As a Man Carries His Son

I found a great verse the other day that encouraged me to keep writing all our victories as well as our blunders on this journey....It's in Numbers 33:2,

"Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord......"

The verses immediately following that one are an account of each place they went.  Nearly every verse starts with, "And they set out from...." and then the place is named.  Each trial they had is remembered as you read it, each miracle they saw is touched on.  Some of it is a little boring.  Other times you find yourself reading it thinking, "How could they have been so disobedient?"  Most of the time it is just about their regular life, but then you'll hear about a major victory as they took over a whole mass of land.  Either way, it is a record, a record that God wanted written down for us to read years later, that we might learn many things from those Israelites - what to do, what not to do.

Not much different than us.  A little boring sometimes.  Sometimes a major victory.  Other times I think to myself, "How could we have been so dumb?!"  But, the Israelites kept taking the land that God wanted them to take and eventually they settled in the land that was promised to the next generation.  IT TOOK A LOOONG TIME to get there, but they made it.  There is always light at the end of the tunnel.  Eventually, I pray that we will keep taking new "areas of land", which means many battles ahead, no doubt, but that ultimately we will win this war against debt.

RM just came down sighing.....he is not doing so good at this early morning thing.  I think he has a whole new respect for me.  HA!  But he continues to try...he is going through the Bible in 90 days, not to be outdone by his son who also did it a while back.  This is now the source of his Bible Study material that he is using with our younger 3.  He continues to meet with the three little rascals.  So much work to be done!

As I look ahead to raising our little ones or even the financial battles ahead, it is easy to get overwhelmed, but then I get comfort from verses like Deut. 1:29, "Then I said to you, (God speaking) 'Do not be in dread or afraid of them. the Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.'" 

He gives an image that they could picture easily - just as a man carries his son - we all know we would easily pick up one of our children if they were getting tired or if they had fallen.  If we would do that for our children, wouldn't God do that for us?  I am also encouraged by the fact God realizes they might dread or they might fear what is ahead.  Both emotions are a reality for me.  I think dread is almost worse than fear is some ways, but He reminds them not to dread, not to fear.  He goes before us.  He fights for us.  He reminds them of what He did for them in Egypt, when they were slaves, and then when they were out of in Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, a different type of slavery, in a way.  But all the way, He carried them, as a man carries his son, right up until they came to the place He wanted them.

I have to rest in these thoughts, even though it is a daily struggle.  But, as I write nearly every day, I see we have been carried and that is why I will continue to write it down, so I won't forget.  The Israelites forgot on a continual basis.  "Yet in spite of this word, you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go."  I want to believe the Lord who will show me, has shown me, where to pitch my tent, has shown be what way I should go.