Dentist and Psalm 66

Last Thursday the Ruppel clan stormed our local dentist office with our interpreter in tow and almost 4 hours later we left with somewhat clean teeth, multiple referrals to "specialists", and a slight headache.  Both of the new Ruppels tolerated the scraping, poking, prodding and many x-rays (36 total between the two of them) very well.  Tsinat laughed and giggled through the majority of her time in the chair and then concluded her dental session by accidentally breaking the sunglasses they had given her to wear.  Rue on the other hand had a little more difficult time laughing and giggling then her sister because she was in considerable pain due to her decaying teeth.  The poor little thing white knuckled her way through the cleaning though and rewarded us all with her sweet smile during each break in cleaning.  She has extensive dental work on her horizon and we have many hours in waiting rooms and dental dollars to spend in our horizon.  As a matter of fact in a 10 day span we have 8 doctor appointments and my life seems to be an endless stream of dentists, endologists, oral surgeons, orthodontists, hematologists, consults, ultrasounds, blood draws and I am desperately trying to forget that I owe our doctor another round of stool samples in the next few weeks (I think we need to get BJ a PINK barf bag). 

But, I continually praise God that we are able to provide them with this dental and medical care unlike so many other of our brothers and sisters around the world.  And God has entrusted us with these six little people to care for and nurture and as we set about restoring their bodies He is restoring their souls and spirits and "pouring out a plentiful rain; You restore and confirm Your heritage when it is languished and weary."  And we race on.

During our January fast of this year the Lord blessed us tremendously and one of my greatest blessings was one particular morning when the Holy Spirit taught me a few things.  I wanted to share them ~

Psalm 66: 13 - 20  ~ This portion of scripture has four key points that impact our lives and in particular our prayer lives.  One of the key points breaks down further into more spiritual wealth.

vs 13 - 20  "I will come into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows.  Which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in distress.  I will offer to You burnt offerings of fat lambs, with rams consumed in sweet-smelling smoke; I will offer to You bullocks, and he-goats. Selah.  Come and hear, all you who reverently fear God, and I will declare what He has done for me!  I cried aloud to Him; He was extolled and high praise was under my tongue.  If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me; But certainly God has heard me; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, Who has not rejected my prayer nor removed His mercy and loving-kindness from being with me."

First key ~ I will pay you my vows ~  Old Testament, yes, relevant to our present day lives?  Yes!  This is the point that breaks down into deeper truth; our vows, what are our vows, our burnt offerings in 2012?   fat lambs, rams, bullocks and he-goats, last time I checked I did not have any of these hanging out around the house waiting to be slaughtered on my altar for the Living God yet we know that this truth pertains to us today so I continued to pray through the scriptures and the HS showed me this is my life; fat lamb - my time, rams - my material possessions, bullocks - my relationships (family and friends), he-goats - my talents.  All of these need to be laid at His feet as a sacrifice that offers up sweet-smelling smoke to our Heavenly Father.  They were all given to me as a gift from the Giver so now I must give back to the Giver that which was gifted to me.  God has been very specific with me in each of these four areas as I have prayed through these scriptures over the last 5 months and as I have given my lambs, rams, bullocks, and he-goats to Him and He has surprised me and deeply challenged me in each of these areas and I consider it pure joy to give back to the Giver.  Pray over these four areas in your life and then buckle up because the ride is about to get bumpy.

Second key ~ I will declare what He has done for me!  Declare it, give credit where credit is due (and none of it belongs to us) and speak it, sing it, write it, preach it, teach it; however you declare His goodness is irrelevant as long as you do it, everyday and in every way.
Acts 4:29-30 ~ "You will grant that Your bond servant will speak Your Word with all confidence, while You will extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders will take place through the name of Your Holy Servant Jesus."

Third key ~  I cried aloud to Him; He was extolled ~ Worship, praise, and extol Him from the depths of a grateful heart, regardless of circumstances.  In your darkest deepest despair and on Your mountain tops and every stop in between, extol Him. 

Fourth key ~ If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord does not hear me ~ Our world and our sinful natures continually drag sin and iniquity into our lives, hearts, minds and souls and if unforgiven it seeps out through our words, our actions, our attitudes and if left hidden in our hearts our Lord does not hear us (His words not mine.) 
Psalm 19:12-14 ~ "Who can discern his lapses and errors?  Clear me from hidden faults.  Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!  Then I shall be blameless ... Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." 
Simple and pure, God's purity bestowed upon us every time we ask. 

And after these truths are proclaimed our Psalmist concludes ~
"But certainly God has heard me; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer."  Praise God.

School days

(Written May 29th)

A three day weekend spent in the sun (before the tropical storm hit) and buried up to our eyeballs in curriculum, lesson plans and school schedules and by Monday night BJ and I were both a little fried, physically and mentally.  We have determined that 6 kids at the base pool with slide included while tremendously fun is also a little nerve wracking and stressful.  We are also quite certain that this whole "home schooling 6 kids of all varying academic levels and 2 of whom are special needs" is just plain crazy and after hours of reviewing schedules and repeatedly counting hours to make sure that we could not find anymore the 24 hours in any given day, we have determined that it is IMPOSSIBLE!!  Absolutely and entirely impossible ~ there is certainly not enough money in the curriculum account, hours in the day, energy in this tired body and without a doubt not enough brains in this head to get it all done, everyday, all year, for the rest of their ever-loving lives!  Well, maybe not quite that long but it sure feels that way.  And the fact that my Navy - loving husband was spending his day off pouring over schedules and printing out addition fact sheets was not lost to me and I love him dearly for his dedication to his family.  Granted he spent most of the day terrorizing me due to my unorganized and slightly chaotic system but he would not be the BJ I know and love if he was not torturing me for one thing or another.  However, even with my lovely and trusty assistant it was still quite clear that this next school year we will embark on a voyage of the impossible and just the prep work for this voyage has me completely exhausted.

So, you may be wondering whether or not I spent this morning at our local elementary, middle and high school registering my way into a little freedom and sanity.  Yes, I did!  No just kidding, God would not let me do that regardless of how many times I have begged Him to allow me to.  And after 10 years of home schooling BJ would not allow me to register them either, which is comical since he is the one who was against home schooling all those years ago because he did not want our kids to be "weird."  No, I spent this morning plugging away at our last few weeks of this school year and chuckling to myself about how insane this really is. 

But, I got to thinking, or more properly put, God got to explaining that this impossible task set before us serves one purpose and one purpose only ~ to glorify God.  And in my impossible I see that He is entirely capable, completely able and fully desiring to be all that He has always been.  And in this vast space of impossibility before me I see the possibility, no, the certainty that He will fill this space with all that He is and our cup runneth over.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me ... I just need to give Him this space of impossibility of this call that He has called us to. 

1 Corinthians 1:27 ~  "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put shame to the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame to the things which are mighty."

I am quite certain that when God used the hand of Paul to write these life giving words He was looking down the long corridor of time and had His eye on me and He knew that many would say we were foolish and maybe we are, but He will use us all the same.  And He felt my weakness, for He carried my weaknesses upon Himself and He determined to use me all the same.

2 Corinthians 12:9 - 10  ~   "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I too make my boast in my weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon me, upon my home and upon my family.  And in my weakness I feel His strength and now I wonder why have I held so tightly to my own strength for so long?  His power resting upon me, His strength is well ... perfect.

And yet we had much comical relief this weekend ~

And they all came tumbling down ~

The cross dressing Ruppel Ballet Company (we are seriously considering taking this one on the road!)

And last but not least, the boys' answer to those pesky tears while cutting onions ~

Who knew swimming goggles had so many uses?!