Psalm 103

A friend of mine, Hettie, and I have been memorizing scripture together. Each week we add another 3 verses to what we have already stored away in our gray matter, and then type it in an email and send it to the other. If we remain on schedule tomorrow we will complete Psalm 103. Before that we had been working on Ephesians 1. I love Ephesians, but if you look at the first chapter it's a lot of phrases that sound the same all repeated over and over. We were both struggling so we set it aside for a short time. I had been studying Psalm 103 on my own and when I told Hettie to choose a passage that's the one she chose. Hmmmm....maybe God had that worked out already?

Tomorrow is a big day for several people I know. I have a relative going to the doctor to learn biopsy results. A dear friend who was adopted into a loving family over 30 years ago is having a conference call with her biological father who only recently found out that she even exists. Another friend is having a second interview with a missions agency, which may lead to an indefinite placement somewhere in Africa. Finally a friend's mom is going for a PET scan to see if/how far her cancer has spread. You know what I have to do tomorrow? Go to work. It's even only expected to be about a 1/2 day. This evening all of these people that I love have been on my mind a lot. I'm not worrying, just thinking. As I said in my last entry, sometimes you want the words to say and they just aren't there. As I've been thinking about it, though, there are promises in Psalm 103 to cover nearly every step in life's journey. He promises that His love is always with those who fear Him. He heals all of our diseses. As Heather wrote in her blog, sometimes that can be done in a variety of ways, but He does promise it. I don't need to come up with the words for any of these people, I've already been memorizing them!

I've come to the conclusion that it's not an accident that it looks like I'll have a short day at work tomorrow. We can pray as we go about our day, but it's also nice to be able to set aside dedicated time for it as well. One of the best places I've found to pray is the pool at the Y. As I swim from wall to wall looking at the tiles on the floor of the pool, all I have to do is pray or sing in my head or think. I think I'll go in the afternoon so I don't have to get up at 0500. When I go in the afternoon, it's usually an extended workout. Perfect! Good exercise and great prayer time. Won't you help me if you happen to think about each of my dear ones throughout the day?