Clean Heart Journal - 1. Trustin' Him

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Prov. 3:5

I meditated on this verse. It's interesting that this is my "life's verse", picked out when I was newly saved as a 23 year old young mother and wife. Most of the time, I do trust the Lord and acknowledge Him. When I don't understand why things are the way they are, I have learned to lean on Him, knowing that He understands it all.

Lord, I do put my trust in You! I can't say I always trust You with all my heart, for I find myself sometimes holding back. What if You were to take more of what I love away from me? What if You decide to take something really big? Not my mother's car. Not the horses... but one of my children? My husband?

We all suffer losses, and we Christians know that God is the One who gives and takes away, for His good purposes. But it isn't always easy to accept it.

I still find myself going to the window to look to see if the horses are okay. I catch myself before I remind the children during supper dishes - "did you feed the horses?" I watch Linda, still missing them, and Elena, sad when she comes in from feeding the geese and the ducks, and I still grieve. Yet I know that my Lord God is steadfast, unmovable, faithful, and true.

Lord, you ARE good. I know that. So, forgive me when I am weak, when I decide to withhold a little of my trust back from You. It's foolish of me to even try to do that.

It is like a toddler, not getting what she wants, stamping her little foot and refusing to give her Mama a kiss because she didn't get her way. Foolish little girl. Doesn't she know that what is withheld from her, or taken away from her, would harm her?

Lord, I am like that foolish little child. When will I learn that You really do know best? I acknowledge that EVERYTHING I have, absolutely everything, is from You. The computer I am using is Yours. The children I cherish are Yours. My citizenship, my home, my husband...all gifts from Your Hand.

You promised to direct my path, to open up the way before me. I know you do this-- you have done so all of my life. You take me down the tangled paths with thorns and thistles on every side...and you open the way before me. You show me the straight, uncluttered path.

Lord, I thank You, and I do trust You. I acknowledge that You know it all, and that You do all things right. I wait on You to show me the way.

In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Studies in Proverbs from Matthew Henry

The children and I are doing a great project together. I thought of the idea while reading Matthew Henry's commentary on the Online Bible. He has compiled verses under 31 different headings. The children are copying the verses, then looking up any words that intrigue them or that they are unfamiliar with. The younger children are drawing pictures to illustrate the verses. The older ones are doing word studies. We looked up the words that are bold.

The first section is entitled "Of the comfort, or grief, parents have in their children, according as they are wise or foolish, godly or ungodly. We changed it, for the kids' sake, to:

Section I How children make their parents happy or sad

Proverbs 10:1 A wise son makes a glad father,
but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

Pr. 15:20 A wise son makes a glad father,
but a foolish man despises his mother.

Pr. 17:21 He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow,
and the father of a fool has no joy.

Pr. 17:25 A foolish son is a grief to his father
and bitterness to her who bore him.

Pr. 19:13 A foolish son is ruin to his father,
and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.

Pr. 19:26 He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother
is a son who brings shame and reproach.

Pr. 23:15-16 My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.
16 My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.

Pr. 23:24-25 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
25 Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.

Pr. 27:11 Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad,
that I may answer him who reproaches me.

Pr. 29:3 He who loves wisdom makes his father glad,
but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.

Janet