Thursday night thoughts

(Ryland did the Crossfit workout with us. Mike, the owner, training him.)

I am so sore!

All day long I have all kinds of things I want to share here and then the end of the day comes and I'm toast. So, once again I sit down to post something and my mind is a blank. It just. Wants. Bed.

It's breeding season for my Nubians so I've been busy with reading, planning, contacting, and arranging breeding for my two doelings.  I decided to give our little suburban ranch a website so that I can hopefully generate interest and share what I'm learning and doing.  I also hope to use the site as a way to advertise goats I want to sell.  But since I started that site and it has it's own blog I won't bore you with all the goat stuff here.

The Bible app on my phone has plans for Bible reading and devotionals.  I read the Book of Common prayer plan which is mostly Psalms and some Old and New T too.  I've done different things with the kids over the years but recently I found a plan on this app that I can do with the kids.  We started it last night.  It's 21 days through the book of Matthew.  There's a short entertaining video, a very short devotional and then the reading for the day to take you through Matthew.  So far, their engaged!  I'm thrilled!

Watching someone you love make decisions you know will only bring destruction and pain to their family and loved ones is so hard.  Speaking the truth in love, pleading, praying, pleading more, praying more and repeat until something changes for the better is the plan.  But deep down, what you really want to do is smack them upside the head with something very hard in hopes they'll wake up!

Trusting God in hard things is... hard.

Ok. That's about all I got.  The bed is calling and the eyelids are responding.

The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. 

They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. 

They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. 

In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. 

Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 

They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. 

They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?" 

Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power. 

Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind; he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. 

And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved. 

But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel. 

In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. 

So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. 

When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. 

But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. 

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. 

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. 

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe... - Psalm 78:9-42

 Quieted,

Sheila