WARTS!

10-11-12...I keep counting...oh my, this is just disqusting! And the answers remain the same, "just keep trying the liquid film that we prescribed to you...eventually they will clear up."

My daughter, Faith, doesn't seem to be phased by the 12+ warts covering her hands. She knows we have been praying for months for God to heal her and take away the warts, but she goes on with her day, swimming, playing, and wanting to hold hands with friends and family. The warts don't phase her daily life, they don't even phase her faith in God. She tells me one night as I tuck her in, "Well Mommy, I guess God is just busy healing other people."

Now, me on the other hand, I am consumed by these warts. I find them disqusting and gross. I question God's plan...I mean really, Lord, why does my seven year old have to have these? Why must she deal with these? Why must her hand be covered? My faith is rattled just a bit to be honest. I don't understand His thinking on this one. I don't understand why He doesn't just remove them from her. He has the power right? His word tells us He can. So, how come when I close my eyes, and I pray with all my heart, in the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, the ULTIMATE HEALER, how come when I open my eyes...they are still there? Huh God...how come????

Today, the answer jumps out at me while I sip my coffee and browse the shelves of the Christian bookstore. In the pages of a book on conversations you must have with your daughter, these words slap me square in the face:

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

Proverbs 31:30

You see...the warts are not a problem for Faith! They do not phase her in the least. She spends almost zero time thinking about these warts on her hand. But...I do! I am focused on outward beauty. I am the one who goes to the swimming pool and scours the pavement for other women who look better than I in their black bikinis or those whom I feel "really have no business wearing a bikini!" I am the one who is disturbed by the warts. I am the one who is looking outwardly and not inwardly at my daughter's beauty.

You see, Faith has the biggest, kindest heart of any person I have ever met. She stood at the Walmart aisle and did rock, paper, scissors with her brother to determine who would get to choose the color of the bubble bath. And then when she won, she chose the color he wanted! Her heart brings tears to my eyes. She is the little girl who took popsicle sticks and wrote the names of every child she knew at the orphanage in Africa. Daily she chooses a popsicle stick and prays for that child. She has never met them in person. She maybe never will. Yet she prays for them from her heart and means every word!

You see, today, at the bookstore, I realized Faith's warts have nothing to do with Faith or her belief in God, but everything to do with me!  I am humbled and convicted today to realize that my eyes had been on the external when they should always remain on the internal!

Praise be to our God who gave me a little girl with 15+ warts and a heart who loves the Lord!!!