King David numbered the people and was taken to the woodshed...Meditations from October's reading

He was privileged to choose his punishment, this time. God opened his reasoning to pleading for his own soul and for the souls of his people. What a condescending imploring that God entered into with David? He had been taken to the woodshed so many times that he was now mature enough to engage in advocacy with God in a new way.

He owned his leadership of the people, like few men in history. Probably because he was the youngest brother, I think. He entered into a relationship with God in leadership of men, from a wholesomely humble perspective. God often reminded him of his humble beginnings, when needed. But, my focus is the response of David in the grief of having seen so many of his people endure the penalty. His grief seemed to lead him to defend them, even to God. He seemed to see God as the lion and the bear. What is more remarkable is that God engaged and seemed to enjoy this grief response

I've seen alot of things in the sky, but this was a humdinger, even for me! {ON Shin Day}

This is the closest cartoon, to what I saw, signed by UNC C.He seemed to know that I would understand it! and just as quickly as he was a pistol-toting cartoon character, it changed into the photo of me that I saw, with a candle in my mouth and turned to the side, as a little girl.

I just kept it to myself amidst the music and the talk of the trip.

I am often aware of the angelic graffiti that comes to me in my travels away from my children. They know this is difficult for me and tell me jokes to keep my spirits up. Even the cows tell me jokes, when they know I am leaving my children.

They really don't like the way I sob!

I don't like it either. Well, now I think uncle was trying to tell me to hurry up and tell the story of "Glad Adoration". So that is what I will try to do. Jochabed's story will remain an aside...

Remembering Day One!

Well, it isn’t as though I haven’t had a lot of experience caring for children.” Answered while doing my makeup and preparing for the first day at my new job. "You are not doing it right”. Was Emily’s curt answer. Look at you, makeup? For babies? You are dressed all wrong. Those babies will grab that skirt right off of you the first thing. Why are you wearing a skirt. Babies are dirty little things that you have to wipe poop and drool and spit up off of. Oh shut up Emily, was my answer as I finished my discussion with her. I have a funny feeling about these children. I have that feeling like I am going to fall in love with someone today. It is a funny feeling deep inside my heart... I kissed her on the cheek, like the day before I had you.  I squeezed her now grown up nose until she said owwwwww! I put my make up on and I did my hair and then I went to the hospital. I am in a kind of love labor and that is why I am dressed like this today.

With that short semi-argument, I got in the car with a quiet prayer for God’s great help and proceeded to my first day at the daycare…

For background, I did all I could do to keep my children out of daycare. It was a bad word in my house, growing up and never in a million years would I have said when I grow up I want to be a daycare worker. Menial labor, was my expectation of the work, but necessity had put us to this.

I just couldn’t find anything else. I will make the best of this sorry financial and jobless situation.

Emily wasn’t making it any easier. She kept asking me why I did every little thing that I did as a kind of good luck symbol, for an expectation of better things before us. I was really excited about what I would be learning, but I wasn’t at all deceived that. It wouldn’t be tedious and multiple stinky diapers a day, we’re not at all my fondest part of the expectation.

Thoughts from my first watching of "through the Looking Glass"....LG

I feel so stupid to be 55 years old and just opening LG, by means of movie. I lose my status as being thought of by myself as a well read and well rounded individual. I thought of myself as a person of multitudinous in my fully read books. Of course, my memory is losing more than I have placed into it. I lost so much that now I can't find the file of my informational readings. So, I keep filling the files, in hopes to replenish, before the hole empties the entire tub.

I hear the mother in "How Green" mocking me, "why would one fill a tub with holes in it?" Indeed why do I fill my mind, when I know it has holes? I fill it because it is empty, I retort.

Absalom, was the butterfly in "LG". I know him, I jump up and down to say. I was just reading about him a day ago. Providential? Like Horshack in Kotter, I jump and raise my hand in the class. I know Absalom and I know butterflies, like my best friends. What was Lewis Carroll trying to say?

Fleeting characters in Scripture, are they won to faith or lost? The womans' movement in the Old Testament, was it addressed by the God of Creation? Are women vindicated, is Tamar? That was Absalom's movement. He was the anti-harassment portion of the Kingdom. How far underground did that movement go? Does Jesus care?

Whose battle is that? It is the churches battle and many men have taken it to task, and some to their deaths, as Absalom.

Absalom died, in judgment and David knew why. His sins were brought into his face. It is my fault, he was saying over and over in his griefs. I showed this boy the wrong thing about my life. I showed him that I let the good old boys off the hook too easily. I showed him that his sister was less than to me. Women weren't important to him, but they are to Jesus.

Jesus came to correct the record, as it comes to women. We are not the center of the universe. Our angers and griefs are carried to heaven. Our prayers for our sons are seen by our Lord. Our monuments to their misunderstandings in prayer are considered at the throne of Mercy. How much of ourselves are we willing to spend to grow children into the Kingdom of Heaven? Carroll and His generation had a burden of not letting the Absaloms go to hell, because of their inconsistencies. They built schools to separate the wheat from the chaff and get the wheat into policy-making positions. Scripture was a standard, among other standards to create an Athenian-style debate of hammering out policies. God will not judge us harshly, if we are judging ourselves aright, was the reasoning of these great men of yesteryear.

Somehow the womans' movement has become an end in itself and not an issue to be reconciled with. Men who are masculine are attacked, for their bias. Femininity is the rule of the day. It is our turn, we say. We must crush masculinity, because that is the enemy! Not so!

Jochabed went through intensive training to become a nursemaid in the royal nursery.

Each day she began with worship and praise to Jehovah, before she went to the palace to see her beloved child. The training seemed like nothing for the life that was spared on her behalf, by Jehovah.

It was actually very intense. Many women were sent home in tears. Many women were sent into a deeper servitude, because of insubordination and attitude. No untoward attitude was accepted in those days. Pharoah was hardening in his stance against women, because of the possibility of insurrection from the Jews after his tyrade.

The women, on the other hand, she found very winsome and understanding of her life's work. Especially the Pharoah's daughter, seemed very accepting of her. There seemed a close bond forming between the two women, which was hard for Jochabed to accept, in her concern for Moses. She couldn't let on that there was a real bond between her and her son and she attempted to keep her love internal and follow procedure and protocol with abandon. She plucked Moses one time for calling her mommy, right on the mouth. He stuttered from that moment on and she felt that in her heart as an ache, although she could never tell another soul, except Miriam, when she went home. They held eachother in tears, many a night of her detail.

Of Pearls and Leaves{the laws of childcare impurities in Egypt}

The categories of children in the palace, when Jochabed was brought on as a nursemaid was Pearl or Leaves. Outside the nursery there was a symbol, which at first seemed strange to her. The Pearl symbol was given to the babies who didn't spit up, in their earliest care. The spittle of infants was despised in Egypt and seen as an early sign of disrespect for their elders. Once they would become of age, they would have the opportunity to take back their early expressions, if they would.

The Leaf symbol was given to the children who had spit on their elders and they had a month to be corrected from this horrible habit and if not, they would be relegated to a service oriented away from the palace. This corrective action was taken to keep the gods happy with the Pharoah that he wouldn't be tarnished with this impurity and thus be degraded in their service.

Jochabed's prayers and heart burden was weighted as she observed these peculiar practices of the Egyptian palace culture. She thanked God that He wasn't such a God to do this to His servants. She was still rejoicing that she was allowed to see her son alive and her glory couldn't be shared with the other women in her community who were suffering. It was a lonely time and her confidants became some of the women servants in the palace, who were of different cultural backgrounds, but motherhood held them in a heart bond that was deep and earnest. She prayed for their souls to find a way to the true God.

Today was picking day for my first corn stalk----It is a QUIET THING!

I think maybe that is what the angel was saying with that extravagant twisty spectacular display on Saturday. If you don't pick that one ear of corn that you were able to eek out of your paltry attempts at gardening I will! I am so sick of you missing the timer for these things. If you know how many plants and sweet potatoes and carrots, etc. that you let sit under that ground after you planted them, even you would weep. It is time to pick that one! I hear that you need a bump on the head to get things like that. Well, if you think that I changed the timer on the rain clock for you to get real corn to come up for you so that you could let that one rot on the vine, it makes me sick.

I picked it and finally got the message.