We wanted to take a moment to wish all of our readers a blessed Father's Day. Below are some words of encouragement from scripture, as well as a story from Timeless Stories by Vance Christie..
"And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”-Malachi 4:6
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”-Joshua 1:9
"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him."-Psalm 103:13
"My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights."-Proverbs 3:11-12
"What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”-Luke 11:11-13
All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001)
Praying for a HankieONE morning while a prisoner at Ravensbruck, Corrie ten Boom awoke with a bad cold. Back in her homeland, with a hankie to use for blowing her nose, she would have easily adjusted to the infirmity. But in the concentration camp, without so much as a hankie, she felt she could not bear her cold and runny nose.
“Well, why don’t you pray for a hankie?” suggested her sister, Betsie.
Corrie wanted to laugh. There they were imprisoned in a camp where thousands of people each week were being executed or put through unbearable suffering. ‘And Betsie suggests I pray for a hankie!’ she thought. ‘If I were to pray for anything, it would be for something big, not something little like that.’
Betsie, however, immediately and simply prayed: ‘Father, in the name of Jesus I now pray for a hankie for Corrie, because she has a bad cold.’
Corrie shook her head and walked away. A short while later she was standing by the window of her barracks when she heard someone call her name. Looking out, she spotted a friend and fellow-prisoner who worked in the camps hospital approaching her.
‘Here you are’, the woman said to Corrie in a matter-of-fact tone as she extended a small package to her. ‘Take it. I bring you a little present.’
Corrie could hardly believe her eyes when she opened the small parcel it contained a handkerchief! ‘How did you know?’ she queried. ‘Did Betsie tell you? Did you know I had a cold?’
The woman shrugged, then revealed,’ I know nothing. I was busy sewing handkerchiefs out of an old piece of sheet, and there was a voice in my heart saying, “Take a hankie to Corrie ten Boom.” So, there is your gift, from God.’
Later Corrie commented: ‘That pocket handkerchief, made from an old piece of sheet, was a message from heaven for me. It told me that there is a heavenly Father who hears, even if one of His children on this little planet prays for a tiny little thing like a hankie. Not only does He hear, but He speaks to another of His children and says, “Bring a hankie to Corrie ten Boom.”’
-Excerpted from Timeless Stories by Vance Christie
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