Blessed

This past weekend I was chatting with a friend about blogs and blogging. It was just the encouragement I needed to decide to make something good out of this blog- a great way for you all to share in my life more than you might otherwise get to. So, let me continue my blogging with greater consistency to let you all be exposed to what is coming out the rumen fistula (figuratively speaking).

One thing I have been learning about the past few weeks is the value of remembering- remembering what God has done, praising Him, and that giving momentum to our faith in following Him. As we look back we can get a chance to see God's faithfulness. A few days ago Lynn and I prayed through Psalm 106- that Psalm and many others recount the works God had done and the ways He displayed His glory.

Several weeks ago when I was flying to Turkey I watched some Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons (I think the big planes with the personal entertainment setup are great!). Watching them reminded me especially of my Grandpa Neil. It is probably because those were some of his favorite cartoons. And I mention this because it takes me back to a time when Bugs Bunny cartoons were a special fun hour on Saturday morning after chores, but I probably didn't even need cartoons for all the fun I was surrounded by- and all the Godly love and care I received on up through the generations. I am part of a movement of God through my family of Psalm 145 happening more and more. It makes me want to know the stories more and more of how God has been working in my family, and then I will tell those stories to my children. It is the stories of my Mom reading the Bible when she was really young, it is Great-grandparent prayers and loving a little wild man piling stuffed animals onto them, it is the "kid's times" that impact far more than young goats, it is my brother praying for me on the morning of our little brother's for me to be better by the ceremony (and I was, just before the ceremony), and more I surely don't remember. These stories and others are the things of, "one generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare you mighty acts." -Psalm 145:4 It is the Shma (my apologies to all Hebrew scholars subscribed to this blog) of Deuteronomy 6- the loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and teaching the things of the Lord to our children when we sit, walk, lie down, and rise.

And, I have been thinking, too on how precarious this kind of momentum and movement can be. I can think of far too many examples of the next generation being there first-hand to Godly people and the Word of God, but rebelling and running the opposite way in life. Or, how I often feel and think about how growing up so blessed and so much under God's grace- I could have easily missed that it was God (and sometimes do) and replace Him with my own goodness, my bright intellect, my perseverance, my problem-solving skills, me____, my_____ and you fill in the blanks.

Oh yes, so at the end of everyday- not just the end of one blog post to mark the beginning of more to come- may we all remember what the Lord has done, tell of those things to our family and beyond, and let the grace of God guard us from becoming proud and lazy with all He has blessed us with. For we are blessed to be a blessing...