Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. I trust in You, my God! Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord Point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me for You are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in You. Remember O Lord your unfailing love and compassion which you have shown from long ages past. Forgive the rebellious sins of my youth…Archive for psalms
reflections on a psalm, and my seizures
It’s been a real while since I’ve gotten back into my usual patterns and cycles, one of which being prayer and reading the Bible in the morning. So, if you follow this blog at all, you’d know I’m linearly reading the Bible and am still in Psalms. Just read through several but Psalm 141 really resonated with me:
O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.
Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.
Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it.
But I pray constantly against the wicked and their deeds. When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the wicked will listen to my words and find them true. Like rocks brought up by a plow, the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial.
I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord. You are my refuge; don’t them kill me. Keep me from the traps they have set for me, from the snares of those who do wrong. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, but let me escape.
How many times have I felt like screaming (and have screamed out!) to God to please help me? not later but now! To accept my prayer and my arms as an offering… even though I sometimes question have I even really meant it? I might tell God to take control of what I say, but do I truly want that? I certainly don’t always act like I want my lips sealed… Many times I struggle with many things one of which is my anger. Ah how many seem to not understand that this is my struggle, but we all have ours. Words I speak to my children I participate in far too often – and far too quickly. Patience and calmness…. yes words I only frequently remember how they work… I recall Proverbs 13:3 years ago:
He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
God’s time though isn’t always my time. I can recall back on several prayers for months on end (and some longer than that), that have been answered… some of which quite recently (and pleasantly I might add!).
But then I go and have found out that I now have seizures (some may call it epilepsy). Yeah certainly not my choice of timing… I haven’t been the most comprehensive in researching this so far, but my wife found this article that seemed to the most helpful information for myself.
The usual culprits to raise likelihood of having another seizure are sleep deprivation, increased alcohol consumption and menstrual changes. My neurologist also mentioned drug use, but we can scratch that off the list like increased alcohol consumption (unless you consider drinking a single beer once in a few months “increased”). Sleep deprivation isn’t likely either, although I could use a consistency… what the article also talks about is emotional stress:
Emotional is usually related to a situation or event that has personal meaning to you. Often you will feel a loss of control. In particular, the kind of emotional stress that leads to most seizures is worry or fear. One study found that in some patients, anxiety—another term for worry and fear—led to hyperventilation (overbreathing) and an increase in abnormal brain activity and seizures. Other emotions that have been linked with stress and seizures are frustration and anger.
In addition, the article mentions a few recommended things to decrease your chance of seizures:
- Start (and continue) a regular sleep pattern. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
- Limit your alcohol consumption to a few (or no) drinks, and don’t drink too often.
- Find an outlet to help you deal with anger, frustration, and worries in your life. Exercise, music, or conversation works for many people.
thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
I never had heard the origin of Thanksgiving until my good friend Tim posted it – A Proclamation – which is quite a lengthy proclamation (at least for me … even though it is worth reading); so I’ll just snippet this:
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
You know I really don’t hear anyone really talk about the origin of this holiday much – actually I don’t recall ever hearing its origin really. Have you?
Happy are those who trust in You
It’s been a real while since I’ve posted anything about my mostly-daily reading of the Bible, but I’m mostly through Psalms when I read at the very end of Psalms 84:
A single day in your courts
is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
For the Lord God is our light and protector.
He gives us grace and glory.
No good thing will the Lord withhold
from those who do what is right.
O Lord Almighty,
happy are those who trust in you.
I’ve struggled over the years on this topic of “happiness”. I can recall years ago at our Ohio church home a message that talked completely on the Beatitudes (wrote about it under the specific application of Controlling your Reactions) and the relationship between when Jesus says “blessed are ____” and how that related to true “happiness”. I understood it then, but it’s become a bit faded in memory. In the Beatitudes, Jesus lays out a few things that if we do, we will be “blessed” (translate=happy):
- poor in spirit
- who mourn
- meek
- hunger and thirst for righteousness
- merciful
- pure in heart
- peacemakers
- persecuted
Well, none of that really say if we trust in God, but I really can’t see myself being merciful or persecuted or hunger and thirst for righteousness, without really trusting in God. What would be the point really in any of it (other than for selfish reasons – i.e pride)?
It’s simple – just trust in God and then you’ll be happy. Right? Of course the ‘concept’ is simple but living it sure isn’t.
Trust God to put my awesome wife Isa first – in time and priority. Date nights, talking about the little things that so easily get skipped. Truly loving her but in time and in actions. Knowing her deeply and intently.
Trust God to put my kids second in my life – and enjoy all the cool little things. Just yesterday my son J and I biked around our cul-de-sac for awhile mainly doing circles. He talked about the ’sharks’ that are where the sewer cover is and they will ‘get us’ but how his bike can fly with wings… just awesome and something so small that I have missed several times thinking it’s no big deal.
Trust God in my finances – I’m not talking for myself about my savings and the stock market but totally know several people that are really wondering what to do. I’m talking about not wanting to give/share sometimes because it doesn’t “fit” with my plan to build an emergency savings fund; I’m talking about skimping whenever I feel we can on buying things.
Yeah I struggle with this on so many fronts; the ones that come to my head in particular are patience (specifically not trusting in God’s timing and just going ahead and doing when it might be better to wait) and finances (goal is to be ‘frugal’ but many times I’m really just being ‘cheap’ at the sacrifice of others… that’s it’s only post for another day). Oh and dedicating my time more for my family (although I am working towards that better than I have recently) than other things no matter if it is “service” for others.
The good thing is that there are others that write about these topics in various ways that help be an encouragement; there are many excellent books in particular on marriage and parenting, not to mention organizations dedicated to this (one of which I am involved with called Peace in the Home and really could use reviewing the large list of resources they’ve identified).
A better thing is that I have guys I can talk to about these things with; to truly encourage me and then come back and ask me later how it’s going. Call it an accountability group, call it a growth group, call it whatever you want – but I’m talking about some other men that you can confide in and strengthen each other. I’m not the best at explaining this – but Tim is when he wrote G-Men.
The great thing is that I can pray to a God and really rely on something beyond myself. I am well and sure that by myself I really suck at all these things like marriage, parenting and finances. Straight jerk because honestly I get selfish quick. You didn’t say thank you, you didn’t listen to me, we need to save, etc., etc. That’s default me. But through God (specifically Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in me) it doesn’t have to be – there can be another way – another ‘me’. But only if I trust God to work in me … and when I do, I really do know that then I AM HAPPY.
