In His Hands

I'm a get-it-done kinda gal. Give me a mission, and I'll give you a to-do list with bullet points toward accomplishing the task. Though my daughter and I look nothing alike, she, too, is strong-willed and goal oriented. So, is it any wonder that she was blessed with an independently-minded little girl of her own?

Kinley is 21 months old. Though she's a few months away from 2, she is moving into that toddler phase marked by the "I'll do it myself!" attitude. It seems such a short time ago that her tiny fingers were dwarfed by her Grandpa's big hands.

January 2012 - Just after her birth December 30, 2011

These days, she has definite ideas about how things should be. She has opinions about how best to cover up a dolly for a nap and which book in the mountain of reading material is the right one to read. At a park playground, she will spend the entire time swinging - even when there are fun slides and climbing stations from which to choose. 

 

A few weeks ago when I pulled into their driveway for a weekend visit, Kinley came up to the car with an ice bag on her head. She was playing outside with her Mommy and Daddy while they waited on me to arrive. Her feet got tangled up and she fell, head first, onto the cement driveway.

Kinley may have ideas about what she wants to do and the speed with which she wants to do them. But sometimes, she trips and falls. This wasn't her first scrape nor will it be her last.

And you know what? I'm not so different. Too often, I get to traveling at my own speed. I have my to-do list. I have an agenda. I have a plan. I forget that I'm not the one in charge. And I also forget that I don't have to do it on my own.

 There's a bigger picture.

Just like Kinley has someone nearby to pick her up when she falls, I have that, too:

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

- Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

I stumble and fall. I make the same mistakes, over and over again, it seems. And God keeps picking me up, dusting me off, and encouraging me to keep going. 

"The grace of God means something like this: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift, too."

Author Frederick Buechner

Too often, I shake off the Father's hand. I'm a capable person. I can do it. I don't have to bother God with this little thing in my life. Or I may lay a big concern at the foot of the cross through fervent prayer. But then I pick it back up again. Like a defiant toddler, "I can do it myself."

But my Abba Father is ready to hold my hand. The road may be clear of obstructions some days. Other days, it's filled with twists and turns and uncertainty. But, like the Loving Parent that He is, He grasps my hand. I just have to reach out and hold on.

I like the JJ Heller song called "Your Hands." The bridge says:

Your hands that shaped the world
Are holding me
They hold me still. 

Like the old Sunday School song goes, "He's got the whole world in His hands." As I look at the changing leaves and see the beauty all around me as we transition into fall, I'm amazed that those hands that created the world care so much about each and every one of us.

***

Today's post is my October blog post at Lovely Branches Ministries, where the theme for the month is "Hands." My friend, Keva, talks about a cherished photo of her late husband's hand in hers at their son's wedding. My friend, Suzanne, shares a hard concept (for me, too)  - "sitting" on her hands and "letting God." But she also talks about all the "handy" work she and others accomplished for her daughter's wedding this past summer. And there's a new blogger at LBM: Leslie McAninch, who is a personal and family counselor. Click on the links to visit!

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Today, I'm also linked to Michelle DeRusha's Hear It On Sunday, Use It On Monday. Click on the link to read more from bloggers of faith. 

Eyes Wide Open

I was rummaging through books at our church's Oktoberfest used book sale last year and found this Little Golden Book, Prayers for Children.

Little Golden Books were a part of my childhood, so when I was a young parent, I loved reading the familiar stories to my own children. There was The Shy Little Kitten, The Poky Little Puppy and The Little Red Hen, just to name a few. 

I don't remember Prayers for Children in my childhood library, but last year, with my new granddaughter on the way, I paid my money and took it home.

The copyright is 1952, and the moms illustrated in the book look more like June Cleaver with their circle skirts and high heels. It may seem out of sync in today's world of jeans- or sweatpant-wearing moms.

The little ones pictured on the front of the book also looked like they were  from my era growing up in the 1960s with little hats for Easter and dotted Swiss dresses in different hues for my sisters and me. Jill had little bonnets and lacy dresses, too, and Brent had a suit or two for Easter finery when he was a little boy.

Easter 1965, me at age 7; Easter 1967, me at age 9 with my whole family; Jill's first Easter, 1986; Jill & Brent also in Easter clothes, probably 1990? Wouldn't it have been great if I'd done a better job organizing and dating the thousands of photos I took?!

It's a much more informal approach to church clothes in 2012. Jeans are fine. So is a dress. People have come to discover it's not about what we're wearing.

As I paged through the Little Golden Book, I realized that while the clothes may seem old-fashioned, the prayers are just as relevant today as they were in the 1950s.

One of my favorites in the book is Father, We Thank Thee by Ralph Waldo Emerson. As I read the words, I thought about how we should open our eyes to the blessings all around us, each and every day.  I just started reading Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts, for the second time. And, as she reminds me:

"I pay tribute to God by paying attention. ... Praying with eyes wide open is the only way to pray without ceasing."

 Ann Voskamp in "One Thousand Gifts"                                                          

Celebrating today the ability to pray with eyes wide open - and the gift to do it in such a beautiful place as this.

Father, We Thank Thee

Words by Emerson, Photos by me

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For tender grass so fresh and sweet,

Father, we thank Thee.

 For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,

Father, we thank Thee.

For pleasant shade of branches high,

Father, we thank Thee.

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light, 

Father, we thank Thee,

For rest and shelter of the night,

Father we thank Thee.

For health and food, for love and friends

For everything Thy goodness sends

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

***

If you are in the Stafford, Kansas, area on Saturday, October 6, you are cordially invited to the Stafford United Methodist Women book sale at 218 West Stafford St. Proceeds from the book sale go to mission projects, locally and beyond. It will be in the church basement from 9 AM to 4 PM Saturday. Maybe you'll find a treasure like Prayers for Children, too! There are tables full of hardcover and paperback books for adults as well. There are lots of other activities going on in downtown Stafford this weekend. Come join the party!

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This is a reprint of my October post at the Lovely Branches Ministries website. Check out the other bloggers there!

Discarded

Photo taken May 9: The wheat has turned much more golden in just 1 week.

Wouldn't it be great if we could toss our troubles aside as quickly as we can peel off layers of clothing during a walk on a hot day? 

This week has had its moments:

• On Monday, I locked my keys - and my phone - in the car when I was filling up at the co-op. 

• Yesterday, I couldn't access my email account. It's the account I've had since my very first computer. I will admit it: I'm a bit of an email (and Internet) addict. But yesterday, I had an obligation for which I absolutely, positively HAD to have email access.

• And, of course, as life happens, there have been other little crises along the way this week.

OK. I admit it. Those problems don't appear very monumental as I type them here in black and white. I kept telling myself that yesterday, too, but it didn't keep my stomach from being tied in knots or my head being squeezed in a vice. 

It's all well and good to read my Bible and a book like "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp (also the author of the blog, A Holy Experience) in the morning. But, if 10 minutes after I close the covers and mark my place I've forgotten the message of giving thanks in all things, then what's the point?

Do not be anxious about anything,

 but in every situation, 

by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,

present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

Hmmmmm ... Give thanks when you inadvertently hit the lock button on the way out of the car and the door shuts? With keys on the inside? With the cell phone on the other side of the locked door? (Thanks that it was during business hours, and my friends at the co-op let me use the phone and wait in air-conditioned comfort - complete with great conversation - while help arrived. Thanks that it was on the way home from accompanying at school and not on the way to that obligation since the concert is tonight.)

Give thanks when your well-ordered plan and to-do list has to fall by the wayside when technology fails? (Thanks that it forced me to make a change from an antiquated email account to something new. Well, I'm still working on being truly thankful for that one since I'm still trying to notify my gigantic email list.)

I'm a work in progress, to be sure.   

And again, believe me when I say that I know these are teeny-tiny stumbling stones along life's path when compared to mountains like cancer or unexpected death or job loss or tornadoes or ... or ... or ...

Wouldn't it be nice if I could leave those troubles alongside the road like I did that shirt? And I can. The key is to not pick the troubles and worries back up again. God has it covered. 

Let Us Bow Our Heads

As I drove by wheat fields early last week, a thought kept drifting through my head: "Let us bow our heads for a word of prayer."

At the Stafford Garden Tour June 5, a friend and I were talking about harvest barreling toward us like a runaway freight train. (Can you tell neither of us had our harvest to-do lists checked off?)

The color had already shifted dramatically from green to mostly gold in the 100-degree-plus temperatures and brisk southern winds.

She said, "All that's left is for the heads to droop over."

I asked Randy if there was a technical term for the wheat heads bending over as harvest approached. If there is, he missed it in agronomy class at K-State.

But that image of bowed heads stayed with me through the week. I've heard the phrase uttered all my life before potluck dinners in the church basement. I've said it as I led prayers in Sunday School class.

I realize the wheat is just doing what wheat's DNA is programmed to do as it matures. As the head fills with grain, it starts bending over.

But it sure didn't hurt me to have that image of heads bowed in prayer. It's what I needed to remember during a week in which my to-do list was longer than the time I had to do it.

It's what I needed to remember as I thought about the people in my life who need prayers ... a little boy and his family in a Kansas City hospital going through another MRI and surgery on a tumor ... a young family on a Make a Wish trip with their preschool daughter ... a friend in the hospital recovering from a heart attack ... and another friend fighting for her very life in another Wichita hospital ... My prayer list went on and on and on.

It should be part of my DNA to respond with a bowed head and an open heart.

(More to come on the 2011 wheat harvest. We got started last Friday.)

Saying Grace

Today, head on over to my Food for Thought blog on the Lovely Branches Ministries website and check out my post on table graces ... the prayers we say before mealtime.

When I was growing up, we said this prayer:

For all we eat
For all we wear
For all we have, everywhere.
Father, we thank Thee.
Amen.

What table grace did you say as a child? What table grace did you teach your own children? I'd love to hear about your traditions: Leave a comment here or on the Lovely Branches site.

While you're there, check out the other blog writers at Lovely Branches.

As we enter this Thanksgiving week, take time to count your blessings. Happy Thanksgiving week!