Skip to main content

31Days to Keep a Tender Heart: October 10

 
I’m preparing to speak on gratitude this weekend, so I thought that I would take the next few days to write some of what I am thinking and preparing.
Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, “Because the LORD has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she named him Judah Then she stopped bearing. Genesis 29: 31-35
I wonder what it was like to be Leah. She shared a husband with her sister and she was unloved by him. To me, this would be a terrible, unbearable situation. The LORD begins to bless Leah with sons. The way that she names them suggests to me that she was suffering profoundly and had become completely focused on earning her husband’s love as a way out of her misery. With each one, I hear hope in Leah’s voice. Maybe with this child, my husband will love me. Maybe the birth of this son will give me what I desire.
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Psalm 127:3
I wonder if it was hard for Leah to receive her gift of children from the LORD because of her deep hurt from her husband’s rejection and her unfulfilled longing to be loved. I know that I often have a hard time celebrating God’s gifts to me when I am preoccupied by what He has not given me. It must have been miserable for her to see Jacob’s love for her sister Rachel on a daily basis. I can only imagine how hard it would have been for Leah to intentionally choose to praise God despite her painful circumstances. But, this is exactly what seems to happen with the birth of her fourth son.
“This time I will praise the LORD”, said Leah. Something significant must have shifted in Leah between Levi’s birth and Judah’s birth. She does not reference her husband or being unloved. She declares that she will praise the LORD. This is important in and of itself, but I think that it also reflects that she was finally able to receive her children as her gift from the LORD in that season.
I think that Leah is a good Biblical example of how to rejoice in the LORD in all things and how practicing gratitude can transform a person.
Still counting gifts:
·         #510: Blue skies and puffy white clouds
·         #511: Mike Bickle’s study of the book of Zechariah to start my day
·         #512: Discovering that Joel Rosenberg has a blog
·         #513: How God keeps inviting me into His deeper, secret work in the hearts of man    
·         #514: Sharing a glass of dry, red wine with my dad while we talk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to School

Well, after four years away from school counseling, I have decided to return. Yes, I'm keeping my private practice in counseling. I will be reducing the number of clients that I see on a weekly basis in order to work 20 hours a week as a school counselor at Rockford Christian Elementary School. This comes in the midst of conversations that I have been having with God about desire. In fact, pursuing this position kind of started those conversations. My good friend Mackenzie, who works in the business office at RCS, told me about the position innocently enough. She wanted me to have the information about the position in case I had any counselor friends who might be interested in applying. What neither she nor I could have known, was how desire would stir in my heart as soon as she started to describe it to me. There are things that I have come to absolutely love in private practice counseling. I love being my own boss, setting my own hours and having complete freedom over...
1 comment
Read more

When Creative Desire Stirs

The past 3 months have felt crazy. And during all these months of crazy, busy activity in my life, desire has been stirring in the background of my heart. I read things that other people write and feel myself come alive. I talk with people and hear things that God is speaking and want to write them down and share. I listen to music, sing to the Lord and long to create something that will help other people to connect with God in worship. It has been over two months since I touched our piano. Or any piano, for that matter. This is also my first blog post in almost 3 months. Crazy months, yes. But, 3 months all the same. I feel sad about these things. And scared to start again. What if I have lost everything that I had developed? But even fear of the possible frustration of starting again has not been able to change my desire. My desire has only been stirring and growing all this time. My desire is to resume creating. With piano. With words. This is week 9 of my training for t...
Post a Comment
Read more

31 Days to Keep a Tender Heart: October 18

  Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Ann Voskamp quoted this passage in her blog recently. Then, I read it in my one-year Bible for October 12. Seeing it twice within a week caught my attention. Verse 16 is: Always be joyful. This sounds like a command to me and I don’t think God would command us to do something we can’t do. If He tells me to always be joyful, then I believe that it is always possible for me to be joyful and that this is what God desires for me. Verse 17 is: Keep on praying. I hear another command. And, it follows the first one, which I understand to mean that prayer is related to being joyful. The joy provokes the prayer; the prayer sustains the joy, or both. Either way, I like how God has placed these two directives right next to each other. Verse 18: No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for ...
Post a Comment
Read more