 |
| photo credit |
I hope you all had a great weekend and that you had some great praises to write down!
Today I want to talk to you all about Fanny Crosby. You might of heard of her before, she is a famous writer who wrote many poems and more than 9,000 hymns. Now that's a lot of hymns for anyone to write but add to it the fact that she was blind, and now you see why we're talking about her today.
I received a copy of Fanny Crosby's Story, by S. Trevena Jackson, from my church. Someone left it on a table for people to take, and so I did. Then in our quiet time I started reading it to my girls. I was immediately inspired.
At the tender age of 6 weeks old she lost her sight, and from that point on needed to be cared for very carefully. As soon as Fanny's grandmother heard that she would not have her sight she came to live with the family. Fanny is recorded as saying :
"My gradnmother was more than I can ever express by word or pen. When she knew that her little granddaughter was to be sightless for life, she sought to make up for the loss of my eyes by coming to our home, taking me on her knee and rocking me while she told me of the beautiful sun, with its sunrise and its sunset" (pg 29)
What devotion her grandmother showed! I'm sure any of us could volunteer to do that for a little while, but for a life time? I'm not sure I would make it. Sure I could love on this child and be there, but to literally be her eyes.... That is the love of Christ.
Not only did her grandmother act as her eyes she also introduced her to the Bible!
"It was Grandma who brought the Bible to me, and me to the Bible. The stories of the Holy Book came from her lips and entered my heart and took deep root there." (pg 33)Because of the devotion of her sweet Grandma, Fanny was able to learn to love the Lord and cling to him. Her mother also encouraged her, and told her that:
"...two of the world's greatest poets were blind, and that sometimes Providence deprived persons of some physical faculty in order that the spiritual insight might more fully awake." (pg 26)
It was after the hearing of Milton's sonnet on his blindness that the Lord gave something to the young Fanny Croby.
"...I made up my mind to store away a little jewel in my heart, which I called Content. This has been the comfort of my whole life." (pg 27)
At just 8 years old she wrote this poem:
O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Content I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy,
That other people don't.
To weep and sigh because I'm blind,
I cannot, and I won't.
I've never had any major injuries or anything really debilitating happen to me (unless you count morning sickness) but I know how am now, without any of those issues. Content is not a word that can be used to describe me. I'm usually pleasant and happy with what I have, but if you hang around me long enough you would most definitely hear me complain about something. But how much more would the Lord use us if we would just learn to be content?
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. -1 Timothy 6:8
Who knows if you are called to be a Fanny or if you are called to be "Grandma". God can and will use us all differently. So today I encourage you to be content right where He has you. I encourage you to praise God for all that He has given you and to only focus on those things. **This is convicting me as I type it! I am so guilty of complaining about not having a dishwasher. It's such a small thing having a dishwasher. I have food to eat and dishes to eat off of! I should be happy to clean them so that my family would have clean dishes to enjoy the meals I prepare. So I'm confessing and forsaking this area of discontentment today! And I'm sure as the week goes on I will think of other areas also.
What are you willing to confess and forsake?
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. -Hebrews 13:5
Don't forget, if you plan on joining in or share about this on you're blog please use this button:
I think I have read Fanny's poem somewhere before. It sounds so familiar! Anyway, on to the topic. I don't the I've mastered the art of contentment, but I can't think of anything I've been complaining about lately either. I'm probably just having trouble thinking of examples of anything because I stayed up too late last night. This will have to be one of those lessons I store away for future reference. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, P.S. I wasn't sure when we were supposed to start writing down praises, so I just started on my own a couple nights ago. It's been going really well so far, and I think it will only get better over time.
It's good to be content so if you feel you are that's a praise! :o)
DeleteWe were supposed to start writing praises on friday. It's been a blessing to me as well. Especially since friday and saturday weren't great days! I really had to search for those praises lol