Siesta Scripture Memory Team: Verse 8!

Greetings, You Sword-wielding Siestas!

It’s time for Verse 8! Can you believe it? Our Swords are getting sharper with every flip of a spiral! (It’s that kind of thing that Melissa responds to with, “Mom, you’re real sweet.” Translation: “You, Mom, are the Cheese Whiz in every 8 ounce jar.” You have to have some compassion on my girls. They’ve grown up with statements like, “Is your Sword in its sheath or are you using it?” It’s been hard being them. To this day, Travis Cottrell still brings up the fact that, for Amanda and Curtis’ rehearsal dinner at Pappasito’s, I made him help me stuff a piñata with Scripture verses written on little pieces of paper while we were driving from the church to the restaurant. I didn’t even realize it was weird until our next speaking engagement when he laughed until he cried and had to hold his side. He spared me the humiliation in that moment. After all, I was the MOB. The girls do, on occasion, make fun of me but at the end of the scorn, they each usually say something like, “I have never loved you more.” And it’s worth it.

And anyway, they’ve got plenty of their own weirdness. I had to talk Melissa out of having one of her professors do an exegetical explanation of the Trinity as part of her wedding ceremony. (And did I ever tell you that she originally wanted both her dad and me to walk her down the aisle?) And Amanda is more like her mother than she’d ever want to admit. She’s already started some Scripture memory with Jackson. It might not surprise you to know that his life verse is “Children, obey your parents for this is right.”

We’re freaks. Freaks that know their own flesh and don’t trust themselves for five minutes. Each one of us in our own way has proved ourselves stupid. We blow it but we know our way home. I love my family. We don’t let each other take ourselves too seriously.

Back to important things like cheerleading. The way I see it, cheerleaders have to be cheesy. And through our challenging year of Scripture memory, I, Girlfriend, am your (modestly dressed, ever-so-slightly outdated) cheerleader.

So here’s my Verse 8! It’s a 3-verse portion that I didn’t want to split up but, if you’d like to share it, you are welcome to select the one verse that speaks most clearly to you:

“In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and He answered me by setting me free. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me; He is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.” Psalm 118:5-7 (NIV)

I LOVE IT! Will that, as my grandmother used to say, cure what ails you or what? Go kick some devil tail. In Jesus’ name.

Let’s hear your Scriptures, your names, your cities and your translations!

I love you,

Beth