Coming around again

About the pictures: The top one was the other day when Jaylie and Ethan went to mom and dad's for the morning. At lunch time, I'm told, Jaylie complained of being cold and so Daddy covered her up with his shirt and unbuttoned a place so she could continue to eat! You can tell they practice tough love over there, huh.
The next picture is of Ethan and Gretchen sharing the beanbag. I just thought it was cute.
The last one is of Isaac at his first basketball game. Yes, he really is that much taller than all the other kids.

In other news, I feel like I am coming around again. I have had some significant pain in one of the places where I used to have a wisdom tooth. Don't know if it is the dreaded 'Dry Socket' as I wasn't prostrated by the pain but it was uncomfortable. I went back to see Steve (friend at church who is also the oral surgeon who did the extraction last week) and he said they were healing nicely but did put some goop in the painful place. Now, he jokingly (I think) called it chewing tobacco, and that is what it looks like, but it has oil of clove in it. So now I have a foul clove-y taste in my mouth, but no pain. I'd say that is a huge improvement.

Eric got me a 'read the bible in a year' kind of bible at the New Year. It is chronological so that also helps. I'd like to be able to say that I have been reading it every day but I do stay caught up by reading 2 or 3 days at a time if need be. I've even read ahead a time or two. Right now I am in Numbers. UGH! is all I can say. I haven't read Leviticus and Numbers in quite some time and now am left very dumbfounded by what I've read. It seems just a little shy of ridiculous, if that's not too strong a term. All of the rules and regulations about various--seemingly trivial--sorts of things. When left feeling this way about scripture I rely on a few things to keep me centered. 1: Look for the over-arching theme. In this case, God, for the first time is coming to live AMONG his people and so therefore they must be holy, and doing all of these things was to help them be holy. He says several times that He makes them holy and they must be set apart. I really can accept that. He is holy, I must try to be. But now His Spirit lives IN me, not just among, and He does continue to make my holy by the grace of Jesus' blood. 2: Try to apply it to my life practically. I see all these laws and regulations and ceremonies as so terribly tedious. But I am a mom and have small children. The parallel I see is that these children of Israel were young children and as any parent of young children can tell you, parenting them is tedious. It involves the dictation of every small task so that, eventually, hopefully, these tasks become habit...this is called maturity. God is the ultimate parent and he definitely had his work cut out for him (as if our generation would have been so much more obedient) They stayed there at the mountain of Sinai for about a year, receiving these words from the Lord and then putting them into practice. Finally, He decided they were ready to go and be among outsiders and attempt to take the promised land. However, at the very first test, they fail miserably to have faith in the Almighty and believe that he can deliver the residents of the land into their hands. Punishment? 40 more years of wandering. Wow. 3: Always, reading the old testament leaves me so grateful for the new. So grateful that I know God this side of the cross. Job wished for an advocate, for someone to go between him and the Lord, and I have that in Jesus. I know that He is the same as he was then and will be forever, but Jesus softens Him for me, somehow. I know why, because in Jesus, God became human and I understand humanness. It's the divine I can't grasp.

Enough preaching. I will say, however, that because I am reading the bible much more regularly, I will most likely be posting scriptures that move me or interesting tidbits of info. Please comment on those. I'd love to hear what you think.

Have a great week.

D