Little Girl

His Little Girl
by Christina

Upon your birth He gazed down with a love that only a Father could express. In this tiny little package, this bundle of joy, rest the hopes of future plans. God has so much in store for you, so many things yet to come, so many dreams yet to be fulfilled, but now was not the time. Now was the time for Him to say, "This is the little girl I love."

As you grew your life was shaped and molded. You did not know it at the time for you were just working on one day at a time. Learning to crawl, walk, talk, and love were your all consuming thoughts. However, God used each step to begin to prepare you, to mold you and shape you into the woman that you would one day become. At times those steps were hard and painful for you to take, and He wished that you did not have to go through them. Yet at the same time, He knew they would help prepare you for what was ahead, future plans still unknown to you. With each painful and each joyous step you took He looked from above and said, "This is the little girl I love."

Throughout your life He molded you. Like a blob of clay upon the potter's wheel, He worked with you. He taught you how to accept people for who they are. He taught you how to love the unlovely. He taught you to do more than you ever thought possible. He taught you how to wear many hats. He gave you special abilities you would need for the future. He removed things from your life that would hinder your path. He chipped away at your heart preparing it for what lie ahead. He did all this because He knew that one day you would be called for a special purpose, a special role, that not all can fill. It was all a part of His plan for you, and throughout it all He looked from above and said, "This is the little girl I love."

Now as a woman you are in the place He prepared for you so long ago. You are the Pastor's wife. You are in this role for a reason, at this time in life to fulfill a special purpose. He knew that you were the one that could fill this position like no one else could. He knows that it is not always an easy position, and He knows that there are times that you will feel sad, lonely, rejected, frustrated, hurt, and unloved. However, there are also those times when you will feel blessed like no other, used in ways that will change lives and hearts forever, and when you will feel the love of a Heavenly Father surrounding you. He will be there for you. Through the good times and the bad, through the elation and the rejection. It was the plan He had for you on that first day when you entered this world. It was what He had prepared you for all your life. He knows your failures and your shortcomings. He will continue to mold you and shape you on into the future. He knows what will be needed along the way and He will always be there. He will continue to be there as you continue in this role and all the while He will look from above and say, "This is the little girl I love."

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well....Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
Psalm 139: 14,16
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Thoughts on refining..

In Deut. 9:3 Moses was saying that the Lord goes before as a consuming fire. Zec. 2:5 says "He will be a wall of fire about us". In ancient times, Drusius believed that the wall of fire was a metaphor taken from travelers in foreign countries. They would kindle fires about their tents, to keep away the lions and other wild beasts of prey. He observed of lions in particular, that they were exceedingly terrified of fire. [(The devil as a roaring lion...)] Only on occasion would they abandon their fear and leap through the flames and grab a sheep or a goat. So much afraid were they of the fire that it became a custom to light fires in the night.
It is also very interesting to note that not only is the devil as a roaring lion, but consider the positive side of this illustration. The enemy knows that we will go through the fire. In fact, he taunts us as we begin to feel the heat! But he knows, also, that we are his worst nightmare when we have come through the fire, when we have become a little bit more pliable to the Holy spirit's work in our lives, and when we have become a little bit more like The One who will someday cast that enemy into the lake of fire!
Moses was in the wilderness, and God spoke to him from a burning bush. When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, the Lord was to them a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. In II Kings, horses and chariots of fire surrounded Elisha and his men. Even the Jewish Targum records this of the Word of God, "My Word shall be unto her as a wall of fire, compassing her round about."
Hebrews 12:29 reads, "For our God is a consuming fire." It is consuming because it burns up anything that stands between Him and our affections. When we find that we are in the wilderness, the lions are stalking on every side, it is dry. We are thirsty. Just remember, when we have come out of the fire, out of the wilderness, we will be stronger, bolder, more like Jesus, and our victory will be sweet. Truly, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold".....Job 23:10