Well, the Thankfulness Challenge for week 2 has stretched out to about two weeks or longer. How did you do? Did you enjoy it?
This challenge was a blessing to me, although I need to work harder at the memory verse. Did you get it learned? Here it is, just for a reminder,
Psalm 28:7
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”
This verse gives four reasons we should praise and thank the Lord.
1. The Lord is my strength
2. The Lord is my shield
3. The Lord can be trusted
4. The Lord is my helper
One good way to express our joy and thanks to God is by singing.
It was so encouraging to meditate on the many ways in which God is my strength. For a review, here are the ten ways I mentioned in the challenge.
1. My refuge
2. My rock
3. My shelter and satisfaction
4. My shield
5. My security
6. My salvation
7. My Deliverer
8. My confidence and fountain of life
9. My tower
10. My song
And I will end the review with these triumphant verses from Psalm 118
“14 The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. 15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. 17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. 18 The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: 20 This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. 21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.” (Psalm 118:14-21)
Stay tuned for the next section in the Thankfulness Challenge, which will take a look at “The Lord is my shield.” In the meantime, have a blessed week (or maybe two :-) ).
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In other news, yesterday evening was M & M meeting with the ladies from church and also our annual Secret Sister meeting. This year it was a SDRAWKCAB meeting, which was tons of fun. I wore the backward hat I had fixed up. We had a meal -- dessert first, then the main dish, and then the appetizers.
After that we played Bible Jeopardy and then the teenagers did a skit. The skit was Goldilocks and The Three Bears, with a twist. The three bears had moved into town but were not very welcomed by the town residents. Goldilocks felt sorry for them, so she invited them over for dinner. She showed them their food at the table, and with loud grunts and growls, they devoured the food. Then she invited them to sit and visit in the living room. They broke her furniture, but she wanted to be a gracious hostess. They said that their house had been fumigated, so she invited them to stay all night. All seemed to be going well until she heard some loud noises in the kitchen. When she went out to investigate, there they were, making a mess and devouring all her food. "What are you doing?" she asked. "We were hungry!" "Well, she said, "Why didn't you just tell me? Look at the mess you are making in my kitchen." They responded, "Then you should not have invited three bears over to your house." Goldilocks began to see why the other residents were somewhat nervous about having the three bears move into the community. She said, "I think I have learned a lesson. Maybe this story has a happy ending after all," whereupon the Three Bears proceeded to eat Goldilocks.
After the skit, we had our devotional time. We spent a little time considering how nice it was that God did not design us to have to live life backwards. What if we had to drive backwards? Maybe we would start life out old and get younger as the years went by. We would go to bed by morning and get up at the end of the day. Several other ideas were mentioned. God knew just the right way to make things when He made both us and the order in which we should live.
And, the application is that we should get up in the morning and start our day with the Lord and His word, so we can be filled with His sweetness at the beginning of the day. This works so much better than trying to give out sweetness throughout the day and then come to Him for cleansing and filling after the trials of the day have passed.
The last thing we did was to put our names on a piece of paper and put them in a basket. From that basket, Mrs. Ogle grew out two names at a time. She called out those names and paired us up. We got together and took each other's info and prayer requests. Now we are supposed to do things to encourage each other throughout the year. We gave each other a coffee mug, and now we are "Mug Buddies" throughout the year. I think this is going to be fun!