Whenever I visit Minneapolis, I make sure I visit Northwestern Christian Bookstore. Last July when Brenda and I visited Minneapolis, we were at Northwestern Bookstore and I found a book by Nancy Kennedy called “Lipstick Grace.” It was described as being “Glimpses of Life, Love and the Quest for the Perfect Lip Gloss.” How could I resist that so I decided to buy it. Each chapter is approximately 2 pages long and it’s the perfect thing to read before turning out the lights at night.
Last Friday, I was still feeling joyful and smiling about having the TIU volleyball team stay with us and excited to go down to Lamoni to watch their tournament. The time at my house was fun, the tournament was not. They did not play well and I could see the frustration on their faces. I looked at Carissa and I could see sadness, disappointment and discouragement. I know the desire of Carissa’s heart and when I see sadness, disappointment and discouragement on her face, I feel sadness, disappointment and discouragement deep inside me.
Driving the hour back home gave me a lot of time to think and it just stirred things up that more inside of me. Carissa’s coach wanted them on the bus immediately after the last match so I didn’t get the chance to talk with her and try to give her some encouragement, I just had to leave knowing how badly she was hurting.
That night, as I got into bed, I picked up my little Lipstick Grace book and this was the chapter I was on “Sometimes Little Girls Cry.” Nancy Kennedy writes “I know what it is be a mother and to feel impotent when your child is sad. You think that if only you can say enough cheerful words (How many is enough?), if you can send the right things in a care package, if you can somehow direct their relationships through mental telepathy and pray hard enough, then your children will be happy. Then they won’t be sad. Ever. But no matter how intense your desire and how tireless your effort, you cannot halt or take away your child’s sadness – and that makes you sad, because that’s your baby! That’s your flesh, and when your flesh cries, you cry, too.” She goes on to say “I couldn’t make her sadness go away. I couldn’t. I. Could. Not.” Finally, “I told my daughter, the one who’s sad, that I wished I could make her unsad, but I can’t. She said, “No, you can’t, but I appreciate that you want to. Maybe that’s the only thing, the best thing, I can do for my children. To acknowledge their pain, yet respect and love them enough not to rush in to fix things for them. Taking away their pain – if I could – would be taking away their opportunity to see God step in and do whatever it is that He does that would inspire their faith and make His name known.”
Good advice, but the thing that took my breath away was that I read this at the exact time I needed to see it. I didn’t read this chapter last week and remember it to go back to, I didn’t read it last night, God put those words in front of me just when I needed them most. In his book “The Life You’ve Always Wanted,” John Ortberg says “Hearing God speak to us is no indication that we are unusually spiritual or mature or important. God is able to communicate with whomever He chooses.” It has happened to me so often, that I am struggling with something and I hear someone say just the right words or, in this case, I picked up a book and that was the encouragement I needed.
But if from there, you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
I see Him when I seek him, when I open myself up to people who speak His work, when I read what He has revealed to writers.
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