TreasuresInTerraCotta

Back in the beginning of the year I embarked on some Memory Work.  We've been moving at the do-able pace of two verses per week with periodic breaks for review.  The first week of May, Week 18 of the year, we finished Romans 1.  Today we begin Romans 8. Memorizing large section of consecutive verses is not something I've ever done before, so some of the experiences of the past few months have been new and unexpected.  Here are a few of my thoughts. - Sometimes any place to let the baby draw is good enough.    - Memorizing cohesive verses aids with memory work.  In the past I have memorized one to two verses every two weeks , but each verse was a stand-alone verse.  To recall each verse would be difficult without prompting.  Memorizing the verses in the flow of the whole passage helps. - Memory work takes time.  I can not simply read my verse a few times during the week and have it stick. I have found that I have to spend ti...

I've been feeling a bit like Ruth lately.  Two years ago we took a journey through the book of Ruth and she remains one of my favorite characters and, her story, one of my favorite stories. She is a woman following God and doing some hard work in the process.  How can we forget her first words to us, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."    One of the features I love best about her story is the idea that circumstances "just so happened." Ruth and Naomi just so happened to return to Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning (Ruth 1:22), Naomi just so happened to have a relative on her husband's side named Boaz (Ruth 2:1) and when Ruth went to glean in the fields, as it turns out, she was working in a field of Boaz (Ruth 2:3).  Wouldn't you know it, but just then, Boaz arrived and greeted the harvesters (Ruth 2:4)! So I fe...