Sigh........

Ahhh...I have a moment to post...but have nothing thoughtful to say. Life is good. Time moves sooo quickly. Our grass needs cutting...The roses need trimming...I have a load of clothes to dry...I need to start supper...I need to organize for our road trip Friday...I need to vacuum...I need to dust...I need to mop the bathrooms...

but I want to write for a moment. I want to pause the cycle of chores and take a moment to think...remember...God is doing a big work, and I need to remember. This summer I went through Kelly Minter's study on Nehemiah. I highly recommend it. Briefly, here's what we covered.

God placed a burden on Nehemiah's heart. Nehemiah's heart broke for his people. The people of God were back in Jerusalem. The time arrived on the Kingdom calendar for the people to return from exile and rebuild the city of God. They had a Temple...but they had no wall to protect the city. They had no knowledge of Scripture.

Chapters 1-6...Rebuilding the Wall:  The LORD enables Nehemiah to lead the people in rebuilding the wall in record time. It was truly an act of God. The people faced great opposition from both outside threats to inward conflict. They stayed the course and completed the wall...

Chapters 7-13...Rebuilding Relationships:   The wall of Jerusalem is not the focal point of Nehemiah...what God wanted to take place within the wall is the focal point. The rest of the book relays how Nehemiah and the other leaders re-introduced the Scripture to the people. They taught the people how they were to have a relationship with our Holy God.

I thought the study was timely given the season of life I'm in....building a home. Jerusalem's wall was important. They had to have a wall. Cleaning my house is important. We have to have order. But this "order" is a means through which I pray God will teach me and help me teach Joshua. I want our home to be a place of prayer, of throughful reflection, of grace, of "happy sounds" (as we call them) and happy memories. Nehemiah's heart broke (as Minter emphasizes) over his family's (the nation of Israel's) broken life. Through God's strength...he met their physical need then within the structure (newly built Temple, wall, and homes) they were able to re-establish worship/relationship to God as it should be.

So although my stomach still turns flips over the stack of unmailed thank you letters on the table and laundry yet to be ironed piled on the washer...I'm thankful for the freedom to pause and read my Bible and write in my journal, hold Joshua in my lap, and listen to "The Sound of Music" soundtrack ;) and to the rain outside watering my roses. God so tenderly loves us doesn't He.

So to end on a note as random the beginning's...

"Climb every mountain, search high and low
Follow every byway, every path you know.
Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!

A dream that will need
all the love you can give,
Every day of your life
for as long as you live.

Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!"

mmm...Nehemiah's dream: to see his people thriving in the LORD...
my dream...that Joshua will far surpass me in faith and love for Jesus!