Tongue-tied - A Child’s Evening Hymn

Tongue-Tied - A Child’s Evening Hymn

I hear no voice, I feel no touch,

I see no glory bright;

But yet I know that God is near,

In darkness as in light.

God watches ever by my side,

And hears my whispered prayer;

A God of love for a little child

Both night and day does care. Amen.

TIME-OUT was a disciplinary measure that I found mildly effective with my children. Although they carried on like their solitary confinement was some form of cruel and unusual punishment, I actually found it quite relieving—five to ten minutes of peaceful bliss from their arguing, whining, and general “naughtiness.”

After they ran out of “one more chance,” I’d place their little fannies in a chair in their room. They were not to get up and play, nor could they come into the room where I would go to enjoy some precious quiet.

Of my two children, Shauna especially dreaded “the hole.” She would wail as if I had beaten her with a stick. But it was Scott who, at the age of about two and a half, walked quietly to where I was standing in the kitchen with his hands covering his eyes. In his little thirty-month-old mind, I guess he thought if he couldn’t see me, well, then most certainly I couldn’t see him!

There are times when I have longed to feel the breath of God. Times when I thought for sure he had abandoned me. No voice. No touch. No nothing. Just an empty place where he once filled my heart. Are you sitting in time-out too?

Father, are you there? I can’t feel you. I can’t hear you.

I’m desperately alone; only you can fill this void in my soul.

Father, are you there? I know you love me. I know you will never forsake me.

Whisper your love to me, Father God.

He’s there . . . just peep through your hands.

O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. (Psalm 83:1)

A God of love for a little child. . . .