I Need Help

She walked by the bathroom door and thought she heard a muffled sob.

“Is everything okay?” she asked through the closed door.

“I need help.”

She pushed open the door and saw him sitting there; elbows on knees, face in hands.  Weeping.

She didn’t have to ask why.  Quickly turning on the shower, she rolled up sleeves and began to prepare him to get in the water.  There was a stool for him to sit on in the tub - if she could bear his weight for the few steps it would take to get him there.

The running water would also muffle the sobs, weak though they were, so the kids wouldn’t ask questions.

“I’m so sorry” he kept saying in between tears.  So quiet, so weak, she could barely understand.  She assured him there was nothing to apologize for. 

After getting him situated, she checked water temperature and closed the curtain so the water could do its work, washing him clean.  Everything down that drain.

The curtain closed in time to hide her own tears. She began cleaning floor, cleaning walls, cleaning sink.  And for the first time since the very first day of this ordeal, she was mad.

“Why????”  she yelled silently, with clenched jaw.  “He lost his hair, he lost his strength, he lost the light of life in his eyes.  Does he have to have his dignity taken too?”

She wasn’t mad at God, because she knew with all her heart He had a plan.  That is what kept her going.  She was furious at the situation.

She scrubbed and cried.  She scrubbed and cried hard.

Everything got cleaned up, never to be mentioned between them again.  Never acknowledged that it had ever even happened.

How many times has Jesus done that for us?  Put our dirty selves under the Water to be cleansed by Him.  Letting the waste of our lives swirl down the drain.

How many times has He cleaned up our messes and made us all squeaky clean and comfortable, ready to live again?

He hears our sobs when we don’t have the strength to clean ourselves, comes in and rolls up His sleeves and gets to work.  He takes off His outer garment, kneels and washes our feet where we have been soiled by the things of the world.

All because we said “I need help.”

And never mentions it again.

Eph. 5: 26-27    John 15:3   Heb. 8:12

Giving thanks with so many others at

So thankful for:

His cleansing Word,

Lessons from life stories,

Girls giggling on the merry-go-round during PE,

Clean kitchen sink, all shiny,

Hymns and Worship on Pandora,

Extra time for Bible study,

New light bulbs, and

BLESSINGS on the wall.

Father, You are faithful.  I know you are.

Words will Never Hurt Me

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” I remember saying that as a child and even then thinking that it really didn’t make sense. I knew words hurt. I remember sticking my tongue out at someone in fourth grade and the awful feeling I had in my stomach because I knew what I did was wrong and was hurtful. I’m sorry Dena.

Sometimes a person might say something to me about someone else that isn’t very nice. Many times I know the person they are talking about because we’ve visited about life stuff. So when a comment is made I just want to say, “If you only know what their heart is like. What they’ve been through”.

We make so many unfair assumptions about people we really don’t know. Makes my heart hurt. Ephesians 4:29 tells us we are to build each other up to minister grace to the hearers. The word grace there means “joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, goodwill, lovingkindness”.

When is the last time you spoke joy to someone? How about sweetness?

I get so tired of hearing bad things come out of people’s mouths. Or when you walk up they stop talking because they don’t want you to hear what they are saying. Chances are they aren’t speaking grace over someone.

I was cleaning up my inbox in my email the other day and came across an email from Brandi about the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18 says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. We don’t realize how powerful our words are. If we are not speaking life (grace) over a person, we are speaking death. Scares me a little bit. How many times, intentional or unintentional, have I spoken death over someone. It may seem like what I say is not hurtful but sometimes it cuts right to the heart. Whoa.

We always, always, always have to think about being a reflection of Jesus. Philippians 2 tells us that He became a servant. He humbled himself. Having a true sense of humility means you recognize the sense of your littleness.

If we are truly a reflection of our humble Jesus, we will speak life. Speak grace. To our husband, our children, our co-workers, our fellow believers.