[Faith-talk] Nails In The Fence

[Debby Phillips]

It is totally amazing how small children make such a difference in our lives.  A baby grabbing my finger and holding on made me know that I was lovable and loved at a time long ago when neither was that apparent to me. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 4, 2016, at 10:28 AM, Paul Smith via Faith-Talk <faith-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> As I wite this, it's early afternoon on Thursday, August 4 and, as promised yesterday, here's an article featuring a little girl which I hope you all will enjoy and receive a blessing from reading this article.
> 
> There once was a little girl who had a bad temper.  Her mother gave her a bag of nails and told her that every time she lost her temper, she must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
> 
> The first day the girl had driven 37 nails into the fence.  Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.  She discovered it was easier to hold her temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
> 
> Finally the day came when the girl didn't lose her temper at all.  She told her mother about it and the mother suggested that the girl now pull out one nail for each day that she was able to hold her temper.  The days passed and the young girl was finally able to tell her mother that all the nails were gone.  The mother took her daughter by the hand and led her to the fence.  She said, "You have done well, my daughter, but look at the holes in the fence.  The fence will never be the same.  When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one."
> 
> You can put a knife in a person and draw it out.  It won't matter how many times you say "I'm sorry," the wound is still there.  A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
> 
> Friends are very rare jewels, indeed.  They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.  Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.
> 
> And there you have the article for today, but before I go I'd like to tell you about the little girls who have driven positive nails into my heart and life.
> 
> The first two are named Mylan and Dylan, one perhaps three years old and the other nearly four.  When we had our Christian singles fellowship locally, one time everyone was busy doing one thing and another, when one of them took my hand and said one word:  "Ball." After a while I reasoned that they wanted me to go with them to the farthest reaches of the yard of our hosts to throw the ball and have one of them catch it.  Now that may be just something trivial, but these little lassies knew something that sighted adults of my acquaintance didn't or wouldn't admit to, and that is leaving me out of the total church picture when it comes to fellowship.  These two little girls are now reunited with their mother; I don't know about the father.
> 
> The other little girl is named Kinley, six months old, who can't eat normally because of something blocking food from getting into her little tummy, and thus she has to use a feeding tube.  Last Friday she was in a swing enjoying the time of day and I sat down next to her, just waiting for the other Christian singles to join us for a meal and Bible study.  Well, I started talking baby talk, and the host, Scott, said that Kinley was really looking at me as if I were maybe a new playmate or something.  After a while she took my right hand in her two little ones and began examining something that she found fascinating, a Braille watch.  Can't remember how long our physical interaction lasted, but it must have been around five minutes.  It felt really good to "belong" to someone, even if she was only six months old.
> 
> And there you have today's post for now.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing we present an article illustrating the perceptiveness of little children, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul
> 
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