Psalm 91

(On a topic totally unrelated to today's post...Annsley currently has a walking stick crawling all over her. This child can't be from my genes!)

My oldest daughter has everything compartmentalized into black or white. There is no gray. (With Kennedi, the world is various shades of gray. Some days are darker than others--literally.) Annsley's structured world can be a good thing--and sometimes it's a "lighten up Girl! It'll be OK if we do it differently this time around". You show her how to do something the first time, and that's the way it will be done forever--so you better show her the way you want it done that first time. She gets all up in arms about people's handwriting for example. The printed block "Y" has no curves in it; when she began printing, my little then 4 year old would get so mad in the car coming home from church because her teacher wrote her name with the wrong "y". (Her teacher had used the cursive "y" in her name--oh the sacrilege!) She said to us as much as herself, "I'm gonna have to have a talk with her next Sunday. She better not write my "y" wrong again!" She is also great at keeping you accountable although I'm not always sure I fully appreciate my 6 year old in that respect. It is often a bit daunting.

Lately I have felt impressed to daily pray Psalm 91 over all three of my children. In order to make it tangible for them to know what mommy and daddy are doing, I bought a jar and marbles, and for each day we pray that, Doug and I each deposit one marble into our Psalm 91 jar. Every morning Annsley is checking to see if more marbles have been added. I did forget one morning and I experienced her "wrath." (Hands on hips, wrinkled up face, and that "Mommmm! You said you were going to say Psalm 91 every day!") Oh the pressure! Kennedi is just happy to get to put my marble into the jar for me. She now is telling me that she prayed Psalm 91 over daddy and me trying to get to add still another marble to the jar. (She actually says something like, "Mommy, I prayed Psalms ninety-one two eighty over you and daddy!") It is such a comforting scripture, especially when I think about our little boy spending his days in a government run orphanage so many miles away.

Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler[a]
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation."