“My Grace Is Sufficient for Thee”
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
Through all my sickness the last eight months, [WRITTEN DURING ELLEN WHITE’S LONG ILLNESS IN AUSTRALIA.] I have had during my sleepless hours the most precious contemplations of the love of God to man, expressed in the wonderful sacrifice made to save him from ruin. I loved to repeat the name of Jesus; how full of sweetness, light, and love it is! Looking upon the cross, at the humiliations and sufferings endured in bearing our sins, that His righteousness might be imputed to us, softens the heart and fills the soul with His love. . . .
When pain has seemed to be almost unbearable, I have looked to Jesus and prayed most earnestly, and He has been beside me, and the darkness has passed away and all has seemed light. The very air seemed like precious fragrance. How glorious seemed the truth! How uplifting! I could rest in the love of Jesus. Pain was still my portion, but the promise, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” was enough to give me comfort. The sharpest pains seemed to be converted into peace and rest. For hours in the night season I have had sweet communion with God. My mind seemed to be illuminated. I had no disposition to murmur or complain.
Jesus was the spring of my hope and my joy and courage. Heaven has seemed to be very near, and Christ the great Physician, my restorer, the remedy of all sickness. In Him all fullness dwells. Jesus is music to my ears, and although drinking the cup of suffering, the water of life was presented to me to quench my thirst. Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. Through these months of suffering I have had such precious views of the goodness of Jesus that I want them never to become dim. I believe now that my sickness in this strange country is a part of God’s plan. . . . How urgently my soul pleads for the heavenly endowment. Of myself I can do nothing. The power and the glory is all of God.
That I May Know Him p. 283
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Prayer Requests
—–Rebecca is doing much better and will be released from the hospital soon. Please continue to pray for her. Rose
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Dear Friends,
As a child, my school days were quite unhappy. I have had a life-long weight problem and my kindergarten teacher did all that she could to ridicule me in front of the other children. She would have me walk beside the tiniest girl in the class and make unkind comments about my size. Perhaps she thought that would make me want to lose weight, but all it did was teach the other children that it was alright to tease and torment people who are fat. My classmates learned their lesson well—as long as I went to that school they teased and tormented me.
There was only one person who did not tease me. A boy named Wade Timothy Huffstutter was always nice to me, and I appreciated his kindness more than he realized. He would play with me when the other children shunned me. He knew how it felt to be teased. Our classmates would sing a tormenting song to him. “Wade, wade, wade in the mud.” Oh, how he hated that. I would get upset and try to get them to stop. Now they were making two people miserable. What joy they felt! That kindergarten teacher’s lesson had become a way of life for them. They acted out her example many times over in the five years I went to that school. I can only wonder how many years her example continued to influence them.
How careful we should be to teach children only good and never evil. Our actions, our words, the unconscious lessons we teach by our example become affect those little ones’ lives for right or for wrong. They are influenced by what they see and hear and model it. Indeed, our influence is strengthened from generation to generation. Jesus warns, “whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matt 18:6 What greater offense can there be than to teach evil habits by precept or example? How earnest we should be to lead them to the Saviour Who loves them so.
Solomon advises, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov 22:6 Our Great Creator commands us how we should train our children, “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deut 4:9;6:6, 7
Paul’s admonition should also be our guide not only in our own life but in training the little ones under our influence. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil 4:8
May we be careful in our dealings with the children around us. May we carefully lead them to the Master’s feet. May we reflect the kindness and love of our wonderful Savior to these little ones, that they may, in turn, reflect the Light of the World to all around is my prayer.
Rose