I have been using the Treasury of Daily Prayer for awhile now, and am surprised to find that I am loving the Old Testament readings. I spent 9 years in Lutheran School, and trust me, there were a lot of Old Testament "Bible Stories" during that time. David and Goliath, Moses, Noah, Samuel, Jonah - all those stories with a fairly clear cut "lesson". But I kind of assumed that I'd gotten a pretty good overview during that time and didn't give the OT a lot of thought. I did try to start at the beginning and read through the Bible in high school, but Numbers gets pretty tedious and I soon went back to the "more applicable" New Testament.
But TDP has an OT reading every day, and I am reading things I have definitely never heard before. I really am enjoying it - it is like reading a novel, I find myself skipping ahead to the next days' readings to see what happens next. Currently we are deep in the David/Jonathan/Saul saga, and last night I read about Saul hiring a medium to conjure up the spirit of dead Samuel. Huh? Never before have I read this: (1 Samuel 28:15) Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?"
First off, I am a little dumbfounded by the whole mediums and necromancers thing, and then I am a little surprised that we have Samuel actually being conjured, and on top of that - sounding kinda pissed about being bothered. It is baffling to me now at 30 so I can understand why we glossed over it when I was 10. So not what I was expecting to read before drifting off to sleep last night. I don't know why it is so surprising to me - the Bible is full of the spirit world and odd happenings, prophecies and miracles, but I kinda thought I was familiar with the story until the spirit/ghost/??? of Samuel chews out Saul and then gives him more bad news. It's just...weird.
Totally unrelated - my big girls are going away for the weekend tomorrow. Grandma is picking them up in the morning, and then off to Chicago on Saturday for the aquarium and the American Girl Doll store and who knows what else. I am excited to have a weekend with Tom and Thea, for Thea to get some actual naps and for us to do something that is impossible with all three kiddos. (You can take a sleeping baby to a late movie, you cannot drag a 3 and 6 year old along and expect them to sleep through. Plus you have to pay for them.) But I know that as much as Ella and Kate drive me crazy I will miss them as soon as they are gone. And I will worry - about asthma and how they'll sleep and if I will remember to send things all the things they probably won't need. I worry about car seats. I am sending Ella's booster even though I'd rather do the 5-point because I feel like the booster is more likely to be used correctly. (Check out those 5-point Radian car seats...they are my favorite and on sale! I should probably by a third since Thea will eventually outgrow the Chicco). I am going to send an Evenflo for Kate because it is easier to transfer safely and hope that they remember to tighten the straps (if they remember to how to loosen them in the first place). I know that they'll be installed properly tomorrow when I put them in but I feel like can never count on them being used correctly and heaven help me if they decide to move them from the car to the van because I know that the van doesn't have LATCH and they will forget to lock the seat belts when installing and OH.MY.GOD. I have to stop. These people are very smart and have advanced degrees and Papa Dave can prescribe any medication I neglect to send if they really need it. They will not lose my children, everything will be fine but I am kind of a car seat usage freak. Must go find user manuals and type out detailed instructions. Just kidding. Maybe.
