When I think of the story of David and Goliath I think of another miracle of God favoring his chosen people. When I read it again this week, I realized that there are a lot of other things I don't typically think of:

Preparation: David's path of preparation for that anointed confrontation with Goliath. The bears and lions David had confronted as a Sheppard to protect his sheep had prepared him for Goliath. When I look back at some of the accomplishments in my life, I too can examine some of my prior experiences and see how God had used them to prepare me.

David was not a one hit wonder: No pun intended! After David defeated Goliath he moved on to many additional victories as a soldier and leader of military forces.

Even in success David had relational issues: He had to deal with Saul's mounting jealousy. He became David's enemy for the rest of his life.

Several words came to mind and I wrote them in the margins as I read this weeks assignment.

1. Faith - "The Lord who rescued me from the claws of lions and bears will rescue me from this Philistine!"

2. Revenge - "Saul urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David."

3. Jealousy - as described above

4. Love - "Both of them (David and Jonathan) were in tears as they embraced each other and said goodbye."

5. Consequences - Samuel said to Saul "because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king".

6. Admission and Excuses - Saul admitted to Samuel, "Yes, I have sinned, I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord's command" and followed with an excuse "for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded"

There were a lot of lessons and takeaways for me, and they jumped write off the page at me.