Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Life

Yesterday was the final session of my ladies summer bible study. Fortunately, the curse of sickness has lifted (please, let it be longer than momentarily) from casa de phillips and the children and I were in attendance. Isaac was a bit sad because his beloved teacher, "Ms. Be-ber-ly" was not there but his class was combined with the older kids, which made him feel quite important. Evelyn only cried 42.8 seconds when deposited in her class and actually socialized with others, rather than crying when someone approached her. I made it to my seat, hardly out of breath after dropping off the children, and managed to fit in some small talk before our lesson began.

The leader of our study left us with a parting verse, a verse to summarize where our study had taken us over the course of eight weeks and to lighten the path we should faithfully follow. The verse was Deuteronomy 30:19-20.

"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord, listen to His voice, and hold fast unto Him."

I have selected this verse to be my personal verse for the upcoming school year. Life can be such a battle some days, holding strife that forms from the mundane day-to-day activities and strife that comes from genuine heartache. When I find myself drowning in my own little world some days...for instance like today as I held my screaming daughter in the bathroom of Chick-Fil-A attempting to discipline her/calm her/not stick my head in the toilet while my son happily enjoyed our play date (and the last of my chicken nuggets) with friends at the table....what a blessing it is to know that God has laid out his plan for me, He has provided the simple tasks he desires of me (Love Him. Listen to Him. Hold Fast to Him), and in the end He gives me true Life.

A much better gift than those last two chicken nuggets I missed out on today.

Anyone else with a personal verse for the upcoming months?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wonderful verse - I think I need to find one too!

Interested to know which if any bible study books you have used in your group. I meet with one ladies group weekly, and am also part of a small prayer triplet.

Phillips Family said...

Our group used Priscilla Shiver's Book and DVD series, "Discerning God's Voice." It was excellent! What really helped was that our leader was also a GREAT teacher/speaker her own self.

Unknown said...

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Although there are many others I reach for, this one is the verse I pray over my children. As Matthew enters 2nd grade, and he is exposed to so much more than the bubble of homelife and churchlife, it reminds me of my number one duty for the blessing of children is to teach them about Jesus. And if I've done my job, no matter what happens down the road, God promises me that they will not turn from it. :)

Kelly said...

So good to read this today. Love that verse!