A Lesson Being Learned

I’m often amazed by the lessons that God teaches me and the variety of ways that He does it.  Quite often He’ll use something that happens to a family member to remind me of a lesson I’d learned in the past or teach me something new.

The past four  weeks have been just such an example.  You see, four weeks ago Noah (my twelve-year-old 7^th grader) broke his wrist sacking the QB and making him fumble in the team’s first scrimmage with the 8^th grade team.  I was standing there on the sidelines watching the play and remember seeing him grab his wrist and say it hurt, but he kept on playing.  I noticed he wasn’t very effective but was still willing to work through the injury.

It was after the practice that we started to evaluate the injury together.  Almost immediately I went back to the time he had broken his arm a few years back and many of the symptoms were the same.  Thankfully I work run an office of four orthopaedic surgeons so I knew which questions to ask, and I quickly determined that he needed to see one of the doctors the next day.

The lesson that God has been teaching me is twofold.  First He taught me that knowledge really can be power.  In this case knowing the right questions to ask and knowing how to treat the injury allowed us to get the wrist taken care of right away instead of letting the injury continue to linger.  This also translates to my spiritual life, as the more I’m in God’s word and the more of it I know, the stronger I am when problems arise.  I know how to handle spiritual situations because He has provided me with the resources to diagnose an issue and take care of it.

The second lesson has been patience.  God has taught me to be patient and not allow my excitement to take over.  I realize that this injury of Noah’s, if not taken care of correctly, could linger the rest of his life.  I’ve come to the realization that 7^th grade football isn’t the end-all-be-all of his career, and that if his wrist takes longer to heal I will be ok with waiting (even if the rest of the parents on the team are not)!  God has reminded me of this lesson as it’s one that I continually need to be reminded of.  It’s His timing for my debt to be paid off, for someone I’m witnessing to gain a full understanding of the relationship they need with God, and with Noah’s wrist healing and his getting back on the field.

God continually uses situations and other people in our lives to teach us lessons.  Sometimes it is a huge mallet hitting us in the head, while other times it’s a simple tap on the shoulder.  Yet, there are always lessons to be learned in order for advancement in our spiritual lives to be attained.