One More Round of Antibiotics

Ugh. Here I am on my 4th round of antibiotics for yet another sinus infection. Double ugh. After my boasting in January about the wonders of goldenseal root powder for staving off sinus infections, here I am. Chewing morosely on my words.

I'm so sick of being sick. Since we returned from our furlough in March, I don't think we've had everyone healthy at the same time. I could be exaggerating. I probably am. In fact I'm pretty sure that I am, but when I have a headache the universal statements just fly. The boys always slam the door. I always have to cook. I never get to take a nap in peace. I'm just a whiner today!

Well, as my dear friend Kay from Oregon used to say, "It's ok to sit on your pitty potty once in a while. Just don't forget to flush when you're through!"

So, I flush now. All better. Grumpiness gone. Headache still a bummer, but I think another quart of strong tea will help. Maybe some mustard plaster. Yummy.

So here's a question for you ladies (gentlemen too, although I would imagine that most men don't really give it much thought unless they happen to run out.)...

What is your personal opninion about antiperspirant?

I'm actually very curious to know what others think about antiperspirant (as opposed to deodorant) and whether I really am as psycho as my oldest daughter thinks I am. Well, I probably am, but that's ok. I have some pretty radical, hippy, conspiracy-theory opinions on antiperspirants and sunscreens. Am I the only one???

So, share! If you've never even given your Arid Extra Dry a second thought, share that, too. The curiousity is killing me! Wait. That's my headache...

BFS #125 Let Your Fingers Do The Walking (Yellow Pages)

Memory Verse: Ephesians 6: 10-18 Finally, grow powerful in union with the Lord, in union with his mighty strength! Use all the armor and weaponry that God provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the Adversary. For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So take up every piece of war equipment God provides; so that when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist; and when the battle is won, you will still be standing. Therefore, stand! Have the belt of truth buckled around your waist, put on righteousness for a breastplate, and wear on your feet the readiness that comes from the Good News of shalom. Always carry the shield of trust, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. And take the helmet of deliverance; along with the sword given by the Spirit, that is, the Word of God; as you pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all God’s people.

Introduction: Let Your Fingers Do the Walking (Yellow Pages) I have deviated from the traditional Memory Verse.. in that usually we take one of the words in the slogan and seek a scripture that uses that word, but today I’m using the concept of what Yellow Pages is all about.. seeking and finding. I used the word Walking.. which made me think of shoes.. and this set of verses is exactly what I want to share. This assignment will be tougher than those of the last few weeks.. take your time, you can always do it late. Put on that full armor and study God’s word, so that you can more fully understand what He wants you to learn from it. This scripture from Ephesians is exhorting us to be armed - fully armed - to stand against HaSatan - the Adversary. The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. I want us to dig deeper into God’s Word, and to really let our fingers do the walking through the resources we have available to us - books, internet - and really seek to find the true meaning of His Word. Don’t worry, I’m no expert, I’ll be learning to do this along with you all.

Assignment: I’d like you to choose a word, find the Hebrew or Greek original word, and then dig into it’s full meaning. Use things like the Strong’s Concordance or the Gesenius and find the root of the word. What is the first occurance of that word in scripture? What did that word mean in that first occurance? Did the meaning of the word change as God used it in scripture? Now find some verses in scripture that use that word, and like The Message Bible does, re-write that scripture using the full meaning that you now understand to illuminate that scripture verse. What kinds of words should you look up? I’m going to do fire.. but you could look up water, altar, sacrifice, prayer, washing, or any word that you feel God is asking you to understand better. If you feel challenged to, when you find the Hebrew word, look up the meaning of the letters in the root word. The Hebrew letters themselves have meaning, and give meaning to the word.

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God's timing never ceases to amaze me!

This assignment comes just as I'm finishing up our March update letter (finally) and studying a passage of scripture which caught my attention. Great timing, Lord!

Friday at our ladies' study, one of the sisters shared from Psalm 103:2-5. Here is the passage in English:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Sometimes you can hear the same passage of scripture over and over -- even have it well-memorized -- and then suddenly hear it in a different version or with a different emphasis than what you've heard before and it's like a lightbulb being switched on. I think that is part of the "living, active and powerful" thing the writer of Hebrews described in 4:12.

The Spanish Bible I use is a new translation taken directly from the original Greek and Hebrew. That's really important to me, because I don't like the idea of a Bible based on a translation of a translation from the original. It's a soapbox of mine.

Anyway, the "Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos" is my version of choice and (knowing that most of you won't understand the text -- bear with me) here is the same passage in Spanish:

Bendice, alma mía, al Señor, y no olvides ninguno de Sus beneficios. El es el que perdona todas tus iniquidades, El que sana todas tus enfermedades. El que rescata de la fosa tu vida, El que te corona de bondad y compasión. El que colma de bienes tus años, para que tu juventud se renueve como el águila.

Now, here is the literal (the way I understand it) interpretation of the Spanish. See if it doesn't give you a slightly different impression:

Soul of mine, bless the Lord. Don't forget even one of His benefits. He is the one who forgives all of your intentional mistakes. The one who heals all of your infirmities. The one who rescues your life from the sewer. The one who crowns you with kindness and compassion. The one who showers good things upon your years so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

The word that caught my attention in the Spanish -- the whole reason I decided to dig deeper into this passage -- was "fosa". It's the word we used here for septic tanks, grey water ditches, nasty pits, etc. I assumed that when I looked it up in the English Bible, I'd find the word translated "pit". Wrong! The word used in the King James there is "destruction". Hmm. That's very different. So I pulled up the E-sword (great program, BTW. If you don't have it, get it for free HERE). All the English versions translate the word destruction or death. The Latin is "redimit de interitu vitam". I'm not a Latin scholar, but I think that means "redeems from interrment the life". So, I looked up the Spanish word "fosa" to see what else it could mean. Bingo! Fosa also means sepulcre or grave. It's never used that way here, but it was in the dictionary. I love my Spanish dictionary!

The original Greek word is:
shakh'-ath; a pit (especially as a trap); figuratively destruction: - corruption, destruction, ditch, grave, pit.

The cool thing, though, is that the word caught my attention, so I spent more time in the Word, committed the passage to memory and learned a couple of new Spanish words in the process.

God even speaks to us through words like "fosa". Isn't He great???!!!

Have a blest week, everyone!


BTW, I started a new Meme last Friday -- something our kids can get involved in! Click here to check it out or click the "Fun Fact Friday" button on the left sidebar. See you there!!!

Summer Fun Starts...

There is something decidedly sick and wrong with that statement.

We've been with US Bank for almost 20 years, but this almost makes me want to change banks...except that probably every other bank in the nation has the same philosophy. "You need more toys!!!" Anyone seen the Veggie Tales movie "The Toy that Saved Christmas"?

For the record, I can remember MANY summers that were a LOT of fun in which I did NOT take out an RV, boat or auto loan. I remember one summer, for example, when my cousin and I made it a point to climb every tree we could find. We managed to destroy more than one pair of jeans in the process. Another year I remember picking blackberries all along the rail-road right-of-way with the "Nutrition Lady" from school. She just happened to be out walking near our house. It was the first time I'd ever seen a teacher from school in shorts and a tank-top...and smoking a ciggarette! ;^)

That was the same summer my cousin and I learned that we could squash pennies on the train tracks. I forget how many pennies we squished, but I'm sure I didn't need a loan! I do remember squishing a couple of quarters, and then we decided that quarters were too valuable...although they did look really cool when flattened. The train engineers got so used to Liz and I hanging out by the tracks, that they began tossing stuff out to us. The first time they tossed out little boxes of water, we had no idea what we'd found! Who ever heard of water in a box?! But the water was cold and the weather was hot, so we drank it. Yum! Actually, it tasted a little bit like cardboard, if I remember correctly, but during a midwestern July afternoon, it tasted like really good, cold cardboard!

When the newness ran out of the penny-squishing, Liz and I built a dam under a railroad trestle. We thought we'd make a swimming hole. The pool ended up only being about 8 feet across and maybe 2 feet deep, but hey, we weren't that tall! It was fine for us! Since we weren't squishing our pennies anymore, we decided to spend them on some goldfish to put in our pond. At 10 cents each, it was a good investment! Would you believe that all 20 of them lived? Unheard of! We rode our bikes for miles and then splashed in our private pool -- with the fishes. They grew and as they grew the "pond" shrank. It doesn't rain much in Kansas in August -- only during the week of the county fair, but that's another story. By the end of August, our pond was just a puddle, and our little fishies were doing a little bit of flopping around. I rescued them with an old kitchen strainer, and Mom and I drove them to the strip pits. They grew to be very happy goldfish...about the size of small bass.

So August ended and September began and with it school started. We found ourselves caught in the cycle again -- get up go to school, come home do chores, get up go to school, come home do chores. No time for penny-squshing, berry-picking, dam-building, tree-climbing.

But that is why we had summer breaks. And our summer fun did NOT begin with a loan. I seem to remember that it began with the phrase, "If you're bored, I'll find you something you can do."