Learning from the Psalms

Ava praising the Lord!

My favorite face that Ava makes!

"We were created to worship. And if we refuse or neglect to worship God, we will worship something else or something less."

"W0rship is the time and place that we assign for deliberat attentivness to God-not because he is confined to time and place but because our self-importance is so insidiously relentless that if we don't deliberaely interrupt ourselves regularly, we have no chance to attending to Him at all at other times and in other places."

"Ah, Jesus fountain of life, make me drink a cup of living water from you so that, having tasted you, I will thirst eternally for nothing but You."

"Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of Thee, let my first impulse be to worship Thee, let my firsts speech be Thy name let my first action be to kneel befor Thee in perayer.

Today in Bible study we went over the book of Psalms. I love this book and how it focuses on worship. I had a friend once told me that my job as a Christian mother is to create and nuture my child into a woshipper of Christ (thanks Jill!). That is my desire as the mother of Ava is to raise her to love and commit her life to Christ...hopefully at an early age. Laundry can wait, dinner can be ordered in, dusting and vacuuming can be done once she is asleep. During her waking hours, my job is to read scripture to her, play with her, listen to Christian music and mold and make her into a Godly woman. One Psalm that I love is Psalm 145:4 and 7, "One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts, They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness." I love this verse because it is such a picture of my life and my heritage of faith. I look back and I am so blessed that I have great-grandparents, grandparents and parents that love and serve the Lord with their lives. I can only pray that I can pass on the love of Christ on to Ava!

Another Psalm that I love is Psalm 13. Beside this Psalm in my Bible is May 2008. The reason, I love this passage is that this Psalm was a life line for me during the time when Adam and I were going through infertility treatments. Back in May 2008, I had just finished the first IUI treatment after a year of medication, ultrasounds and blood draws. I was at one of my best friends baby shower and the doctor called to tell me that the treatment did not work! First of all, I should not have answered the phone. But when I did I really thought I was having a panic attack, I couldn't breath and felt out of control. I am blessed with amazing friends that loved me, hugged me, cried with me, even during her own baby shower (thanks Kristen!)! I left the shower and went home and fell at the feet of the Lord crying in desperation! I turned to Psalm 13, and read it over and over again because it seemed to express the words that I could not form myself. The last verse of Psalm 13 is "I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me." I underlined that verse and claimed it, even before I became pregnant and blessed with Ava. Just one month later, we became pregnant and right now as I write this, my angel Ava is sitting in her bouncey seat right beside me.