(06.23.21– A Faith That Feels!--Genesis 27:21)
My friend, may I ask you a question? As our children grow, the excitement they generate as babies, fades and the times become fewer and fewer when we give direct expression to our love. Besides, what good is a hug to a strapping 18-year old?
My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day.
I'm M. Clifford Brunner.
Years ago there was an ad campaign that swept the country. It hit the billboards, car bumpers, print ads and television stations. The images of the campaign showed a little girl looking upward with big innocent eyes and a longing expression on her face. The words were, simply, "Have you hugged your kid today?" The message was not simply to remind us that children need to be hugged. It is also carried the suggestion that, as parents, we often take our children for granted.
As our children grow, the excitement they generate as babies, fades and the times become fewer and fewer when we give direct expression to our love. Besides, what good is a hug to a strapping 18-year old?
Here's a story: In a South American orphanage, 97 children were deprived of emotional and physical contact with others. Because of a lack of funds, there was not enough staff to adequately care for these children, ages 3 months to 3 years old. Nurses changed diapers and fed and bathed the children. But there was little time to touch them as a mother would. After three months many of them showed signs of abnormality. Besides a loss of appetite and being unable to sleep well, many of the children lay with a vacant expression in their eyes. After five months, serious deterioration set in. They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted faces. Often, when a doctor or nurse would pick up an infant, it would scream in terror. Almost one third of the children, twenty-seven, died the first year, but not from lack of food or health care. They died of a lack of touch and emotional nurture. (Charles Sell, Unfinished Business, Multnomah, 1989, p. 39.)
The fact is, human beings need touch; especially as children but even as important as adults. God made us to be touched, comforted, and part of a community. We need to touch one another, not only for the good of others but also for our own good. Touching others gives us the ability to reaffirm attachments and calm our own troubled hearts. In a society where touch has become so taboo, the urgency has never been so critical. Reach out and touch someone today, even if he is your kid and he's three inches taller than you. It will do you both a whole lot of good.
We pray. Heavenly Father, we know that human beings need touch; especially as children but even as important as adults. God made us to be touched, comforted, and part of a community. We need to touch one another, not only for the good of others but also for our own good. Forgive us Lord when we fear our own spaces more than we fear Your Word and fail to show Your love in word as well as touch. Touching others gives us the ability to reaffirm attachments and calm our own troubled hearts. In a society where touch has become so taboo, the urgency has never been so critical. Help us by Your Spirit to reach out and touch someone today, especially our children. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!
Therefore my friend, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry for itself; each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34) This Passing Day. May this passing day honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be a blessing to you and everyone you meet. Find a stranger and say hello. Don't let another day pass without your day blessing someone else.
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<thispassingday@gmail.com> From Beech Springs, God bless you for Jesus sake.