Brave Little Hannah

You wouldn't know she had broken her wrist.

 She biked, cast and all.

She learned to do a lot with her left hand--such as stirring pickle brine.

 And measuring spices into the brine.

 She fixed up her little rocking chair that Grandma Lucas had given her for her birthday, all soft with pillows, and tried to sweep up sawdust around the wood stove.

 "Let's see if I can use this 'wooden' arm at all."

 Well, seeing that was almost useless, let's combine left hand with left foot.

 We don't have to encourage our children to be a victim just because something unfortunate happened to them. They can always do something. 

How about tossing apples into the big pot to wash them?

 We find something she can do to help while we cut up a bushel and a half of apples for applesauce and pie slices, and of course, Hannah must sample an apple, too.

 Because you can choose whether you lie in bed bemoaning your circumstances and all your hard luck. You can spend your life blaming others for how they have treated or ruined you, and you can always figure out why it was the other guy's fault.

You can always choose to be a victim.

 Or you can forget about your handicap, your bad luck, your hard knocks, your injuries, your mistreatments by other people, and go happily about 

the next step,

the next thing,

the next day. 

 It can be a new day--and it may take some flitting from flower to flower, till you find the one that has the best nectar.

 You might need to take your leave of situations and thought processes where there is

 no nectar--just nets

 to get you in tangles.

 And maybe you won't always do everything just perfectly right all the time, and maybe you'll make a lot of mistakes,

and new habits take time to develop,

 but you can choose to drink deep of the nectar of life, 

 the love of God, the assurance of His presence.

You can search for a Psalm for your particular need--and find one more than adequate for prayer and praise.

 You can sort through what life offers you, and discard the bad,

but keep the good.

Keep the good.

 Keep the good.

You don't have to be a victim. You don't have to be a present mess because of past injuries.

So until complete healing takes place, we find useful things for Hannah to help with.

And she finds fun things to do with her left hand. and the fingers of her right, and even with her feet!

And "a little child shall lead them."