The Tabernacle Community

Shalom, shalom! Wow, it has been a long time since we have been in touch. I must say, since I have been in touch since I am the English writer in the family. So now you are getting inundated with emails from us. Barr, our baby is now 6 months, hard to believe. I have all the best intentions of writing but then I usually am trying to clean the house until the wee hours of the morning (that is pretty sad since we live in a tiny trailer home) or I am falling asleep in the chair after the kids go to bed. I finally found a moment of quite as Netanel, our firstborn went to play among the olive trees while Ronen works and Noam and Barr are sleeping. Oop, well Barr is now the only one sleeping so this will be cut short. I bribed Noam with a snack so I can keep writing.

I actually had something on my heart to share, at least for this email. My pregnancy with Barr was the hardest of the three. It was HOT - last months of pregnancy during summer in the desert and no air conditioner is not the most fun a girl can have. My emotions were running higher than high and I was angry quite often. I was angry, frustrated, sad - you name it, I felt it, except for much joy. .

It was at this time that I also had a hard time with my older boys (I am sure they were just reacting to my emotions), especially the oldest. He was often teasing his brother and I was very frustrated with him. It seemed that every morning I woke up already frustrated and waiting to see what he would do to his younger brother. Then one morning, I walked out of the room and Netanel, who rises with the sun, ran to me and jumped up to hug me. I saw the light shining in his beautiful eyes and his smile covered his face. I fell in love with him again. After all, he is amazing even if he sometimes teases his little brother.
That evening I went to a women's meeting. Another woman shared about how she dreaded going home after work because she knew she would walk into a messy house and problems with her children. The leader of the meeting said she should ask God to help her see her children as new each day, not holding against them what was yesterday. As soon as I heard that, I thought of my precious Netanel and how I fell in love with him again that morning. Instantly, I remembered one translation of a scripture - "His mercies are new every morning." It should also be the same with us - for our children, our spouse, neighbor or boss. We need to see them new each day, sometimes even every hour.

Thank God that his mercies are new every morning for us! Are your mercies new every morning?

By the way, I was really concerned about the baby when I was going through that hard time. I felt so sorry for him and wondered what would be with him since babies feel everything that the mother is going through. Well, though I was miserable, Abba had him surrounded with love and joy. Barr is the happiest baby I have EVER seen in my life. It is amazing. Even if he is crying from pain, like from a burp, he still stops to smile at us. In Hebrew the word for MERCY is Rahamim and the word for womb is Rehem, they are from the same root word. The womb is the mercy room for our little babies.

Blessings on this Shabbat and Happy Freedom Day (Passover),
Melanie Shalom