Thirty-one!!

So...back to the grind at work, I was charge nurse again, I did alright near the end, but we got hit hard when I first took over, overall a good day. I got an email from church and connection dinners will be starting soon... I am greatly looking forward to getting to know more people. I also finally went and e-mailed the youth pastor about helping out with the high schoolers. I am super excited about meeting him and his wife and seeing if there is a place for me to help out. Lord willing that all these gentle nudges I have been feeling towards the youth group is of him and not of me. Please pray that it goes well and that there might be a place for me to help out.

What I ate... banana and peanut butter, coffee and 2 ginger snaps, salad, coffee with 2 crackers, banana and peanut butter and for dessert granola and berries.

What I read... Genesis 31

Oh the heart of Laban, so Laban does not want Jacob to go because the Lord has blessed Laban because of Jacob, and when the Lord tells Jacob to take all the speckled livestock and run with his wives, for fear of Laban coming to kill him, because his sons were murmuring about Jacob and now Laban's fickle heart was changing towards Jacob as well, so after Jacob flees with his livestock and his family, he is overtaken by Laban after 7 days....

²² On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

²⁵ Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too. ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war. ²⁷ Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? ²⁸ You didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. You have done a foolish thing. ²⁹ I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ ³⁰ Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s household. But why did you steal my gods?”

So, Jacob was smart enough to know that Laban was not after him just because he wanted to say Goodbye and if Jacob had waited till Laban was ready to say goodbye he might never have left. It was the urging of the Lord that got him out of there. Then the Lord appears to Laban and tells him not to harm to saying anything against Jacob, however, Laban states that the only reason he has come after Jacob is because he took his gods. Now I am not really going to get into the fact that Rachel was the one that stole them, and Jacob says whoever has stolen will be put to death, but I will rag upon Laban this time, for the fact that he has come after little figurines that do not speak to you in the night, they do not deliver messages in dreams, they do not call fire down from above, they do not give blessings or deliver promises and yet Laban wanted them bad enough to use that as a reason to overtake Jacob. Now Jacob's God came to Laban the very night before, yet Laban was blind enough to not believe or have faith in Jacob's God. I wonder if we'll see uncle Laban in heaven. Or is uncle Laban still off worshiping his little figurines.

We do it too nowadays, with our cars, or our houses, our belongings, our TV's our computers, things that cannot do anything for us. They cannot bless us, they cannot give us eternal life, they cannot call fire down from heaven and they would never have been made if the one that first made us had not given someone the inspiration and ideas to come up with them... I cannot help but wonder sometimes... what idols, or gods am I putting before the one true God... how many things in my possession do I think I cannot live without? If everything I ever owned was suddenly burned, destroyed or vanished... I would still be able to live. I have friends that would help put me up. I would learn to live without, because I would still have my life. Now I don't want the Lord to take that as an invitation for an apartment fire. However, I do give praise and honor to God for all of the amazing things that he has allowed into my life. I am so blessed to have a roof over my head, a job, a car to get to my job, food to eat, a bed to sleep in and clothes to wear. I hope I never become a person that just wants and wants and wants. I think I've always had a desire to do with the bare minimum and maybe a little bit extra... even though, the Lord has blessed me with far more than I deserve. I guess tonight from this passage I can really truly see how blessed I am for how much I have. Thank you Lord.

Good Night and God Bless!