Promises, Promises

Well, it happened again.

My husband went for a job interview only to discover that the position was no longer available.

Six months without substantial employment has proved tiresome.  Yes, he has gone on a ton of interviews (most for which he is HIGHLY over-educated and over-qualified), and yet, nada.  Zilch.  Goose egg. Squat.

I know God has a plan (Proverbs 19:21) to prosper us (Jeremiah 29:11-13) for us to do good works (Ephesians 2:10).  I know all the verses, but I am having a hard time waiting for God in this season.  In other words, I have a serious WAIT problem.

In my quiet time the other day, I was reminded of the story of Abraham.  He had a WAIT problem, too.  He waited for a child.  He waited for protection.  He waited for God to provide.  But he did not do it very well.  He circumvented God's plan for a child by sleeping with his wife's maidservant.  He provided his own "plan B" by lying and saying that Sarai was only his sister.  

In Genesis 22:17, God promises Abraham something amazing.  God shows Abraham the stars.  He gives him a vision for his future: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies..."

The kicker is: it took 23 years for Abraham's future generation to be born.  In God's perfect timing, Isaac was born to old parents.  23 years.  That is the same number of years Scott and I have been married.  WOWZERS!

But it made them stronger in the process.  When God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac over a decade later, Abraham got up "early in the morning" to obey God (Genesis 22:3).

I want to be stronger.   I want to have faith that merits putting me on a list of the faithful (Hebrews 11).  I want to be so eager to do God's work that I get up "early in the morning" to do it.  Even if it means more job interviews for my husband.

Would you please pray for my husband as he searches for the right job?    Thank you!

How can I pray for you?!?!  Do you have a WAIT problem as well?

Maybe we should look up at the starts periodically and remind ourselves of the perfect timing of God.

Blessings on your week!
Amberly

Spit Take

I love to learn new verbiage.  Even if it means that I have been saying something wrong for all of my born days...

I came across this little beauty over Christmas break and it has been stuck in my craw ever since.

The term "Spitting image" is the usual modern form of the idiom meaning exact likeness, duplicate, or counterpart. The original phrase was spit and image, inspired by the Biblical God‘s use of spit and mud to create Adam in his image. But spitting image has been far more common than spit and image for over a century.

A few writers still use spit and image, but trying to keep the original idiom alive is probably a lost cause. Though it is older and makes more logical sense, it can also be distracting to readers who have been hearing spitting image their whole lives. Of course, spitting image can be just as distracting to some careful readers. (from http://grammarist.com/usage/spitting-image/)

Wow.  Although I have thought through being made in the image of God, I never pondered that we could actually be derived from the very SPIT of God. 

"Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7)

This is such a cool image that our (meaning humankind's) lungs were formed and filled with the very breath of God.  Although spit is not mentioned, the dust God used may have included his spit as well (other translations imply the use of spit).

So, what does all this word-nerdiness have to do with anything?  Well, it has forced me to ask myself a couple of questions:

Do I act like the "spit and image" of my Heavenly Father?

Do I speak love and grace to others like my lungs were filled with His breath?

My intentions this year include researching who I am in Christ.  This has been a good thought on which I can chew this first week.

Happy New Year!

Amberly