In His Skillful Hands

Dear Lord; Good afternoon Father.

Thank You Lord, for starting my day off so pleasantly this morning.  I always like waking to the sound of Your Voice in my head, especially when the message is “Today is a Good Day”.  Well, it’s just after lunchtime here now and so far it truly has been as you prepared me; A good day.  🙂

In the beginning of the year Father, You gave me a word to focus my energies and prayers on.  It wasn’t a word I would have chosen sans Your intervention, but You were quite insistent at the time as I remember so I adopted it as my own.  The word was Accept.

Today Lord, I thought I’d discuss a couple of the ways “our” word choice has impacted me thus far, and presented itself in my life.

The beginning of “The Serenity Prayer” comes immediately to mind Father :

“God, grant me the serenity to Accept the things I cannot change…” – Reinhold Niebuhr

As You know, this has always been a rough one for me Lord.  Many of my most significant upsets have come from situations which I have little or no control over.  With Your help, I’ve been working on this flaw in my character and I can honestly say that we’ve made some progress.  I still have more than a few stresses in my life right now, but I’ve learned to better Accept those things which I can’t fix and focus my efforts on the ones I can make positive change in.

Along those same lines Father, I’m learning to Accept assistance more readily from others as well.  I’ve always prided myself (I know… another nasty word, but we’re making progress on that flaw too.) on being reasonably independent, but through my journey to You I’ve realized that You put us all here together for a reason.  When I can help someone, I should but I also need to be open to Accepting help from others as well.  It’s still a struggle sometimes for me to show that vulnerability, but I’m happy to say that barrier is lower than it used to be.

Needless to say, I now understand why You chose this word for me.  I obviously have some significant room for growth and Acceptance appears to be the key to much of that.

Heavenly Father, thank You for continuing to Guide me in Your Grace.  I am but clay in Your Skillful Hands, eager to be molded into a form which can best serve Your Will.  Amen.

~Phather Phil