Purposing to be Still

We discovered last week that our sweet puppy, Huck, had developed an ear infection. After his constant clawing at his ear, I finally took a look in his ear and was shocked to see how red it was on the inside. Apparently it’s not uncommon for a dog to get an ear infection, and our vet quickly set us on the right track to getting his ear well. It would require drops in that ear for a week and a good ear massage after each application to make sure the medicine settled well in his ear. After the first couple of days, his ear appeared to be the same. It was still just as red as when we took him in to be examined, but after continued use of the medicine, his ear is beginning to look back to normal. The trickiest part in treating Huck has been getting him to be still long enough to get the medicine in and rub the outside of his ear long enough before he tries to shake all the medicine out. As I have made attempts to pacify Huck and to keep him still long enough to treat his ear, I find myself being able to relate to his restlessness and resistance to being still.
Being still is hard for me and it’s been an ongoing lesson I have been in for quite some time. When I was a very young teen, I battled a lot of things people should never have deal with and endured hardships that left my heart wrenched and aching. I journaled a lot during this time of my life and the pages of my journal were often stained by tears that would fall continuously as I wrote. Although I do not believe I was truly saved until several years later, I would find myself praying a lot during this time, and there was a seeking and longing in my heart to be filled with Jesus.
I look back on this particular season, and I realized I was, in fact, stopping and being still before the Lord often. Not many people in my life understood my pain, my confusion, and how lost and lonely I was, but God did. God saw every tear, He heard every utterance I made, and He saw the wounds that greatly afflicted my heart. I whole heartily believe that even then, at 14 years old, God began pouring out His grace and mercy upon me in those moments when I found myself, knelt on the floor, writing in my journal, and crying out before Him. In these moments knelt before the Lord, I believe small amounts of healing were already beginning to take place, although still unseen, because in the presence of the Lord and being still before Him, there is healing to be found.
Although looking back and remembering certain times of life can sometimes be extremely painful, I am learning to look back with the intent of seeing the evidences of God’s presence and ways that He was already at work. In hard, painful moments, there is always beauty and hope woven through out by the hands of God. We just have to have the unveiling of our eyes to see! I thank God for the lessons I can obtain by remembering the powerful moments of being still before Him and how He faithfully has provided healing every time I have stopped with the purpose of being still before Him.