Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
But the LORD said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.


Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
“This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”

Both of the men killed somebody, God punished both of them, but they both respond to the punishment quite differently. Cain says, This punishment is more than I can bear, while David says, I have sinned against God. I really don't think Abel was sorry for what he did at all. But David obviously was. There's a big defference between being sorry for your sin, and being sorry about the punishment.

We watched a video a couple of days ago, it was about creation. I don't even think I watched all of it, but it was really amazing. It had a lot of images of stars and galaxies and stuff like that, and it also talked about things like all of the energy in a tree or a grain of salt. It was a great video, but it really sunk in the next day. I was still thinkin' about it, mostly about the stars and galaxies part, because I love astronomy, and I thought, (I don't know if they put this verse in the video or not,) 'what is man that you think of him, the son of man that you care for him?' I didn't know the verse very well, or where it was found, so I looked it up on biblegateway, and the verse I found was even more appropriate for what I was thinking on:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpChZxPfa-c I have a video here, it's not the same video as the one we watched a couple days ago, but it's still pretty cool. And when you watch that video and read that verse you just think "Why?" You look through the bible, and filled to the brim with people who messed up. it's not like we have anything to offer God. Thank you God, for minding and caring for us.

When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything the LORD had sent him to tell them— Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”
So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah. Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. They also led away all the men, women and children and the king’s daughters whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the LORD and went as far as Tahpanhes.

If you notice, it said all the arrogant men rebuked Jeremiah, but all of the remnant followed them, not just the arrogant people. It seems people would start believing Jeremiah, because he's been right in everything he says, but that made no difference to the people, they listened to the arrogant men, and only a tiny remnant of people stayed behind.

Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the men of the Recabite family and said to them, “Drink some wine.”

But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’ We have obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab son of Recab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab commanded us. But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words?’ declares the LORD. ‘Jonadab son of Recab ordered his sons not to drink wine and this command has been kept. To this day they do not drink wine, because they obey their forefather’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not obeyed me. Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They said, “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; do not follow other gods to serve them. Then you will live in the land I have given to you and your fathers.” But you have not paid attention or listened to me. The descendants of Jonadab son of Recab have carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.’


Wow. I wonder if the Recabite family were faithful to God too. I think they were a great example to the Israelites. If you can obey your ancestors like that, it should be just as easy to obey God like that.

The great things about Mom

She's patient

She loves us undeservedly. Seriously, it's incredible

She's the perfect christian example.

She gives you hugs when you need them.

She never yells.

She's a great cook.

She's very pretty.

When she works on something, she does it diligently.

She eats vegan.

She has self control

She loves us a ton.

She takes things seriously.

Happy Mother's day Momma! I love you!

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

When I've read or heard this passage, I always imagined the person not departing from it when he was an adult. An old man, a man in his twenties. But yesterday I had an experience that helped me to see it in a new light.

I was brushing my teeth before bed, and I was thinking on how I had slipped out of the habit of brushing my teeth after breakfast. Sometimes I did, but it wasn't just a part of my day, like it used to be. My older brother got a cavity (sort of) at the dentist, and my older sister had gotten one at about that same age. I don't know if they brushed their teeth after breakfast or not, but I didn't want to go down that road, so I decided to put brushing my teeth after breakfast back on the 'part of my day' list. That's when the verse came to me. Hmmmm...... Suddenly I realized, that it didn't just mean when he is old, it meant when he is older. HAHA!!! That does seem to make more sense.

In my school, I'm writing Proverbs 31, and when I got to the wife of noble character, I thought it would be cool to do a kind of study on her find out some of the reasons she is such a rare jewel. So I'm making a list of what she does. These are just a few of the basics:

She and her husband have a good relationship.

She has incredible self control.

She doesn't sleep much.

She does some amount of sewing and spinning.

She isn't lazy.

She has children, and disciplines them well.

She gives to the poor.

That's quite a woman, and that's only a few of them.