Sometimes He Calms His Child

Sometimes things happen in our lives. Things that rock us to our very core. A death of a loved one, an unsettling diagnosis, a lost job, a broken relationship. One steps back and asks, “Why me?” But then God quietly whispers, “Why not you?” It is easy to praise God when all is going well in life. It is harder when life is leaving you bruised and broken. That is the time when one must decide if the God that he/she serves is bigger then any problem that can come their way. Being a Christian does not mean life will always be perfect. We all live in an imperfect world where pain and loss are often an uninvited guest… because I am a Christian and have a real relationship with Jesus Christ…I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He will never leave me nor will He forsake me. The closer I stay to Him, the safer I will be… No matter what storm comes my way.

One of my all time favorite songs is entitled, Sometimes He Calms The Storm by singer Scott Krippayne. I have added a verse of his song to today’s blog. This song is a wonderful reminder of how the Lord will take care of me, and for all of us that call on His name.

Music
http://www.scottkrippayne.com/audio/SometimesHeCalms.mp3

Lyrics to Sometimes He Calms The Storm by Scott Krippayne

All who sail the sea of faith
Find out before too long
How quickly blue skies can grow dark
And gentle winds grow strong
Suddenly fear is like white water
Pounding on the soul
Still we sail on knowing
That our Lord is in control
Sometimes He calms the storm
With a whispered peace be still
He can settle any sea
But it doesn’t mean He will
Sometimes He holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes He calms the storm
And other times He calms His child
He has a reason for each trial
That we pass through in life
And though we’re shaken
We cannot be pulled apart from Christ
No matter how the driving rain beats down
On those who hold to faith
A heart of trust will always
Be a quiet peaceful place

Our 16th President

I received one of my home school magazines yesterday in the mail. There is an article about Abraham Lincoln in this issue. It was an article about his early life with many good books to reference to learn even more about him. He really had an interesting life. Not easy…but interesting. He really only attended formal school for about a year in rural Indiana. When I say formal I just mean a log cabin school house that he attended. His childhood education “stint” in the school house consisted of rote memorization of the alphabet,multiplication tables, rules of grammar, and Scripture passages. Mostly, Lincoln was a self learner. He had a desire to read and learn.He found books where ever he could. I can relate with the desire to read and then write down the passages that were important….to memorize the lines of certain books or stories. I learned that Abraham Lincoln also not only read, but liked to read aloud. When asked about this he replied, “when I read aloud my two senses catch the idea. First, I see what I am reading, and secondly, I hear it read, and I can thus remember what I read the better.” (Seems to me, as a school teacher myself, that he was on to something far before it became the norm to use a multi-sensory approach to learning.)
The few books he could get his hands on were not trivial. He read The Bible, Shakespeare’s plays, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Weem’s Life of Washington. Elton Trueblood, in his work on the spiritual life of Lincoln wrote, “Thereby, the lack of formal education was partly balanced by …the habitual vision of greatness.”
Abraham Lincoln was an amazing man, and as we all know has graced history as one of our country’s most beloved presidents. This February, on President’s Day, take a few minutes to think about Mr. Lincoln. Or better yet, read a good book in honor of him.