August 26, 2008 IOW
Dear Lord, I do not ask that Thou shouldst give me some high work of thine, some noble calling or some wonderous task. Give me a little hand to hold in mine. Anonymous
In reading this simple prayer we see where the person wasn’t asking for some high work of God’s. They didn’t even want a noble calling or some wondrous task. All they wanted was a little hand to hold in theirs. Years ago when I was told to never get pregnant because of my epilepsy I had a very similar prayer. All I wanted was that little hand to hold in mine. Along my crossing down epilepsy lane I met other women with the same prayer in their hearts. One lady I spoke with had been raped as a young child and it resulted in her reproductive system shutting down to where she couldn’t get pregnant.
Her choice was to adopt, my choice was whether I was going to go against doctor’s orders or not. Not waiting for God to answer my prayers I went ahead and got pregnant. When I saw the look on the physician’s face when I gave him the news, I realized how selfish I was. My child within could be born handicapped or deformed due to the medication I took but evidently the reality of that information didn’t sink in until after the fact.
Dropping my medicine down as low as they possibly could I wound up spending my entire pregnancy practically bedridden. Whenever I would get up from my bed I would have a seizure because I was so under medicated. Once our daughter came and the Lord had blessed us with a healthy red-headed doll of a girl I decided I didn’t want to take that chance ever again and I didn’t.
The little hands I’ve been privileged to hold in mine over the years have been my daughter’s, my grandchildren, students in the Good News club where I taught, those in Daily Vacation Bible School, youth group, and Sunday school. Even today it’s a joy to be able to reach out and hold the tiny, immature, trusting hands of newly born women in Christ or those still in the adoption process seeking to be found.
To some, kids aren’t their bag. They have no desire to have that responsibility. There’s nothing wrong with that, they may have a different calling from God. Whatever that may be we need to seek out, find, and do it all to the glory of God keeping in mine that it’s our tiny hand that God holds in His. We aren’t the ones holding on to His, He is holding on to ours. Praise the Lord.
Tiny or big, there is always a hand that needs to be held in some way or another through encouragement, comfort, or guidance. We should never be surprised if we look down some day and find someone has come up from behind us to grasp our hand in the darkness of life’s troubles and situations. When that happens we need to be the light God tells us to be and walk them safely across the wobbly bridges of life to a more secure place closer to Christ.
Demonstrating in our lives the Hand of God and what it means to us as David expressed in his own song of praise in 2 Samuel 22. His words were, “the Lord is MY rock, MY fortress, MY deliverer, MY strength, MY shield, MY salvation, MY stronghold, MY refuge, MY Savior, MY God, MY support, and MY lamp.” We serve the same God as David did and He can be all that to us if we are willing to place our tiny trusting hands in His.
Now there’s a hand we should want to grasp!
In reading this simple prayer we see where the person wasn’t asking for some high work of God’s. They didn’t even want a noble calling or some wondrous task. All they wanted was a little hand to hold in theirs. Years ago when I was told to never get pregnant because of my epilepsy I had a very similar prayer. All I wanted was that little hand to hold in mine. Along my crossing down epilepsy lane I met other women with the same prayer in their hearts. One lady I spoke with had been raped as a young child and it resulted in her reproductive system shutting down to where she couldn’t get pregnant.
Her choice was to adopt, my choice was whether I was going to go against doctor’s orders or not. Not waiting for God to answer my prayers I went ahead and got pregnant. When I saw the look on the physician’s face when I gave him the news, I realized how selfish I was. My child within could be born handicapped or deformed due to the medication I took but evidently the reality of that information didn’t sink in until after the fact.
Dropping my medicine down as low as they possibly could I wound up spending my entire pregnancy practically bedridden. Whenever I would get up from my bed I would have a seizure because I was so under medicated. Once our daughter came and the Lord had blessed us with a healthy red-headed doll of a girl I decided I didn’t want to take that chance ever again and I didn’t.
The little hands I’ve been privileged to hold in mine over the years have been my daughter’s, my grandchildren, students in the Good News club where I taught, those in Daily Vacation Bible School, youth group, and Sunday school. Even today it’s a joy to be able to reach out and hold the tiny, immature, trusting hands of newly born women in Christ or those still in the adoption process seeking to be found.
To some, kids aren’t their bag. They have no desire to have that responsibility. There’s nothing wrong with that, they may have a different calling from God. Whatever that may be we need to seek out, find, and do it all to the glory of God keeping in mine that it’s our tiny hand that God holds in His. We aren’t the ones holding on to His, He is holding on to ours. Praise the Lord.
Tiny or big, there is always a hand that needs to be held in some way or another through encouragement, comfort, or guidance. We should never be surprised if we look down some day and find someone has come up from behind us to grasp our hand in the darkness of life’s troubles and situations. When that happens we need to be the light God tells us to be and walk them safely across the wobbly bridges of life to a more secure place closer to Christ.
Demonstrating in our lives the Hand of God and what it means to us as David expressed in his own song of praise in 2 Samuel 22. His words were, “the Lord is MY rock, MY fortress, MY deliverer, MY strength, MY shield, MY salvation, MY stronghold, MY refuge, MY Savior, MY God, MY support, and MY lamp.” We serve the same God as David did and He can be all that to us if we are willing to place our tiny trusting hands in His.
Now there’s a hand we should want to grasp!
Copyright 2008 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
5 comments:
What a precious precious post! I'm so glad you have so many hands to hold! God bless you for the outpouring of your heart on this great quote!
Hey Karen,
As always I so enjoy your posts.
This was excellent. Yes, to think of all the little hands God places in our lives during our lifetime!
What an honor it is to touch any life for HIM.
Have a blessed day♥
What an awesome post. Thanks for your encouragement.
Blessings!
Karen, great job as usual.
Thank you for sharing your heart in this piece- it is such an encouragement. I'm so glad God knew about your little one even before you did and protected her.
He truly is a loving God.
Bonnie
As an adoptive mom, I was truly touched by this post.
My entry is a little satirical this time . . . a THROW-back to those teen years. Something about the start of the school year made me a little nostalgic perhaps. ;-)
Blessings,
Linda
http://nickersandinkblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/fairly-fast-foods.html
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