. Some place almost magical.
Revel in the two preceding verses in the same psalm (32), this time from the NIV:
6Â Therefore let all the faithful pray to You
while You may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
7Â You are my hiding place;
You will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Surround sound. Oh, if our spiritual ears could only be opened for a few glorious minutes, what a musical score we’d hear all around us. To go with Jesus is to go the way of deliverance. The way of music. The way of symphonies. The way of ascent amid mighty rising waters. So, I’m going with Jackson in my memory work this round:
Beth, Houston. So don’t be like a horse or donkey, that doesn’t understand. They must be led with bits and reins, or they will not come near you. Psalm 32:9 NCV
So, what’s yours?
You are loved around here, Sister. We are honored to serve you.
Tags: Scripture Memory 2013
Mary Beth ~ Abilene TX
So my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you for the Lord is ever useless.
1 Chronicles 15:58 (NLT)
Angie, Chillicothe, MO “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me in your saving faithfulness.” Ps 69:13, ESV
Romona, Rosewood Heights
He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, but he who repeats or harps on a matter separates even close friends. Proverbs 17:9 (AMP)
Kathy, Houston, TX
So don’t be like a horse or donkey, that doesn’t understand. They must be led with bits and reins, or they will not come near you. Psalm 32:9 NCV
jeri, Stillwater, Ok
You are my hiding place;you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7 (NIV)
Terri from Winchester, VA
“The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17. NIV
Christine, Chandler, AZ
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Rebecca, Louisa, VA
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ~ 2nd Corithians 3:17 (NIV)
Bernadette, Mtn Home, AR Therefore, we do not lost heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Cor 4:16 NIV
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17 NIV
Sheila, Bethesda, MD. The Lord says, “I will make you wise and show you where to go.I will guide you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8 NCV
“The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and we will obey His voice.”
Joshua 24:24, NASB
Vicki C., Indianapolis, IN
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luke 12:32 ESV
Shera. Lynchburg, va. Proverbs 4: 23 Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life. NASB
Melody, Jefferson, Georgia
Luke 1:45 NIV
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her.
Christy, Zionsville, IN
Ephesians 2:10, NIV
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Midge, Florence/Atlanta
Ps. 32:7 You are my hiding place;
You will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Aleta, Westfield, IN NIV Pslams 118:6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Alice Champagne, Marietta GA
I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. John 15:15 NLT
Beth, Robinson
“Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too.”
Philippians 2:4 NLT
Psalm 23:4-5a, Voice translation
Even in the unending shadows of death’s darkness
I am not overcome by fear.
Because You are with me in those dark moments
near with Your protection and guidance,
I am comforted.
You spread out a table before me,
provisions in the midst of attack from my enemies;
Tori, Robinson
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
2 Corinthians 6:17
Eva Chancy from Derby, KS
Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop; but a good word maketh it glad.
Proverbs 12:25 KJV
Emily (kemptville, Ontario) 1 Chronicles 16:11 Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek His face always. ” NIV
Alexis…Anderson, SC
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NIV)
Robin, Oak Harbor, WA
Romans 12:1 NIV Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 8:13 NIV For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
I Peter 1:15-16
15 But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written; “Be holy because I am holy.”
Cindy/Midland
Jeri, Creston, IA
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14 NIV
Liz, Ruston, LA
So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, Philippians 1:10 NIV
Alyson; Longmont, CO
Meanness gets you nowhere, but goodness is rewarded. (Proverbs 11:18 CEV)
Brandy, Raceland, LA
Phil. 4:6 NASB “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.”
Margie, San Angelo, Texas
Exodus 20:12
King James Version (KJV)
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Crystal Johnson from Columbia, SC~
1 Peter 5:8(NIV) Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Heidi, Littleton, CO
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9
NIV
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9 NIV
Christine from Laurel, MD
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23 ESV
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6, ESV)
Jenna, Sandusky. For I hope in You, O Lord; You will answer, O Lord my God. Psalm 38:15 NASB
Nicole in Tahoka, Texas
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5, 6 NIV)
Kelley from Houston, TX:
The LORD says, “I will make you wise and show you where to go. I will guide you and watch over you. So don’t be like a horse or donkey, that doesn’t understand. They must be led with bits and reins, or they will not come near you.” Psalm 32:8-9 (NCV)
Sorry to be late….traveled to GA for birth of beautiful granddaughter, Savannah Grace!!! 🙂
Thank You, Lord!
“But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory–
making us conquerors–through our Lord Jesus Christ.”. 1 Cor. 15:57 AMP
Hannah from Mt. Holly, NC
John 1:4 (NLT) “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought life to everyone.”
Cindy, Lakeland FL. Psalm 121:2 NIV. “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth.”
Elizabeth, Gainesville, GA
“My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you.”
Proverbs 7:1, NIV
Lisa Enterprise, AL
~ I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.
— Philippians 3:10 ( NIV)
Sarah- Appleton, WI
“I will deliver you with the 300 men… so let all the other people go.”
Judges 7:7, NASB
Pattie Self, San Angelo, TX
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
Kathi Nitzsche
Lexington,OH
1 Peter 2:1
“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.” (NLT)
Linda, Blue Springs, MO
Proverbs 31:28-31 ESV
28. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
29. “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”
30. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.