Recently, my daughter was playing on her brother's trike that is a bit too small for her. Let's just say that her knees are about above the handle bars while she is pedalling. It doesn't seem to bother her but it makes me hurt just watching her. Anyway, because the bike is too small it has a tendency to topple over. So as expected, it toppled a bit while she was riding it on our driveway. She tried to stop the toppling process which, as a parent watching, always seems to happen in slow motion. Just as you see it happen in slow motion your actions to run to prevent the mishap also seem to happen in slow motion. I think that it is one of the worst feelings as a parent to watch your child start to fall and then not be able to get there in time. I think the other thing that is equally as awful is watching the injury take place. For whatever reason, those images sear themselves on the forefront of your mind.
Thankfully, my daughter seemed okay when we got to her. She cried a little and then continued to play. A bit later, she complained that she could not walk because her foot hurt. I told her to relax, which I often do, because she has a tendency to be a bit dramatic (a flair that she inherited from her daddy...He once told his parents that he could not do his morning paper route because he was having chest pains). Anyway, my daughter continued to complain and would not put her weight on her foot. So off to the ER we went thinking the worst. The ER was empty, praise God, but for some reason unknown to man we waited about 25 minutes. Which to my chagrin was just enough time to watch a little girl come in with her mother, eat her fast food and then commence to throwing up. We were taken back to a room where we waited another 10 minutes...Why is that? By the time the doctor made it into the room, you will never guess what happened! Emma said, "I am healed, my foot feels much better." For those of you who are parents you might relate to the temporary miraculous thing that takes place in a doctor's office. You bring your child in for a certain and emergent thing and almost instantly in the doctor's office when the doctor comes in the cough is gone, the fever goes down and in my daughter's case the foot can move until of course you head home. Good grief.
The doctor put an ace bandage on Emma's foot and it was all better. We went home and put ice on it and she was up running around the next day. As parents, sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh, which my husband and I did and will do until we get the bill for the unnecessary hour and a half ER visit. We keep reminding ourselves that peace of mind is priceless, at least we found out that her foot was not broken.
One of my very favorite scriptures in the bible about feet is found in Habakkuk 3:19. My favorite translation is from the amplified bible which says,"The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! First of all, I love verses that end with an explanation point! I just want to say, "Oh yeah!" when I read that verse. Go ahead, read it again slowly and then say, "Oh yeah!" That verse is so powerful!
I felt paralyzed when I watched my daughter fall from her trike. I couldn't do anything but stand there and watch. Sometimes in our lives we feel that same way in a trial or tough situation. But God tells us that he is our 'personal bravery'! He makes us brave! He fights our fight. He helps us put one foot in front of the other and helps us keep walking up the mountain. The other great thing is that God not only gives us what we need to keep going he makes us grow through the process. He moves us on and takes us through. He doesn't leave us the same as when we entered the trail! Go ahead and say, "OH YEAH!"
If you are in the middle of a trial or you just feel plain stuck, put on your hiking gear and read and receive Habakkuk 3:19, use it like the ace bandage the doctor gave to my daughter in the ER and your feet too will be healed.
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