Hunter Gatherer

I've been making a determined effort to get up earlier in the mornings, for many reasons. The foremost is that there simply hasn't been good opportunity to read and pray uninterrupted later on in the day. And my spirit has been suffering for lack of the refreshment and life God's word breathes into it. As Pastor Phil loves to say concerning not reading Scripture regularly...it tends to make me "stupid." I think stupidly, I act stupidly, and there is little but the commonest of grace that I can impart to my husband and children. I need to meet God every day. In the morning. Before the little mouths start yawning and then yowling for food and then screeching and babbling in joyful abandon as children should. I need to get up and drink from the ever-flowing fountain before the fires start cropping up. I need wisdom. I need grace. I need healing before the day even begins.

I have been reading through Proverbs for the first time since my days working at Panera, perhaps four years or more. Why is it that we push aside certain books of the Bible, thinking to ourselves, "Surely that book doesn't have any good stuff for me to read. I'd be bored. I'll read through Romans or Ephesians instead!" While the New Testament is wonderfully rich, there is so much God speaks through the Old Testament, too. Before my Panera days, I had mostly avoided Proverbs because I thought it was all preachy, boring exposition from the king who gained wisdom from the Lord. "Surely none of it applies to me!" Oh, how wrong I was. Not even just page or chapter hitting hard, each verse brings something of wisdom to my heart and mind. God wrote Proverbs to be a gold mine for those who would seek it. If you haven't - lately or at all - I encourage you to read it. Memorize chapter three - all of it! - with your children, like my father did when I was a little girl. Those verses are set deeper in my heart than any other scripture I have memorized, I think in part because my father had all of us children memorize it so thoroughly when we so small. Read through all of Proverbs. Memorize. It will be "healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones." (3:8)

I really don't know how to tie this post together. I meant to write about my blueberry gathering expedition early this morning, picking over the garden once more (what to do with all these Mortgage Lifter tomatoes?!), and writing out some sort of artful piece about the difference between my husband (who is decidedly a hunter) and myself (who decided loves to gather). And then my post was hijacked in the best of ways. So there you have it! Go forth and read God's word, so you will be wise and refreshed. :D