The Lord Is My ____________

Some of the ladies at church encouraged us to begin listing what God has meant to us each day, using the format found in the beginning line of the Twenty-Third Psalm.

David gave quite the example when He said, "The Lord is my shepherd."

I'm sure I won't blog on this entry daily, but I'll make entries as time permits....... starting here:

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--2/4/11: The Lord is my Shepherd: Several years ago, my family was actually at the state fair (we don't attend often for one reason or another). When we went through the livestock barns, I had an opportunity to cuddle a lovely ewe lamb. She was beautiful, soft, cuddly, warm, and wonderful. I was in love, to be sure. My husband saw it all over me and shepherded me as far away from the livestock as fast as he could....... He knew he might not be able to tell me 'no', but that it was not the time for us to tend even one lamb....... /// Fast forward to today. Our church has a Wednesday evening ladies' class which is going through W. Phillip Keller's A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. Keller has a lot of experience working with flocks of sheep, and even owned his own flock for eight years. He spoke of the loving care he provided for his sheep, and of the amazing relationship that develops when the good shepherd lays down his life for his flock. His writing reminded me of the time when I nuzzled that precious ewe lamb, and the Holy Spirit reminded me that Christ loves me the way I loved that ewe lamb. /// It is not time for me to be a shepherd, but it is a time for me to be a ewe lamb in the flock of the Good Shepherd. What a precious thing to have such a good shepherd to care for us! /// Then, while going to sleep, I recalled Bill Gothard's talking about Psalm 51:8 which says Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Now, I was already familiar with what is said about shepherds who break the bones of lambs who go astray. After breaking the bones, the shepherd carries the lamb next to his heart until the lamb can walk again. During that time, the lamb learns to love the voice of the shepherd and learns not to stray. --- THEN I recalled Psalm 34:20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. Might that be because not only is a good shepherd to us, but he was a faithful follower of his own 'shepherd', His Father in Heaven????? ...........

--1/25/10: The Lord is my why and wherefore. (We've had slow days in our school work: our daughter is in training to begin taking responsibility for her own school work at a new level - and our sons have been going back to some of their notes/questions from various Basic Seminar in Youth Conflicts sessions, in order to draw conclusions and set goals somewhat independently. / That provided time to go through notes made on paper about Genesis last week, and rework them quite a bit with the help of Notepad, blogspot, Biblegateway, and an online 1828 Webster's. In the meantime, my flesh/pride, etc. has tried to interfere with this wrong attitude or that. It took some effort to battle with that pride/flesh, when I'd rather do something else. But it was cool to win the battle for the day! And the reason for persevering? The Lord is my why and wherefore.......) .

--1/24/10: The Lord is my healer. (God gave direction to my husband to seek help from our chiropractor when my shoulder pain became persistent and increased in intensity over time, even though at other times, I needed a different nutritional or medical solution for joint pain. I am grateful for God providing direction through my husband when we didn't have the funds for 2nd opinions right now. Wow! It is also amazing that God has allowed the human mind to understand some of the complexities of our bodies, which are so fearfully and wonderfully made; and that there are men who are well studied enough to work in such a healing way.) Thank you God for giving my husband good direction and for sharing this particular healing knowledge with mortal man. Thank you that our bodies can respond to healing hands this way!