my books are my security . . .

i have made this confession before .... but i am a knitting nerd!  i LOVE to collect knitting books of ALL types ... i really like all the pretty pictures ... perhaps because i  admire the skill i see in each one .... or i'm more than likely a bit envious that people have that sort of time to actually KNIT an entire cable sweater and STILL have a life too!  ;)   I love the articles about the history of knitting - - the step-by-step instructions for a specific stitch, and then patterns where that particular stitch can be applied.  Books or magazines - - they BOTH get my vote - - AND my $$$$.

But despite my vast library of printed material (not really, but i like to call it that!) ....  just owning these manuscripts does not make me a better knitter!  My most treasured of the collection are those volumes that are solely instructional in nature ... page after page of the How's and Why's of knitting ... a detailed, sequential, numbered, illustrated (even idiot proof) enlightenment of "how to __________" .  I select a nice and light colored worsted weight yarn and appropriate needles and sit down on the sofa with the book open to my side and begin to PRACTICE .... stich by stitch i follow the instructions (or the pictures) in hopes that eventually mine will look like the picture!  Sometimes it works the 1st time ... other times i rip out and start over again, and again , and again ....i  might even have to cut the yarn because i've weakened the fibers in my overzealous endeavors to master something!

practice!

TIME .... it's the one tool we all have the same amount of each day ... and it's what determines the levels and stages of who we are ... as knitters ... as friends ... as believers in Christ even!  God's Word contains 66 books chalked FULL of instructions for me to dig through and then apply to my life.  Some editions contain beautiful, glossy pictures and maps ... others are illustrated by the descriptions painted by the writer's pen... and all of them are inspired by Him so that on any given page i will be able to find instruction, encouragement, admonition, counsel . . HIM!  However, keeping my Bible on my nightstand and never opening it is just as futile as expecting all my knitting books to make me a master knitter!

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me,

because He is at my right hand,

i will not be shaken!

ps. 16: 7-8

Your Word have i hidden in my heart, that i might not sin against You.  ps. 119:11

 (now doesn't THAT work out nice ... He knew my inclination to misplace things ...

so when it's tucked in my heart i can ALWAYS find just what i need!)