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Our history cycle this year marches through the Middle Ages, starting with the fall of Rome and ending with the Reformation. The rise of Islam, Vikings, Monks copying the Bible, stained glass windows, castles, knights and peasant life have invaded our living room and art gallery. To accompany what we do at home, the home school co-op we're apart of memorizes a history sentence each week that takes place during this time period. One week the sentence told the story of William the Conqueror defeating King Harold and the beginning of feudalism. The kids loved memorizing this with the help of a catchy tune, although they didn't know the background to the story yet. One rainy morning we read our history together nestled in a "tent" in the boy's room. I read about how this man named William and this other man named Harold were fighting for the English crown. Both felt they should rightly inherit the throne and no one was backing down without a fight. Not til the very end did the story say "William the Conqueror" and "King Harold". At the moment of realization, the kids popped up from under the covers with a light bulb going off in their head and all started singing the history sentence in unison! It was a hilarious sight!

I shared a similar enthusiasm of connecting the dots as I was preparing what to say in Africa. How was I to share anything beneficial to a group of ladies I neither knew nor understood? I realized that it would only come from the Holy Spirit. This would not come from ME. These ladies would teach me far more than any nugget of wisdom I may bring. As I prayed and sat quietly before the Lord, asking Him to reveal what message He had for me to bring, His words began flooding my heart and pouring onto the paper in front of me. I cannot share the entire message, however one passage of scripture and biblical truth still rings in my ears and stirs my heart today. A message that never grows old, although it dates back to a tiny Old Testament book.

Adam went to Africa to build. Build. We're all building something. Either we're building or we're allowing to tear down by natural erosion. Have you ever paralleled building a physical structure to building a spiritual structure? Proverbs 14:1 says, "The wise woman builds her house but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." Building... Matthew 7:24-27 gives us another look into some wise and foolish builders. But my new favorite, a jewel that God showed me is in the Old Testament Minor Prophet book of Haggai. Haggai 1:1-11 spoke so loudly and clearly to me that I couldn't wait to share this treasure with the ladies on the other side of the world. Have you ever felt like you worked and worked and tried your absolute hardest to do something only to feel as if you were putting that prized possession into a bag with holes in it? Or to work and have it all blow away like a dandelion seed? The Lord says, do you want to know why? Verse 9 says, "Because of my house which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house." OH. We don't have to be living in luxury for this to apply to us. Where is the temple now? In each of us who call on the name of the Lord as our Savior. God wants us focused on building His house, not our own. He wants to me my Provider.

The Books of Genesis-Revelation hold the most important information for our everyday living. We can read them as eagerly as an old love note, for that is what they are. Come to God as a child, even as one who's memorized John 3:16 or any other verse. Open the pages, read the background story and watch how your spirit comes alive, just as my kids did when what they memorized came full circle and made since.  If a history book can do that, God's Word can do it bigger!