In 1994, when I lived in Jerusalem, a friend and coworker there gave me a portion of Scripture that he said was a promise from God for me in Genesis, 21:15-21, because I had been faithful to God.<\/p>\n
15\u00a0The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16\u00a0\u201cWhen you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.\u201d 17\u00a0The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18\u00a0Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, \u201cWhy have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n 19\u00a0The midwives answered Pharaoh, \u201cHebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n 20\u00a0So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21\u00a0And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n I received that word and kept it to myself. I wondered how that could be, because I was not married, and even had I been, I knew I could not have children. I really didn\u2019t plan on marrying. I was quite happy as a single woman and was content to stay that way. But God had other plans for me. Later that year I moved back to the US and in 1996, I met my husband online. We married in 1997. He has a daughter, and now we have four grandchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that God says because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own. Not because they didn\u2019t listen to Pharoah, but because they feared God. The gift of a family is something that God highly treasures. <\/span><\/p>\n God is faithful to us in ways we never knew we needed Him to be. He knows what is best for us, and He wants to bless us when we don\u2019t even know what would bless us. I thought I knew what was good for me, but God knew better. I am blessed beyond measure.<\/span><\/p>\n Photo<\/a> by Internet Archive Book Images<\/a> <\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1994, when I lived in Jerusalem, a friend and coworker there gave me a portion of Scripture that he said was a promise from God for me in Genesis, 21:15-21, because I had been faithful to God. 15\u00a0The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16\u00a0\u201cWhen you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings","tag-family"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/14565662469_cd992095a2_A-Family-of-My-Own.jpg?fit=500%2C397&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8a3GA-2K","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":159,"url":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/a-womans-gift\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":0},"title":"A Woman’s Gift","author":"Lea Splane","date":"July 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, gave birth to a son. The world is watching in excitement. I never had the pleasure of becoming a mother. I always thought it didn't matter, that I didn't want children, that I was one of those people who weren't \"meant\" to have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/10469024335_b0bd29d19f_Kate-Middleton.jpg?fit=333%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":552,"url":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/unto-the-least-of-these\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":1},"title":"Unto the least of these…","author":"Lea Splane","date":"January 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago the pastor of the church we are attending passed out a card to everyone attending. The card said, \"God, what are you calling me into?\" He suggested we put it up somewhere in our home where it would remind us to ask the question of God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sunset","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/freedom-2053281_640.jpg?fit=640%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/freedom-2053281_640.jpg?fit=640%2C486&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/freedom-2053281_640.jpg?fit=640%2C486&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/whatever-happened-to-modesty\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":2},"title":"Whatever Happened to Modesty?","author":"Lea Splane","date":"June 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I was standing at the information booth at church on Resurrection Sunday, a young teenager (I believe she is 15) came out of the restroom with her holiday finest on - a dress that looked like it belonged in a nightclub somewhere, off one shoulder and very short! I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/14597133980_ba8996e607_Modest.jpg?fit=345%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/choking-on-the-covenant\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":3},"title":"Choking on the Covenant","author":"Lea Splane","date":"January 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Ken and I got married, part of our wedding ceremony was communion. I recited the Hebrew blessing over the bread and grape juice. Well, when I get nervous my mouth gets dry, and I was very nervous that night. And I didn't think about drinking some water before the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/8657028224_3f8dc6123f_Covenant.jpg?fit=500%2C331&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8211,"url":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/blessings-in-disguise\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":4},"title":"Blessings in Disguise","author":"Lea Splane","date":"August 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"On a Friday evening last April, I stood up from my sofa to walk into another room. As I did, I caught my foot on a piece of furniture, and was catapulted into the air, falling and landing hard on my left shoulder. I knew as soon as it happened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"candles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/window-1560966_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/window-1560966_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/window-1560966_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/window-1560966_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/window-1560966_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/a-valentine-gift\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":5},"title":"A Valentine Gift","author":"Lea Splane","date":"February 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I work for a very large company in the Midwest. Every Valentine's Day there are several tables at the Security entrance to the buildings to hold all the flowers that are delivered to employees for Valentine's Day. They even have them labeled by alphabet. It's nice to see that when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/e830b10d2ff31c3e81584d04ee44408be273e4d41ab5114492f3_640_Valentine.png?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/e830b10d2ff31c3e81584d04ee44408be273e4d41ab5114492f3_640_Valentine.png?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/e830b10d2ff31c3e81584d04ee44408be273e4d41ab5114492f3_640_Valentine.png?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splanescorner.us\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}