Your probably wondering how in the world this title could connect with our lives and we will get back to this a little later. I'd first like to share something I observed one day. If you have children you certainly will be able to relate!
It was in the afternoon of a nice peaceful fall day and the wind was blowing as a middle aged man sat on a wooden swing with his child and two of his grandchildren, while singing kids songs and just having a good time. About that time his older daughter, the mother of the two children came walking up and he invited her to sit on the bench with them and she said that her leg was hurting and she couldn't sit down on the bench right now. The younger daughter then said something, as sisters sometimes do, that sparked a harsh comment back in return and the mother of the two kids walked away. When things had calmed a bit, the father still sitting on the swing talked to the younger daughter and encouraged her to go apologize for hurting her sisters feelings. At first she wouldn't agree to do it, but she eventually thought it through and realized that it was the best way to bring peace to her relationship and it would give her inner peace as well. I watched as she walked over to her sister and said she was sorry, but it wasn't immediately received with gratitude. She walked back to her father and said, "See, it didn't matter." Her father just told her to give it time. Sure enough, about five minutes later the older daughter came over and after a few exchanges of looks she warmed right back up to her sister! God worked in that little sisters heart.
Isn't it amazing how much difference it makes when someone is willing to humbly apologize for something they have said or done? How many of us have thought, "If they had just came back and apologized or said they were sorry for what they had done, I could have some peace about what happened."
I was working on some things for a woman one day and one of the things that she had on her list was to see if I could get the drawers to open and close in a cabinet she had in her utility room. So I took a look at them and sure enough they were not very easy to use. I admit that they were probably about forty years old and most people would discard a cabinet this old and just buy another, but she preferred to keep this one. It was fine and built better than cabinets today, but it had some problems that needed working out. It had a dull coat of paint of which I had already sanded and painted with two coats of nice shiny paint. Still these drawers really caused the upper part of this cabinet to be useless as they were.
In my younger years I was fortunate to work a while with some of those old time carpenters that taught me a few tricks of the trade and one of those things that I had learned was how to get things to glide when they were stuck. There was something that all of those older carpenters kept stashed away in their work pouches. They always kept a small piece of paraffin wax. They used it for pretty much everything that didn't work like it should. I was amazed when I first saw it and how easy it was to use. I thought for sure that this must be a very expensive product but I soon found out that it was cheap enough for most anyone to afford.
As I remembered this, I realized that I must find some of this wax and use it on the wooden glides that the drawers were resting on. I thought to myself, I better make sure those drawers will open before I go looking for wax. It was extremely difficult but I finally worked them all loose and guess what I found inside of one of the drawers? You probably guessed it; a box of the very wax we used many years ago to solve the sticking issues! It sat there in that drawer and I could tell that it may have been as old as the cabinet itself was. I was very surprised and I immediately thought about how close the solution was to the problem but the drawers just couldn't do it, nor could the wax do anything about it. It took the hand of the master carpenter to take the wax out of the box and to apply it to the proper areas for the drawers to glide and work like a charm.
Isn't that how it is sometimes on our lives? If we look inside, we might find that we have a kind heart, a good attitude, a giving spirit but sometimes things happen in our lives that cause us to become less functional or that hold us from doing all that we were meant to do in life. We even know it, but the fact that there was never a resolution or peace made following the difficult times in our life is enough to make it difficult to function as we normally would.
It is amazing how the example of these sticky drawers apply to our lives! We get stuck and we know we have inside what we need to fix the problem but we can't seem to do it on our own sometimes! It takes the hand of the Master to take what we know and apply it to our lives so that we can function to our full capacity and it is there that we not only bring others enjoyment and blessings, but we also find joy and contentment in fulfilling our God given purpose in life! Call on God for the working of the Holy Spirit in your life today. He is waiting to take His will and apply it to our life, so that we can become fully functional throughout our remaining years on earth! Don't waste a day my friend!
Let's read a few verses of truth written by James, a servant of God! Let the words soak into your heart and let the Master's hand put it to work in your life! May God bless you in your purpose today!
Words of Wisdom
James 4:6-12 But he gives more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judges another?
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