We’ve been studying problem solving in Bible study the past few weeks and have been looking at the book of Esther as a model for it. Last week’s Bible study didn’t really give me much insight into what was going on with Esther, but this week’s did. There is still more to learn, but so far, I can recognize and understand a few steps in Esther’s problem-solving process. She was faced with a problem she couldn’t avoid and had to make choices that not only concerned her life, but the life of the Jewish people in the land. She used diplomacy and “disarmed” Haman by making him feel good and inviting him to the banquets, where she finally pleaded with the king in front of Haman. In the end, everything bad that Haman had planned for Mordecai fell upon his head, and everything good he wanted went to Mordecai - poetic justice.

As far as problem solving goes, we’ve outlined a few steps in the process so far:

1. Acknowledge that there is a problem
2. Define the problem
3. Accept responsibility

They are kind of obvious, but, it’s funny… I never really thought about these steps in the context of my life. I was in the Bible study thinking about a problem I have that I hadn’t fully acknowledged until that very moment. At least now I’m one step closer to solving it

In weekly prayer and Bible study meetings at church, we just started talking about problem solving. Dr. Howard gave us some “homework” to read Esther 3-5. I have to say this is one of the few times I actually welcome homework lol. Sometimes it’s difficult trying to just pick up the Bible and read it, so it’s good when there’s a task and purpose attached to it.

Anyway, I started reading it, but I couldn’t stop at chapter 5 or begin at chapter 3 for that matter. I ended up reading all of Esther to try and figure out what was going on. I’m still clueless though. I know of the events that took place, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what Esther did that was so great.

I know she put her life in jeopardy for Mordecai and her people, but I think I am just so detached from the context and culture of it all (a common occurrence for me). The words read so plainly that I think I really miss the impact. I’m hoping it will become more clear, alive and real after tomorrow night’s Bible study.

Well, this is the last POTD that I will write about.  I will continue to read a chapter in Proverbs every day though.  It’s been really… enlightening to not only read through them but to reflect on where they fit into my life.  I’ve learned what some of my strengths and weaknesses are, and am learning to make the best of and improve on them both.

I think my next project - for lack of a better word - will be to pull out the binder I have from a personal evangelism course I took at church while I was in college.  It will be great to refresh myself on how to walk someone through the basic steps to salvation and I’ll be sure to share it on my blog, even though I don’t think anyone reads it lol.  It’s more for me to literally bounce my thoughts around so that I have a clearer understanding.

Anyhow, that’s a peek into the past and future.  Now for the present.  Proverbs 31 is mostly about the “Wife of Noble Character”.  I’m not sure what to say about it, except that I’m shocked that such a description was given for a woman in Biblical times.  Okay, so this is less of a “how this applies to my life” post than it is a “what this means to me” post, but here goes
The “Wife of Noble Character” seems to be more characteristic of modern women than women of that time.  For example:

14 She is like themerchant ships, bringing her food from afar.

15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family…

16 She considers a field and buys it…

18 She sees that her trading is profitable…

…and it goes on.   I get a picture of a woman in today’s society that is married, has kids and a career and juggles it all.  It’s very surprising to me.

My favorite part is the last verse.  Well, the last two verses, but especially the last verse:

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty  is fleeting; buta woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

You know, I can totally understand why women might be offended by the saying, “Behind every good man there’s a good woman”.  Many times, women like to re-word it, “Beside every good man is an even greater woman”, lol, and that’s probably more accurate.  The fact is, that women have a ton of influence.  Women are the spenders.  Men, although they like to appear macho and in-charge, if they are considerate and wise, will check with their wives first on many occasions, and many times, men won’t want to move forward without her approval.  Many times, women may appear behind the scenes, but from this passage, the “Wife of Noble Character” is a very active woman, on stage and backstage, and for that, as it says in the final verses of the chapter, “let her works bring her praise….”

Oops, I skipped a day again! I *DID* read it though. I just didn’t make time to sit down and re-read and discuss it on my blog, which has been the case in the past too. So here goes. Actually, now that I’ve re-read it again, I think it’s better that I waited because when I read chapter 30 yesterday, I didn’t think there was anything in it that I could directly apply to my life. This passage is what stood out to me yesterday:

21 “Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: 22 a servant who becomes a king, a fool who is full of food, 23 an unloved woman who is married, and a maidservant who displaces her mistress.

Verse 23 grabbed me. I won’t say specifically why, but today, I read on and found another passage that spoke volumes to me:

24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: 25 Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer; 26 coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags; 27 locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks; 28 a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

Verse 24 caught my attention. If these four small things are extremely wise, I should learn to do as they do. Verse 25 speaks to me of work ethics and building wealth. Ants are diligent and “store up their food in the summer,” which I understand as planning ahead and being a diligent worker. Verse 26 talks about coneys, and I don’t even know what they are lol. I had to look up what a crag was, and it turns out that a crag is a steep rugged mass of rock. To make my home in a crag is to build my home on something solid - physically, spiritually, financially, emotionally.

Verse 27 reminds me of something my father said the other day. As we were driving back from a day of painting, the radio was tuned to AM 820 - National Public Radio. There was talk about a situation in France about a proposed law that made job security virtually non-existant for workers under the age of 26. It would allow employers to fire young employees without giving a reason. My dad said, “all the young people in France should go start their own businesses.” Granted, that’s not a perfect solution, but the idea is sound. That’s the wisdom in verse 27. Locusts have no king, but advance together in ranks. There’s power in numbers - if and only if they work together, towards some common goal.

Verse 28 is odd lol, and I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it.  I think that maybe it means that even though I may have things against me.  I’m black.  I’m young.  I’m inexperienced in many ways.  “…it can be caught with the hand”; despite all of that, I can become what I want to be and go where I want to go in life.  I can find my way into the kings’ palaces, and wherever else I want my sphere of influence to reach.

All of these, especially the last point, takes a lot of faith and trust in God.  That’s something I continue to work on and work towards.  I don’t want to miss out on God’s blessings for, in, and overflowing from my life.

17 Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject lately.  I don’t have kids of my own, but I’ve thought about what it would be like to be a parent.  I was recently talking with a good friend about it, and was sharing about when I was babysitting a 2-year old and how it made me see that kids can be very sensitive.  It showed me that I have to really strive to understand their feelings and how what I do or say affects them.  Despite how sensitive a child can be though, the Bible shows that discipline is a good thing.

25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

I’ve read this verse for the 3rd time today and the truth in it has become more clear each time.  I’m far from perfect, but I know I’ve come a long way.  I used to come across as an extremely shy person.  Notice I said I came across that way, but the truth is I’m not really that way, or to put it more accurately, that’s not the way I want to be and not the way I was created.  I know I’ve held back in the past - emotionally, spiritually - and all because I have been of what people will think.  I’ve found out that the truth is, most of the times, people aren’t thinking about me at all, and if they are, they don’t give me much thought, so why should I worry about it?

I’m a work in progress, but I’d like to think that I continue to make progress.  Taking courage in times of fear is part of the solution, but the other part, which I’ve been learning to do better this past month, is to trust in the Lord, as the latter part of the verse says.   That’s not always easy, and that’s something I continue to pray about and work on.

27 He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

I always have trouble figuring out these kind of verses.  So many times people take advantage of and even prey on the kindness of others.  Maybe I’m just looking for an excuse… no excuse isn’t the right word… looking for a way to rationalize things, but the more I read this verse, the more I look at the latter part.

I may not be interpreting this correctly, so I invite comments on this.  It doesn’t say that he who doesn’t give to them receives many curses, but he who closes his eyes to them.  Being generous is great, but I think that I need to learn to give wisely.

For example, yesterday morning, I drove to my parents’ other house to do some work - painting and that kind of thing.  On the way we stopped to pick up a few things we needed at another house before heading to Home Depot to buy whatever else was needed.  While my dad was inside getting the ladder and a few other things, I waited in the car and a guy walked up to the car.  As I saw him approaching I took off my sunglasses and rolled down the window, and asked me if I could give his car a jump.

I knew that we really didn’t have much time and I told him that I am just waiting for someone and can’t stay long.  I understand where he’s coming from.  I was in a similar situation when I had my car and couldn’t even get anyone to stop.  I ended up just buying a new battery.  It’s not that I didn’t want to help, but I wasn’t in a position to change our plans because we didn’t have much time to do what we needed to begin with.  After going back and forth with the guy for a few minutes, he finally walked away with a sour attitude, mumbling as he walked away.

His attitude really bugged me.  I was very polite and he just didn’t understand that we really couldn’t stay.  About a minute later, another guy walked up to the car, with an even worse attitude lol.  He asked me if I had jumper cables, and I told him I’m not sure (which is the truth - I had no idea if we had any), to which he replies, “pop the trunk, let me take a look.”

Now, you have to understand where I am to appreciate this lol.  Where I am is known to be a bad neighborhood.  The store right next to me was robbed twice within the past few months, and the apartments upstairs, although vacant, were broken into and vandalized within the same time frame.  And this guy, who I don’t know, wants me to open the trunk of a car, which I don’t own, for him.  You can say I lack faith if you want, but I don’t see it that way.

They may have really been desperate to get their car running again, but too many red flags went up.  The truth is, if they would’ve been patient and didn’t try to force me into doing what they wanted, I would have waited for my dad to come back and say, “Hey, those guys over there need a jump.  Do we have time to help them out?”  But because their attitude towards me became more negative and aggressive, I didn’t even bother.

I don’t know if that was the right thing to do.  I have my doubts, so your comments are more than welcome.  How do you handle generosity?  How do you know when to give and when not to?

Ok, this post is a little late I was going to post it last night but rather than rush it while I was tired, I decided to wait till today.

I could probably comment on every verse in this chapter. It’s full of “good stuff”. I’ll try to focus on a couple that stand out to me:

10 Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your father, and do not go to your brother’s house when disaster strikes you - better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

Blood is not always thicker than water. Do not pass go; do NOT collect $200. I think of that cliche and how it falls apart under the light of verse 10. Sometimes friends can become family to us, and family can be like distant friends. Verse 10 reminds me to take stock of those around me and keep things in perspective, but there’s also a deeper meaning here. Proverbs 18:24 says:

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

It doesn’t say it outright, but I think it’s safe to say that that friend is Jesus.

19 As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.

I *love* this verse, but it scares me too.  No one is perfect, but I hope and pray that my heart is in the right place.  I will mess up at times but I hope that my heart never gets so hard that I won’t come back to God.  I really want my heart to be in the right place, because that controls my intentions and desires, which in turn decide my actions and, as the verse says, ultimately reflect who I am.

My dad preached today at a friend’s church, and like many other times, I didn’t even know it till I got there lol.  He went into detail on part of a message he’s preached there and in other churches, concerning the three umm - paraphrasing here - cornerstones of the church - Descipleship, Fellowship, and Worship.  He went into detail on descipleship and talked about how education is extremely important, and how we need to be students of not only the Bible but need to continue to learn and change as the world changes around us.

Then I read Proverbs 26, and there’s one verse that spoke to me:

12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for him.

This verse and the message are related, and speak to me personally.  Those who know me know that I love to learn.  I love to try new things and better myself, but on the other hand, I’m very independent, and can at times be “wise in my own eyes” and somewhat stubborn.  But that’s not how I want to be.

In college I took a “Men and Women” class which had to do with the differences between men and women and the expectations of them in society.  Men are generally expected to be independent, but in an essay I wrote that what I really want is interdependence, because there’s a lonely aspect of pure independence.

To be wise in my own eyes is, in a way, a declaration of independence, which is not only lonely but beyond foolish, according to the Bible, and as much as I strive to be interdependent - to let people I trust guide and influence me - I feel like I still have areas of my life where I either haven’t looked for help or don’t have anyone to help me, and I continue to ask God to help me with both.

There are a lot of great proverbs in this chapter, but my focus is on applying them to my life.  Even though there is a lot of great stuff that I can use more of in my life, I read this chapter just about 5 or 6 times before I found something that really stood out to me:

16 If you find honey, eat just enough - too much of it and you will vomit. 17 Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house - too much of you, and he will hate you.

These verses have to do with moderation, and that has been a new challenge for me.  Most people know me as a pretty quiet, easy-going person, but in some ways I swing between extremes, especially emotionally.

I dunno…  Sometimes I wonder if… I dunno, I have been thinking a lot about friendships lately and I’m wondering if this is related.  Sometimes I think I try too hard and I’m not myself, and other times I can seem apathetic - which isn’t me at all.  I could just be over-analyzing things - another extreme lol.

I think I’m going on a tangent here, but I have been pretty frustrated lately.  For a very long time I’ve been wanting to be more involved in church and be used by God. It’s been my prayer and goal for almost two years now, and nothing has really worked out.  I’m wondering if I’ve been trying too hard or not trying hard enough or what.  I dunno.

Here goes that emotional extreme I was talking about I have felt useless lately, in terms of what I was just talking about - being used by God, and in other areas too.  I’ve never felt this empty before in pretty much every imaginable way.  Anyhow, yeah, I went off-topic, but what can I say

1 Do not envy wicked men, do not desire their company; 2 for their hearts plot violence, and their lips talk about making trouble.

Every time I read this verse, or verses like it, I think of friends, at least one in particular, that I’ve stopped associating with.  I came to a point where I realized that all they were into was drinking, and it was just plain sad.  I’m not into it, and on many occasions I was asked to play drinking games with them, and they said I don’t have to drink, someone else will drink for me - as if that made me feel any better.  Finally, I just distanced myself from them.  They used to be really good friends, but we’re just too different now, and as much as I want their friendship, I can’t sit around watching them drink their lives away.

Decisions like that have been difficult for me, especially since I have had so few friends nearby to begin with.  I’ve tried to associate with different people, without much success yet, but I have to keep verse 14 in mind to keep it from getting me down:

14 Know also that wisdom is sweet to yoru soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

If, in fact, I’ve made a wise decision, then I continue to hope for the kind of relationships that I long for, and as promised here, my hope will not be cut off.