Hearken, O Daughter (Sister) 8 January 2002 Dear Sisters I wanted to share with you something that has been heavy on my heart of late. This heaviness has affected my health, as well as my own family life. Remember I told you how my brother and his family had arrived in Australia ~ miraculously, from South Africa, after almost three years of toil and forms and red tape? Almost a year has passed since their arrival. I know I am blessed to have them here, and I am in awe how the Lord has allowed all this to happen ~ He has heard my cry. "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry" Psalm 40:1 I know that my feeble praises for the Lord could never magnify Him the way He should be magnified. For I know that.... "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which though hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered " Psalm 40:5 My brother and his family live different lives to ours. Many problems have arisen in their lives. Because they are my family, and I care for them, their problems affect me. They affect our parents. We have done our best to help them. However, they have chosen the path they want to take, and there is nothing we can do to help. Only pray. I say "only pray", and yet ~ this is the most powerful help I can offer. My prayers to the Lord God ~ for them! To make intercession for them. Sometimes, I have been afraid to speak the truth to them. "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another" Ephesians 4:25 Sometimes, I have been angry with them. "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" Ephesians 4:26 Sometimes, I have been bitter with them. "Let all bitterness, and wrath and anger, and clamour and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice...." Ephesians 4:31 Again I have cried to the Lord and He has heard me, and spoken ~ through His word: "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" Ephesians 5: 17. But what, pray, is the will of the Lord in this case? In what way could I be wise? How 'involved' need I be, must I be in the affairs ~ the problems of my extended family? Even though I haven't spent much time with them, they have been in my waking thoughts and prayers. I have been consumed with their woes. I have felt guilty, as it was *I* who pursued their visa. I tell you this now, as I type, but it is only of late that this fact has become a reality to me...... "I have to tell you, Doll, ~ I need you ~ we need you", my husband lovingly told me as we sat, sipping coffee on the back veranda, just three days ago. "But I am here for you. For all of you......" "You may be here in body, but not in spirit. I feel that we are competing with your family for your love and attention. Even though you are at home, I know that your thoughts are elsewhere, you are hurting for them. In the meantime, your children need their mamma. Your time and energy is consumed with them, resulting in exhaustion when it comes to us. We are your family now." What a wake-up call that was. But I praise the Lord that He has blessed me with a husband, who has been the love of my life since age 14 (right, Kay? ~ my aunt-in-law is on this list, too!). All that he said is true. Totally. I now know this. Perhaps I knew it before, but didn't come to the enormous realisation, the absolute conscious acknowledgement of what was happening. Oh, Sisters ~ it is freeing to be told the truth, to recognise it, to accept it. And what's more ~ for the truth to be confirmed from the Word of God: "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house: So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him" Psalm 45:10-11 How do I worship my Lord? By obedience ~ getting my priorities straight: God Husband Children Church and others Thankyou, Lord ~ O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Love Helen |