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Thoughts for a Woman's Heart |
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encouragement in things that matter |
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Alphabetically Speaking
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Try this. Create a poem with 26 stanzas with each stanza having eight lines of verse. The first stanza must begin each line with the letter A. The second stanza must begin each line with the letter B. Continue creating until you have 26 stanzas, each stanza beginning each line with a different letter of the alphabet. Be sure to use correct alphabetical order, and thoughtfully develop your topic to assure literary value. For the non-writers among us, this probably sounds like an impossibility, but it would likely challenge even those who consider themselves aspiring poets. Centuries ago though a Hebrew psalmist accepted this daunting challenge. He used his own Hebrew alphabet, so he only had 22 stanzas to create; however, his finished work is a treatise that exalts the Word of God. He portrays his own need for God’s Word and gives testimony to its ministry in his own life. He calls us to a longing for the Word and a commitment to its teachings and principles, while he implores its Author for understanding and seeks the blessings that come from utter dependence on God and His Word. His expressions of love and delight accent the psalm again and again. My eyes fail with longing for Your righteous word. I love Your commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold. Your testimonies are wonderful. How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Are those our love expressions for God’s Word? Do we even see our need for God’s Word as the psalmist did? We may not be able to write as creatively as the psalmist, but our hearts need to respond to the Word as the psalmist’s heart did. The Word of God is just that – it is a manuscript of the words God has spoken to us. It is God’s primary means of communicating with the people He has created, and for the believer, it is the foundation of all we believe and all we hope for. It teaches us how to live, but more importantly, it unveils the dynamics of a personal, eternal, and intimate relationship with its Author. More than accepting a creative writing challenge, we need to accept the call of the psalmist to a longing for the Word. Listening to God speak through His written words opens our heart to be taught, to be guided, to be encouraged, to be drawn close to the Author. Alphabetically speaking, may we be committed to exalting the Word of God in our day by day lives, even if we can’t create a single stanza of written words on paper. |
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— Bev |
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