Helen,
God bless.  May the Lord guide you as you walk through this time with your 
sister.

    Vinny
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 12:16 PM
Subject: Hammered


> Hitting The Nail On The Head
>
>
> By Phil Scovell
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     Due to a recent embarrassing memory that came to mind, I have
> begun allowing other such memories surface to let the Lord renew
> my mind in hurting places.
>
>     One such memory had to do with the first day at the school
> for the blind.  I was 12 years old and had only been blind for a
> couple of weeks when I began attending the school for the blind in
> the state where I lived.
>
>     One of my classes that first day, was an hour of shop.  I was
> the only student because it was the last class of the day.  the
> shop teacher, a very kind man and who was always fun to be around,
> took his time to show me around the shop.  I remember one specific
> experience that embarrassed me a great deal.  I have always tried
> dismissing this memory, and its uncomfortable feeling, because I
> thought the focus was on my embarrassment.  It wasn't.  It was, I
> know now, on my blindness.  Here's what happened.
>
>     As the shop teacher showed me around the large shop room, he
> allowed me to feel each of the large and small power tools.
> Stopping at a plays where several tools were hanging, he
> described the tool cabinet and then he placed one of my hands on
> the handle of a tool and asked me if I knew what it was.  His hand
> was covering mine so I couldn't move my hand to touch the other
> end of the tool.  There wasn't a tool in the shop I hadn't seen
> before going blind because my dad was a good carpenter and we had
> everything a builder could think of in our tool shed.  I was
> familiar with them all and used most all of them at one time or
> another.  Since he held my hand against the tool handle, I said
> nothing at first.  He said, "I'm sorry."  That confused me even
> more.  If he would have let me touch the rest of the tool, I could
> have easily told him what it was.  Yet, he kept his hand over mind
> which prevented me from examining the hand tool for myself.  "I'm
> sorry," he said again as I hesitated.  Now I felt stupid because
> it felt as if he thought I should know this tool without
> hesitation.  Finally I just guessed and asked if it was a hatchet.
> He again said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.  It's a hammer."  Now I felt
> even worse.  I wanted to scream, "I know what a hammer was but you
> wouldn't let me feel it."
>
>     For years, I ignored, and otherwise pushed away, this memory
> as just being part of life.  After all, I had just lost my sight
> after six months and more than a dozen eye operations.  I had just
> left home for basically the first time in my life and was in a
> horrible place that I did not want to be.  I was homesick and felt
> as if I were dying inside.
>
>     When the Lord recently brought healing into my life related
> to another situation of embarrassment relating to my blindness, I
> thought I should stop and look at this childhood memory of
> embarrassment and see if the Lord had anything to say to me about
> it.  He did.  As I focused on the memory, the embarrassment of not
> being allowed to identify the hammer for what it was, the
> homesickness, the blindness, and everything that went along with
> it, in my childhood memory that occurred more than 40 years ago, I
> suddenly saw Jesus standing about 10 feet away in front of the
> shop fire doors that led to the outside.  I had forgotten those
> doors even existed until I saw Jesus standing there.  Nothing was
> said audibly but I felt the words coming from the True Lord Jesus.
> He was saying, "I was there, even though you didn't see me, and
> you did nothing wrong.  It was the teachers fault for not allowing
> you to feel the rest of the tool."  Now, every time that memory
> pops up in my thoughts, I see Jesus standing close by and making
> sure I know He is there.
>
>     Is Jesus there for you?  Does He stand in the places that
> hurt or that are fearful or that are sad?  Yes, He can renew your
> mind so that even such childhood embarrassing moments can be
> healed.  Jesus can fill your life because He is the Alpha and
> Omega; the First and the Last of your life.
>
>
>
> He's ready when you are.
> www.SafePlaceFellowship.com