Living Under the Blessings

I had to rush off this afternoon and visit my Dad in the hospital today. Now, anyone who knows my Dad knows that is the last place you'd ever expect to hear of my dad being! You hear sometimes about people in their 2nd childhood? After 48 years of marriage, my parents are in like their 50th childhood. There was the sailboat childhood, the motorcycle one, the travel the world one, the 1000 US places to visit childhood. There's been so many I've lost count! These are people who took off without notice this summer to Canada for a month cause somebody told them it was cool there in Sunday school one morning. So, my dad took a break from contemplatin' how to build a zip-line in his pasture to have a stint put in his heart.
So, I had the opportunity to pronounce a blessing over HIM, instead of the other way around. My dad is always blessing me, I'm his favorite after all. My whole life he and my mom pronounced the "Blessings of Abraham" over me everyday. This is probably one of the reasons why I turned out so well. Here is the blessing they spoke over me (okay, I guess they said it over my brother and sister too):

You are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, blessed in the basket, blessed in the store, blessed coming in and blessed going out. You are a disciple taught of the Lord, and great shall be your peace and undisturbed composure. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against you in judgment shall be condemned.There shall be no evil to fall upon you, nor any plague come near your dwelling, for He shall give His angels charge over you to bear you up lest you stumble and fall.You shall find favor with God and with men, and the Lord will bless everything you put your hands to do.The Word of the Lord shall not return void, but it shall accomplish what God pleases and shall prosper in the thing He sent it to do.-Amen

It is a very powerful thing to pronounce blessings over a child, out loud before them and before Satan. When you do this you are making it known to both of them that this child is God's property. These blessings are found mostly in the book of Deuteronomy, but many of them are from other chapters of the Bible. Blessing our children is something we don't do much in our culture, yet it is very biblical.
I'll never forget when I was in the 7th grade, my parent's blessing would make me late for the bus. The whole bus would have to wait while my parents drinking coffee on the porch in their bathrobes said my blessing. When I complained, my parents started acting out the blessing, I can't really explain how they did this, miming how angels would bear you up, weapons would not prosper; very theatrical, and REALLY embarrassing to a 13 year old. Needless to say I started getting up earlier so we could get the blessing over with before the bus came.

Anyway, all went well with my dad, he should recover quickly, and I am so thankful for him - and for him teaching me to live under the covering of the blessings.