Blessings in the Bible

As we continue through the Bible (though much more slowly than what I had initially planned) I can't help but feel so very very blessed and there are many times during our school days now that the kids and I will just sit and shout with tears in our eyes as we see again and again just how clearly every single word, event and ceremony given in scripture points the way to God's mercy and love for us!

We are in Leviticus now ( I know I know...this is taking so long and we are going slow) and there is just so much to learn and to appreciate about the deep deep love that God shows his people. We got stuck again, as we tend to do when we hit things that we find particularly interesting. It is awesome timing to get stuck though.....we got stuck on the feasts and tomorrow evening begins Rosh Hashanah or the feast of Trumpets. You can read about it and all of the other wonderful feasts given us by the Lord on an awesome website www.biblicalholidays.com

I won't bog anyone down right now with my inability to appropriately explain such a wonderful and full celebration of God's love for His people but we are preparing for our own families observance of this special day. We have a special meal planned and Taeler and I will be baking the challah tomorrow and making sure that our home is nice and clean for our rest and time to feast and pray.

One of the traditions of the holiday is that we search within our selves to make amends for those things done wrong and repent of the sins committed in the past year (Rosh Hashanah is the jewish new year) that begins tonight. Friday evening as the sun sets we will light special candles and give our blessings to one another and pray together as a family to seek God's will for us in the coming year. Then we have a special meal planned that will begin with dipping the challah and apples in honey.....this is a symbol of the sweetness of the year to come. We will be avoiding any sour or bitter foods to help remind us to keep bitterness out of our hearts and minds in the year ahead. There is much much more that we have planned but not in the hectic way of the common celebrations that we see with our culture's Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

In fact the more that I study the holidays/feasts/fasts given in scripture and see the depth and richness of the way that God planned those things for us the more I feel robbed that I was taught to celebrate in such fleshly and hurried and ugly ways as I was. Troy and I had such a wonderful conversation last night at bedtime about the intimacy that goes missing with the celebrations that we've always known compared to the sweet fellowship and prayerful worship of the biblical holidays. I'm so thankful for all that we are learning and can't wait to study even more!! Please do read more about the biblical holidays.....I'm not saying that you should go out and buy a book necessarily but there is such a richness in learning these things from scripture....I know it has really been a blessing to us.

And since I won't have time to post again......HAVE A SWEET AND BLESSED NEW YEAR!