I was with my Granddaughter a few weeks ago and we took a lot of pictures. I took pictures of her eating. I took pictures of her sleeping. I took pictures of her laughing. I took pictures of her with her mommy, my daughter. I took pictures of her with her papa. We even got a few pictures of her with her gammy….yours truly.
Needless to say, one of my favorite pictures of her is when I was holding her and her mommy was the photographer. She was very attentive to what mommy was doing, so the picture was a beautiful shot of my little granddaughter looking straight in to the camera. Poof! It was a perfect shot! At least I thought so until I enlarged it to put it as a desktop background on my computer. That’s when I noticed a blemish as big as Dallas on my forehead!
Well, I have this new little program on my computer that lets you touch up pictures. It is a little miracle tool! It is called a clone stamp. It allows you to pick up the color from a perfect area and replace the imperfect area. What a miracle tool! So that’s what I did. I took that blemish right off my forehead. You would never know it was ever there! Isn’t that neat? Something to make blemishes disappear!
I have bigger blemishes on my life; blemishes that have not only hurt me, but hurt other people. Blemishes on my heart are permanent scars of the sins that I chose. Things that hurt my family, my friends, and most of all my God. I could never do anything to make those ugly sins disappear.
But you know what, there is a miracle tool! It is the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood is a clone stamp. It takes the precious crimson blood and makes us white as snow. You know why it turns our hearts white rather than red? Because his blood was sinless. It was pure. It was the only blood that could wash us clean.
Psalm 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow
1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
Friday, August 15, 2008
I Can't
Would you believe that my granddaughter is talking? She is now 14 months old, walking with the help of anyone's fingers nestled in those two little chubby hands. She could let go and walk, but has beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt let us know that she can't. That's right...clearly said and frustrated to the limit she cried, "I can't." The tears flowed and we all responded with amazement.
Is "I can't," going to be the first words of this little amazing creation? At first I thought so, but as I look over the family videos and DVD "papa" made, I hear some other wonderful phrases clearly from this little wonder kid. "Love you," "Okay," "Bye," are all a part of her vocabulary, not to mention she has mastered the majic of signing "please," "eat," and "more plesase." So, I'm breating a little easier now that I have figured out "I can't" is NOT her first words.
What does a child have to look forward to if "I can't" is her first words? Do we spend a lifetime convincing her she can? Do we ignore the cry of the little giver uper? No, we just laugh and go on. Literally, we just laughed. Well, at first we were amazed that she said it. Coming from a very positive mother and father, I couldn't imagine where she could have picked it up...but she did and in her short 14 months of life she put it together and knew what it meant.
Alas, there will come times in her life that she will cry, "I can't." But we will be there, encouraging her to take another step, telling her to try again, brush herself off and face the world. We will be there to help her understand that of course she can't. She can't do anything without the help of God. We will be there to remind her that when she feels she is not able to do something, her trust is not in her own ability, it is God's ability to empower her. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I can't wait to hear her quote that verse.
Is "I can't," going to be the first words of this little amazing creation? At first I thought so, but as I look over the family videos and DVD "papa" made, I hear some other wonderful phrases clearly from this little wonder kid. "Love you," "Okay," "Bye," are all a part of her vocabulary, not to mention she has mastered the majic of signing "please," "eat," and "more plesase." So, I'm breating a little easier now that I have figured out "I can't" is NOT her first words.
What does a child have to look forward to if "I can't" is her first words? Do we spend a lifetime convincing her she can? Do we ignore the cry of the little giver uper? No, we just laugh and go on. Literally, we just laughed. Well, at first we were amazed that she said it. Coming from a very positive mother and father, I couldn't imagine where she could have picked it up...but she did and in her short 14 months of life she put it together and knew what it meant.
Alas, there will come times in her life that she will cry, "I can't." But we will be there, encouraging her to take another step, telling her to try again, brush herself off and face the world. We will be there to help her understand that of course she can't. She can't do anything without the help of God. We will be there to remind her that when she feels she is not able to do something, her trust is not in her own ability, it is God's ability to empower her. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I can't wait to hear her quote that verse.
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