Where to Turn

Shelby had a tough spell yesterday.

 (For those of you who do not know Shelby personally, you may want to read about here here or here or a really old one here.)

 Anyway, 5-year old Shelby and 7-year old Daniel were outside playing on the trampoline. When I heard them approaching the front porch, I knew it had been bad. Shelby was screaming like some sort of wild monkey and Daniel was yelling at her. They fought their way into the door, tear- and sweat-drenched. After they cried through their personalized versions of the story, it was easy to see what happened: Daniel had wanted to get off the trampoline, Shelby didn't want him to. 

 So she clobbered him. And then lied about it.

 What a mess.

 So I sent her to her room as my husband and I discussed how to handle her. She continued the banshee-like screaming the entire 15 or so minutes that we let her settle down. 

 And when I walked into her room to talk to her about her bad decisions and the consequences and her punishment, I saw a frantic little girl clutching the very Bible you see in at the top of this post. She was holding it gently in her hands, tenderly rubbing it.

 Now I don't want to read anything into her actions that don't exist. But let me tell you what I observed:

 At her moment of panic, Shelby reached for God's Word.

 And, you know what? The rest of the story doesn't really matter.

 I feel like every single blog post I've ever written comes back to this, but I'm preaching to myself as much as anyone who reads this blog: God's Word is how we hear from Him, how we know Him, how we learn how to live, and how we love. Granted, we cannot make any sense of His Word without His Spirit, but so many people try to go through life claiming the power of God but detached from the love letter from Him to us. 

 God ordained dozens of men over thousands of years to pen His Word. He used it to lead and guide everyone who called Him Lord from the time of the Egyptian exodus (around 1500 BC) until now. It contains history, geography, prayers, worship, prophecy, explanations, instructions, encouragement, standards, biographies, and more. It is the source of wisdom and understanding. It teaches all you can know about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and it reveals what we do with the stuff we just don't understand. (See Deuteronomy 29:29).

 So just to finish the story, Shelby walked into her brother's room and apologized. She apologized to me. She apologized to her daddy. All the while holding that Bible. I could barely speak. And even though she told me she held it simply because it was soft to the touch, I pray that she has started to understand the power, promise, and purpose of that Bible. 

 I pray you do, too.

 Happy New Year. 

 @leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com



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