Views Around the House

It’s cold outside!  I don’t know this from first hand experience.  I know this only from my digital thermometer.  The view is white, as all the trees are still thickly burdened with bunches of snow.

and the fire is warm.  We’ll have it hopping pretty good today.  I love our fireplace, if I haven’t said it before.

 Our library baskets are still brimming, but with last week’s books.  It was a snow day when we normally go to the library, and our driveway was not plowed for awhile.  The kids have already read through their books, and I think they’d be doing a bit better if they had a fresh stack again.
Spoiled kids.  Silje said they’re not spoiled, I was spoiled because I used to live in walking distance to the library as a kid, and often just walked over to the library whenever I wanted.  To her, that’s livin’ the dream.  That’s true.  Maybe they’re not that spoiled.

Here’s Dad and me when I was about 18 months old.  He looks so young here.  Well, I don’t look too old either.  😉  I have his picture up every day to remind me to pray for him.  Relationships with alcoholics are tricky things.

Here’s my coffee table as-is this morning.  I came across this verse on some card yesterday that read, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, and with my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 89:1.  I looked it up in my Bible, and saw that “mercies” was translated “great love” in my translation.  Another translation said “lovingkindness.”  I knew it was that Hebrew word I did a “word study” on once: “Hesed.”  I remember it because it was the name of one of my friends on a mission trip I went on.  There’s a few spellings.  For memory sake, I took out my Bible dictionary once again and looked up the Hebrew word.  It’s my favorite one to look up.

“Hesed” is used 240 times in the Old Testament.  It has 3 basic meanings.  “strength,” “steadfastness,” and “love.”  It’s not just a mushy love word.  It’s a word that describes the power of God, and the faithfulness of God.  All 3 of those traits are unseparated in that one word.  I love to dwell on that concept.  It also has some legal connotations, as in the marriage binding.  God is “legally” tying Himself to us through this word.

Common verbs placed with “hesed” are: “doing ‘hesed’,” “showing ‘hesed’,” and “keeping ‘hesed’.”

It’s God’s mercies, God’s faithfulness, God’s love, God’s strength, God’s promise, all wrapped up in one Hebrew word: Hesed.

So as I’m working around the house, I’m looking for some good wall space to put this verse that has been so much on my heart lately, and I think needs to be hand-written on my wall somewhere.  Maybe I’ll order some vinyl cut-out-thingy of it.

“I will sing of the LORD’s great love [hesed] forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” Psalm 89:1.

The word there for faithfulness isn’t the word ‘hesed.’  It’s the word ’emunah’ which means “firmness, stability, truth, fidelity.”

So that is my mission today, as I make some treats for the friends who will brave the cold (hopefully) tonight, as I break up fights with the kids who can’t go outside because of the severe temperatures, as I teach them their lessons, and give Silje her state-required assessment test, as I feed Ingrid over and over:

“I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.”