You must be born again. John 3:7.

Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.

You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 2 Samuel 22:29.

We walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV.

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 4:18.

I loved this from You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “You can become attached to dark forces such as resentment and hatred. As long as you seek retaliation, you cling to your own past. Sometimes it seems as though you might lose yourself along with your revenge and hate – so you stand there with balled-up fists, closed to the other who wants to heal you…Praying means, above all, to be accepting of God who is always new, always different. For God is a deeply moved God, whose heart is greater than our own. The open acceptance of prayer in the face of an ever-new God makes us free. In prayer, we are constantly on our way, on a pilgrimage. On our way, we meet more and more people who show us something about the God whom we seek.”

I love walking this path that is with Creator God – Father…Son…Spirit. And He is showing me the most important thing is to love Him and in that loving, to be with Him. And we come to the final chapter of Proverbs, Proverbs 31. Verses 1-9 are sayings from a king Lemuel that he learned from his mother. You can hear the beseeching of her heart in his words…Listen my son! Listen, son of my womb! Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers! v. 2. She warns him against spending his strength on women, on wine or beer; and to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. As a king, he must choose to live so he can rule wisely. And verses 10-31 hold the heart of a different writer who extols the virtues of a wife of noble character…A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies…She brings him good not harm all the days of her life…Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate…v. 10, 12, 30, 31. It describes all that she does for her family, for those in need, and in her caring, she brings honor to her husband and blessings for others. Very few women can live up to the ideal of the Proverbs 31 wife. Very few men live up to the ideal of her husband who is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land, v. 23. But we can turn to God and ask Him to guide us into His Love that helps us live our lives anew with Him. A closer walk with Him will not lead us to live a perfect life that others have lived; but will lead us into a closer walk with Him for our life.