It was still 1981 that night when the Lord spoke to me again of children. We'd waited 14 years for children and after I was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit Jesus began to speak to us of the son He was going to send. Nathan came on June 25th,1980.
The Lord spoke once more in that still small voice of His and said "you're going to be a father again within a year". True to His word our little girl Joanna Lee was born March 16th,1982 and was a joy. Full of energy and mischief she kept us entertained. Those few years went so fast. It was June 30th 1997 we got the call. She'd gone to friends for the night and was killed in a car accident. She had just turned 15 in March. The last I saw her alive was at our kitchen table having a snack.
She loved me and always saw to it that the back door light was always on for daddy when he came home. The first time I came home after work to a dark door I was broken. I laid my head down on the steering wheel and wept for for fifteen minutes. That dark door was as if the sun had been extinguished. No one to see that dad's way was lighted.
Joanna's last Christmas, December 25, 1996. And so shall we be with the Lord forever.
Do you have a door you can lighten for someone? It doesn't have to be a physical door. Is there something you can do for someone that you don't normally do? Maybe a kind word to someone you normally ignore or don't really even care for. How many times have we needed a lift of heart and it didn't come? Many times. How many hungry thirsty souls do we see each day that would give anything for a kind word.
We were going into the store the other day and a young black woman saw my wife struggling to walk. She offered my wife the rider cart she was on which was refused. My wife explained she had to use what walking a mobility she had or would lose it. We three conversed and the woman told us of her rejection by her mother and of a recent operation. We prayed for her and encouraged her in her trials. She was rejoicing and joked "do ya'll need another kid? I'd like for you to adopt me"! A good word will add wings to a sad heart.
Be the person that brings a good word to a kindness starved person. Once I was working on contract for a company in El Dorado and was whistling while I did design work on the computer. The man across the hall, a grumpy sort, said to me very loudly "knock it off"! I was aggravated to say the least. Imagine, trying to cast a shadow on my happy day.
After awhile he walked across the hall to me and I supposed he was sorry for being so gruff. He began to talk and all I remember were his first few words. "you know, when my daughter was dying of leukemia...". That was all I needed to hear. Suddenly I wasn't upset at him any longer. One more wounded soul that badly needed an uplifting light word at his darkened door. I could no longer be angry at him. So very often rough words come out of a wounded spirit. The world is full of them. Perhaps you are one. God has given me the ministry of encouragement and there is a multitude of needy waiting to receive. We all can have a ministry of uplifting if we will.
God too will come to you as a believer and personally deliver words of uplifting and encouragement. He did so for me early this morning by means of Acts 2:17.
Proverbs 12: 25 (NKJV)
25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.
Psalm 34:18 NASB
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Jeremiah 15:16 NASB
Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.
Our words are the most powerful thing we possess. Life and death resides in our tongues. I spent a large part of my life speaking death to myself. Words told me as a child were of darkness and not light. Not from my mother. Some were from my father but most from wounded cousins who took their hurt out on three year old me. It's taken Jesus my lifetime to begin to repair that damage from dark words.
If a soul ever lived that knows the value of encouragement it's me. What is your need? Give from it and see the return. If you see a darkened doorway in another's life turn on the light for them. They need it so much.
Blessed are the wounded for they know pain when they see it and shall be comforted. Blessed are the comforters for they are able to see past their own pain and provide love.
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