Never underestimate the older ladies in the church.
They taught me as I led a Bible study with them. We spent a year studying Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s Choosing Gratitude. We planned to wrap up with a summary and luncheon at my house. However, I took an unexpected fall at my daughter’s house when I tripped over a suitcase in the middle of the night. I landed with all my weight on my right knee. The worst eruption of pain since childbirth shot through my entire body, and my utterances were unintelligible (thank goodness).
Not one word of Choosing Gratitude came to mind. My granddaughter brought me an ice pack. My grandson worried. I had proven I could not care for myself, much less for them, while their mother was out of town.
To my great surprise, I could walk the following day if I braced myself against the wall. Fluid gathering in my knee shook like a bowl of Jell-O. Nothing seemed broken or torn. When I returned home, my daughter called to say she had tested positive for COVID-19—double whammy.
Hobbling around, I watched my aggravation increase as I pondered necessary cancelations. I felt irritation rising in my soul. After nine months of studying gratitude, I was about to hit rock bottom. Finally, I prayed—with some impudence, I admit.
“Okay, God. Is this another one of those ‘Be careful what you pray for events?’” I suddenly recalled what Joni Eareckson Tada had written in the foreword of the book we studied. A quadriplegic for fifty years, Joni thanked God daily for her wheelchair because it kept her focused on her constant need for God’s strength.
I felt sorry for myself because I faced an inconvenient week or two to rearrange. Joni rearranged every day and every detail for living for the rest of her life. She thrived on gratitude.
I have a personal paraphrase from John’s gospel: “The world could not contain the books if we wrote all God has done for us.” My fall could have been so much worse.
By Sunday morning, I had contacted those women God put into my life. I have difficulty asking for help, so perhaps that was a part of the lesson learned as well.
What are some ways you can let the Lord teach you?
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and ast25rulos.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
Melody Morrison was born a musician and poet, playing piano by ear at four and writing her first poems and songs at six. Growing up as the preacher’s daughter in a family of six, life centered around family and church activities. After too much education, she spent many years teaching music, theatre, and special education while acting, singing in and directing church choirs, and writing articles, Bible studies, curriculum, stories, scripts, and musicals. The mother of four grown children who married and were fruitful and multiplied to produce seven grandchildren, she enjoys spending time being Gramma and getting to know these remarkable individuals. She and her husband travel and make beautiful music together. Melody’s greatest passion is encouraging people of every age and background to recognize and celebrate their own value as treasures of the Creator of the universe. She prays her efforts by the grace of God will support this endeavor.