The Story of David & Goliath

IN A TIME long, long ago, in a little town called Bethlehem far, far away, there lived an Israelite of the tribe of Judah named Jesse, who had 8 sons. Three of his older sons--his firstborn Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah--were in the army of King Saul of Israel, but David, his youngest son, was watching his father's sheep. One day, Jesse gave David grain and bread for his brothers, and cheese for their captain, and sent him to find out if his brothers were doing well.

When David arrived in the camp of the armies of Israel, he saw before him two armies arrayed for battle: the Israelite armies stood one mountainside, while the Philistine armies stood on the opposite mountainside with a valley between them.

Suddenly, a giant Philistine came striding into the valley that lay between the two mountains. His name was Goliath. He was over 9 feet tall and dressed for battle. He wore a bronze helmet on his head, and bronze armor on his body and legs, and a coat of mail. He carried a bronze javelin between his shoulders and a heavy spear with an iron head. A shield bearer walked before him.

Goliath stopped and began to shout: "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us!" Twice a day for 40 days, Goliath had come out to challenge the armies of Israel.

The armies of Israel were so afraid of him that they stayed in their tents! But when David heard his challenge, it only made him angry, and he asked: Who does this Philistine think he is, defying the armies of the living God? And King Saul was told that David would fight Goliath. But King Saul spoke to David, saying, "You are not able to fight with this Philistine because you are still a youth, and Goliath has been a man of war from the time of his youth."

Then David told King Saul that he used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, he went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it attacked him, he caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Now David said to King Saul that God had delivered him from the paw of a lion and the paw of a bear, and He would also deliver him from this Philistine. So David, who had killed both a lion and a bear, said that he would also kill this Philistine, because he had defied the armies of the living God.

King Saul said to him, "Go and the Lord be with you!" Then King Saul gave his armor to David, but it was much too big for him. So David took his staff in one hand and his sling in the other to go out to meet Goliath. He stopped at a brook that flowed through the valley and picked up 5 smooth stones and put them in his shepherd's bag.

When Goliath saw the youthful David coming to fight him, he said: "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And he cursed David by his gods, threatening to feed him to the birds and the beasts.

Then David said to Goliath: "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." Then David said: "This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all of this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands."
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Then, as the Philistine walked toward David to fight and kill him, David hurried and ran toward the army of the Philistines to meet Goliath. He put his hand in his shepherd's bag and took out one of the smooth stones. He put the stone in his sling and quickly slung it. It struck the giant Philistine and sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. Then David ran and stood over Goliath, pulled the Philistine's sword out of its sheath, and cut his head off with it.

So David prevailed over the giant Goliath with a sling and a stone, which killed him. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they began running away, leaving their tents with all their belongings behind. And the men of Israel and Judah ran after them and chased them out of the valley, but returned and plundered their tents.

David loved God and believed that He would keep him safe. And so the Israelites overcame their enemies and all the earth knew that there was a God in Israel!

~

Blessings...Mimi

An Introduction to my Blog

I'm beginning this blog to share a lifetime of experiences and what I hope is "wisdom." I have a large family that includes women of all ages who are moving through their lives much as I did years ago, and it is to all these women that I dedicate this blog.

I began married life (so I thought) as a pretty good wife, housekeeper, mother and Christian. But it wasn't long before I was lost in a sea of overwhelming demands and duties which kept me from being anywhere close to the "woman I wanted to be." So I began a search for what Sarah Ban Breathnach calls the authentic self: I wanted to be the best wife, the best housekeeper, the best mother and the best Christian I could be. If that sounds easy--it hasn't been!

I was going along with a husband, Richard, and three daughters--Paula, Lisa, and Donna-- when I experienced extreme pain in my back. There was a year of doctors and hospital stays to determine the cause, but to no avail. My husband saw my depression and decided that I needed something to divert my attention. He talked me into going to college. I absolutely loved learning, but it was a miserable time for me and my family; however, we got through it. My success was mainly due to my husband and his unflagging support and care throughout those years. The cause of my pain was discovered six years after it began. And so we entered another phase of our lives.

I am explaining all of this to create a background for much of what I will be expressing in my blogs: that while we're planning our lives, LIFE gets in the way and takes us on a path we never expected. While moving through my own life, I added some new ways of becoming a better person: I wanted to be the best writer, the best artist, and the best person in every way that I could become. I have read many books and listened to many talks on changing my life. Sadly, my husband died in 1996, so I'm a widow who views life differently for many reasons.

Where am I now? I'm still moving toward my goal: being the woman I want to be. That still includes being a good mother and now a good grandmother and a good great-grandmother, but it also includes--most importantly--being the best Christian I can be. Toward that goal, I am writing Bible lessons for my brother's website. These lessons are being written mainly for people in foreign countries who don't have much access to Bible teaching. I take the words on the page and put them into my own words, making the message easier to understand. This may sound easy peasy, but it is hard work!

I pray that my thoughts on living in a world of chaos, while doing my best to be a good person, may help you move further in that direction. I have just had my 70th birthday; I'm hoping to make the next 10 years of my life the very best years of my life! And I hope you'll help me with that goal.

Also, along the way, I have improved on my cooking and sewing and housekeeping skills, so I want to share those moments which make me happy to be alive and thankful that I kept on struggling with that recipe, or that zipper, or that paragraph I was writing. I try to remember that everything I'm seeking is out there somewhere and I just have to find it. How to go about that is a subject for another blog!

Love and blessings to everyone who reads my story.

Mimi

P.S. Because I had requests to separate my regular/personal blog from my religious writing, I started a new blog: http://biblememosfrommimi.blogspot.com/.