THE POWER TO BLESS

I knew a man once who was pastor of a church in north Georgia. Robert had had a hard time in his growing up years. The family was poor to begin with, and when Robert was quite young, his father died. As the youngest of a large family, this loss was particularly hard. Money was always tight, and he suffered not only the loss of a father, but in a sense of a mother too, as her work schedule meant that she very little time for him in his formative years.  

Robert dealt with this by failing at everything he undertook. He flunked out of school, failed at several jobs, and fell victim to alcohol and petty crime. When he was sent to prison, his wife took their children and divorced him. 

Finally, something happened, and Robert was able to turn the corner and begin the hard task of re-building his life. He completed college and then theological seminary, and was ordained to the gospel ministry!  

After a couple of years, he met, fell in love with and married a lovely woman. Debbie had been married before, and had a seven-year-old daughter. Ruthie had had Mom all to herself for some years now, and there was NO WAY she wanted some stranger to break up their very special relationship. Robert was a threat, and Ruthie set out to make life miserable for him. She, snubbed him, insulted him refused to take anything he said seriously, and generally made life as difficult as possible. 

Robert knew that to make an issue of this would only make things worse, so he never reprimanded her, and assured Debbie that this was only to be expected. But at a deeper level, Robert knew that in his previous marriage, he had been a poor husband and a poor father – and every time Ruthie jabbed at him, it touched a vulnerable area, and hurt him deeply. 

One day, the three of them were at a school picnic. Ruthie brought over a friend to meet her Mom. Robert, as usual, stood aside and let Ruthie have center stage.  

After some moments, Ruthie turned to him, and said with a shy warmth in her voice, “This is my Daddy,” 

Robert said he managed not to cry, but found those few words to be overwhelming. Finally, he had been accepted, he had been forgiven. He felt the power of this seven-year-old girl to bless him.