Swing your sword
Its almost midnight and I have just returned from my daughters house and I should go to bed but I have to write about the beautiful spirit I encountered there and how she is “swinging her sword”.
The beautiful spirit is only five years old.
Her name is Eevie. She was at school today and had to go to the nurses office…to get a puff because she was having a hard time breathing. The second time she had to go to the nurses office they decided to send her home.
Her mom told me on the phone that evening, that Eevie was having a hard time relaxing and breathing and I asked to come over.
On the way out of the door I grabbed the book of the song by Guns and Roses, “sweet child O mine”.
When I arrived at the quiet house, dark so the children could sleep, I gave little miss a hug and asked her if she wanted me to read that book. She said yes, and in spite of her obvious discomfort and difficulties, she tried to follow along.
At the part where the book says “to pray for the thunder and the rain to finally pass me by” I asked her what she thought the thunder was representing and after some discussion we decided that her difficulties breathing could be analogous to thunder …and that she could pray to have it “pass her by”. I told her that it did not have to even touch her, and showed her the picture of the rain OUTSIDE the house, but the little girl was on the inside, safe and protected.
That is when she told me that she DID pray, when she was in the nurses office. She said that she asked the nurse if she knew how to pray and the nurse said no, so Eevie taught her to pray “dear God, thank you for this ___, I love you Amen.
To me, it was this prayer, this show of faith in a difficult time, that gave her strength to endure…and it really to me is amazing her spiritual strength and how that awareness does not seem to depend on her size or her young age.
I played the song for her that went with the book and found out her mom loves the song too. Eevie watched the video and said that the people singing it were “rock stars” which made me laugh.
I gave her a bottle of water and she drank ten gulps and gradually settled down into a peaceful rhythm and then I quietly left..promising in a whisper, to come back and read another book the next day as her weary parents tumbled into bed with her.
On the way home, Joel Olsteen was talking about how when there is trouble, it is not enough to wait on the Lord, it is important to take action and show faith. His example was David, and how David proclaimed God’s favor on him against Goliath for the battle that was to come. David had to proclaim it, and that trust or faith was how David was “swinging his sword”.
Yes Joel, I agree, and it is no surprise to me that Eevie, teaching a stranger a prayer without reservation, is her “swinging her sword”, enabling the resulting blessings on her life, for which I am so grateful.