"You anoint my head with oil." Psalm 23:5
It’s often the small things that
are my undoing. I know to gather my strength and to pray for life’s large
challenges but what about the petty annoyances that come every day, every hour
and even every minute?
In our research for The Shepherd’s
Song, we learned about the anointing of the sheep from a book by Phillip
Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. The shepherd would anoint the
sheep’s head with oil for protection against annoying and dangerous gnats and
flies.
"Only
the strictest attention to the behavior of the sheep can forestall the
difficulties of 'fly time'. At the very first sign of flies among the
flock he will apply an antidote to their heads. I always preferred to use a
homemade remedy composed of linseed oil sulfur, and tar, which was smeared over
the sheep’s nose and head as a protection against nose flies."
Oh, those pesky nose flies! What are they in your life? One more phone call? The hole in the new
sweater? Milk is out? Cut off in
traffic? The little things can grate on us and pull down our mood. We need the
Shepherd’s protection.
"Once
the oil had been applied to the sheep’s head, there was an immediate change in
behavior. Gone was the aggravation, gone the frenzy, gone the
irritability, and the restlessness."
How can
we position ourselves for that anointing of oil that brings peace and releases
the “aggravation, frenzy, irritability and restlessness”? Just a moment in the Word can change our
mindset to focus on the important things in life, loving my family, serving
others, sharing Christ.
Look at
a scripture message pasted on the fridge:
Be anxious about nothing…
Carry a
card with God’s Word in your wallet: Come
to Me all who are weary…
Post a scripture
message on your mirror: For God so
loved the world…
The daily anointing of God’s Word
protects us from the small things that can pull us off track.
Keller adds a prayer that he
prays when he encounters irritations:
“O
Lord, I can’t cope with these petty, annoying, peevish problems. Please
apply the oil of your Spirit to my mind. Both at the conscious and
subconscious levels of my thought life enable me to act and react just as you
would.”
We need that! How do you deal with
life’s small irritations?
The
Writing Sisters, Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers were born into a writing family,
and began critiquing manuscripts at an early age for their mother, Newbery
winner Betsy Byars. They went on to become authors of more than
thirty-five children’s novels. Their first book for adults is The Shepherd’s Song,
Howard Books, March 2014.
Back Copy:
Follow the incredible journey of one
piece of paper—a copy of Psalm 23—as it travels around the world, linking lives
and hearts with its simple but beautiful message.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not
want. He makes me lie down in green pastures…
Shortly before a tragic car accident,
Kate McConnell wrote down the powerful words of Psalm 23 on a piece of paper
for her wayward son. Just before she loses consciousness, Kate wonders if she’s
done enough with her life and prays, “Please, let my life count.”
Unbeknownst to Kate, her handwritten
copy of Psalm 23 soon begins a remarkable journey around the world. From a
lonely dry cleaning employee to a soldier wounded in Iraq, to a young Kurdish
girl fleeing her country, to a Kenyan runner in the Rome Invitational marathon,
this humble message forever changes the lives of twelve very different people.
Eventually, Kate’s paper makes it back to its starting place, and she discovers
the unexpected ways that God changes lives, even through the smallest gestures.
With beautiful prose evocative of
master storyteller Andy Andrews’s The Butterfly Effect, this story will
touch your heart and remind you of the ways God works through us to reach
beyond what we can imagine.
