Wednesday February 8, 2006

My 62nd Birthday!

I was blessed to have been born into a Christian home where I was taught God’s principles, not only by word of mouth, but also by lifestyle.  My parents (and grandparents) lived the gospel in a way that made me want to surrender my life to Christ at an early age – long before I fully understood what it meant. 

I was taught to seek God’s will for my life, and soon understood that if I was going to accompolish that, I needed to read my Bible, be faithful to Him one day at a time, and take advantage of godly Bible teaching whenever I could.  

Somewhere In that process, I was instructed to choose a ” life-verse” or set of verses that defined my spiritual goals.  They should be words that applied to me – words I could cling to when life was pressing me toward discouragement, giving up, or making an ungodly decision. 

Before I had settled on a life-verse (I had a few at the time), I remember hearing a Bible teacher say he heard of a Jewish school where the young boys were encouraged to find a verse or portion of verses that began with the first letter and included every letter of their name.  The Bible teacher suggested this may be a good way to find your life-verse.  

That was when I narrowed my favorite verses down to one life-verse, because it began with and included the letters in my first name.

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Psalm 37:4.

To my delight I discovered my middle name in the next set of verses.

Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.  And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday.  Psalm 37:5,6.

My maiden name “Hershey” was in the next verse, and when I married, my last name “High” was also there!

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him:  fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.  Psalm 37:7

Delight!  Commit!  Rest!

There are times I do not remember to delight, commit, or rest; but they are the words that always bring me back to God’s will for my life.