Learning The Truth

Learning the Truth

I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 63:6-7

At the end of a women’s retreat at which I had told stories about my Kentucky grandmother, Mama Farley, several women stayed behind to talk to me. One young woman kept letting others go ahead, so I inwardly began to pray for her, wondering what terrible sin she wanted to confess without witnesses. Finally she and I were alone.

As I turned to her, she blurted out, “I’m not as close to the Lord as I used to be.”

I often hear that statement, and it’s usually followed by an admission of sin. So, bracing myself, I asked why she felt that way.

She twisted the tissue in her hands. “I used to spend at least an hour studying the Bible every morning, but now I don’t.”

This wasn’t what I expected. “Tell me about your life,” I invited.

“Well, I got married four years ago,” she said. “And now we have three children, three, two, and one.”

Astonished, I interrupted her. “Honey, you don’t have time to spend an hour in the Word each morning.” Then remembering retreat speakers aren’t supposed to say such things, I tried again. “Perhaps you could post Scriptures throughout the house to ponder as you go through your busy days.”

She shook her head, so I scrambled for another idea. “What if you saw the care of your children as part of your daily worship of the Lord? As your little ones look to you in trust, it will be a reminder you are trusting your heavenly Father.”

I knew that was stretching the point, but she was desperate.

Tears were forming in her eyes. “But I want to be a godly woman like your grandmother,” she said. “And there’s no way she could have been that godly without spending at least an hour in the Word each morning.”

I smiled as I opened my arms to her. “Honey, I know she didn’t spend an hour in the Word each day. Mama Farley couldn’t read.”

At that, the tired, young mother threw herself against my shoulder and sobbed in relief. The truth about my godly grandmother had freed her from a standard impossible for her to achieve at this stage of her life. And I like to think that truth also made her a more relaxed, fun-loving mother. —SANDRA

Lord, I’m prone to accept someone else’s standards of Christian discipline. And often I fail to reach my own goals because I’ve set them too high. Help me to ask you how to schedule my day. And remind me that as I invite you into my activities, I gain direction and peace.

God wants us to be victors, not victims; to grow, not grovel; to soar, not sink; to overcome, not to be overwhelmed.

—WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD (1921–1994), INSPIRATIONAL WRITER