For Erin, because I said I would.

There are some stories we tell again and again, because we like them, and they feed us. The story of my sister's arriving day is one. The story of how Hosea 10:12 came to be *my* verse is another.

Some background: the weekend that hosts the Golden Globes is an emotional one for me. On that weekend, I broke up with a boyfriend, and the Fox Books I worked at flooded two years in a row (yes, on the same weekend...I thought it quite odd...) So last year, in January, on the weekend of the Golden Globes, I was having dinner with some friends (Emily being one). And I was really struggling, because the painful memories were clinging to me. So after everyone had left and it was just Emily, Diana, and myself, I asked if they would pray for me. Now Diana is one of those people that when she prays, she sees pictures. And she gets verses. And I just wanted so much to be like her. She got a picture of me ice skating gleefully.

The next morning, I woke up and I said to God, I want a verse. Give me a verse. Now, I don't often hear God speaking to me, and this was more of a silent thought, but it came through, Hosea 10:12. "There's no Hosea 10:12," I said. But I got up, out of my bed, and went found a Bible, and sure enough, there was a Hosea 10:12, and it was a verse that really fit where I was, where I still am.

The NLT translates it this way:
"I said, `Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you."

I cling to this verse, because I know I have hard ground in my heart that needs to be rototilled. I know that I need righteousness showered upon me. And I want to seek the Lord.

This weekend, I'm going to a Cleansing Stream retreat. I went last year, and at one point, Emily and I were talking and she said, "You know, SL, you need to work the soil in your life, get the weeds out." "THAT'S LIKE MY VERSE!" (Which I hadn't told her about yet.) So at dinner, I regaled them all with the story of how Hosea 10:12 became my verse. Unfortunately for them, I talk with my hands and I was the one scooping ice cream, so every time I came to a point in the story... (well, the ice cream was melting...)

I think this year I'll bring the ice cream and let some one else do the scooping while I talk with my hands...