by jot and tittle

There are good men in the world. There's my father. He invests in the lives of his children, plays with his grandchildren, and talks to people at church--friends and visitors alike. There's my brothers. They work hard to support their families. They are good dads. There's my first boss who taught me how to work hard and how to lead in the work place by giving clear instruction and by doing the jobs that other people don't want to do. There are my elders who pray about my questions before providing clear, biblical instruction.  There are good men in the world, and the ones who do the majority of day-to-day life with me are married to my friends.  It is a great kindness of the Lord that we do not do life alone, and it is a great kindness that, in the church, we get to be family. My friend's husband is also my brother, and our relationship is that of healthy siblings. The faith-brothers in my life are protective and kind, they dish out and accept teasing, they do not m...

There are people I follow on social media who are way cooler than I am. (I know, I know, there are fakers on social media. The thing is, for the most part, I think these women are not faking it.) They honestly just get so much more done than I do. There's the mom who has her time so well scheduled that the amount of stuff she gets done in a day amazes me. There's the woman who consumes an astronomical number of books because she listens to audio books while she runs errands. There's the woman homeschooling her kids and making bread and keeping her house clean and running a side business and writing a book and leading a workout class and leading Bible study and volunteering at the nursing home and and and.  I was praying about this because I really feel like in comparison, I don't get much done. I can't listen to audio books all the time because my brain is tired. I can't run at 110% all day, fall into bed, and get up and do it all over again the next day. But he...

A couple weeks ago, while I tidied up after camping (yes, I went camping again), I wanted to listen to Scripture and the Old Testament prophets seemed to be calling my name, so Hosea it was (for no other purpose then that I could listen to it in 35 minutes and that was the perfect amount of time). For the following week, I returned to it, reading it this time, and soaking it in a bit more.  One of the themes in Hosea is that God called His people to know His law and obey it, but the people did not know the law so they did not obey, and this brought them destruction and discipline; "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." 4:6a. "Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the LORD." 5:4. "Israel has rejected the good." 8:3a "Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law, they are regarded as a strange thing." 8:12 But it is the end of 9:10 that struck me thi...