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July 1, 2002 Dear Gabby,
I so enjoy your column! My problem is this: I have been under a doctor's care for
treatment of a serious illness that requires me to take medication. With
medication, the illness is kept in check. Recently, we had a visiting minister
and I was prayed for in a very powerful service. I believe I was healed. (I
truly felt a touch from God). My question is: Do I stop taking the medication as a way of
confirming that I believe in my healing? Do I go off the medication on my own?
Do I tell my doctor I want to go off and do so with his supervision? If I did
the latter, he would say I'm nuts because my condition is genetic and I've been
told by more than one physician that I will have to be on the medicine for the
rest of my natural life. In your opinion, what would Jesus do? Healed in Houston
Dear Ms. Houston,
Spelling was the most difficult subject at school for my
little brown-eyed daughter Kristy, especially in her first three years of
school. She knew it was important to me so she worked hard to learn to spell the
words in her weekly assignment. Every night, after working on her arithmetic and
her science and social studies lessons, she’d take out her workbook and
practice spelling the words. She saved spelling for last because she knew it was
her poorest subject and getting the words incorrect always made her unhappy. The problem was that no matter how hard she studied alone
and no matter how many times I gave her practice tests, she always spelled two
or three of the words wrong. We’d work on them some more until she was
prepared. She always thought she knew them when she skipped off to the school
bus on Friday mornings. In the afternoon, though, I’d watch out the window as
the bus dropped her off, and, invariably, she’d be drooping, with a look of
despair about her lovely brown eyes. We tried many different things to help her learn to spell
the words, and most of it workedjust not for every word on every list.
No matter how hard she tried, the highest grade she ever received on a spelling
test was 80 percent. That is, until third grade. To this day, I don’t really
know the reason why. I suspect that it had to do with her maturing brain or
something, but I’ll never forget her first 100 percent spelling test! We were studying at the old kitchen table that rainy
Thursday afternoon in early fall. Freshly baked peanut butter cookies were
cooling on the counter and a glass of milk sweated beside Kristy’s books. The
list of words was there in front of her, and, for some unexplained reason,
Kristy seemed less tense with the subject. Maybe it was the warm cookies. I have
to admit, homemade cookies always make me less
anxious and, I’d already eaten one during arithmetic and one during science!
Spelling was all that was left, along with a few more cookies. All the words on each list had a similar pattern. That week
she was learning the “i-g-h-t” words. You know, words like, light,
night, fight, tight,
and so on. This time, even though the words contained the silent and irregular
“g” and “h,” she saw the pattern right away. And no matter which word I
asked her, she spelled it correctly. I tried to fool her by asking them out of
order. That didn’t bother her. She began to sit up and her voice became more
assured. “Right,” I said, glancing over at the cookies,
wondering if my hips could take one more. “R-i-g-h-t,” she spelled. “Flight.” “F-l-i-g-h-t.”’’ “Slight.” “I know them all! I know I do! S-l-i-g-h-t! Night, N-i-g-h-t.
Tight, T-i-g-h-t! See, I know them all!” “Yes,” I answered, less positive than she. “I’m going to school tomorrow and the first thing I’m
going to do is tell Miss Edgerton that I don’t need to take the test because
I’m sure I’ll get all the answers right.” “Now wait a minute,” I said sternly, reaching for my
third cookie. “Of course you have to take the test.” “But, why?” she asked. “I know them all. You know I
know them.” “You do seem to know them all. But, until you take the
spelling test, you have no proof.” “Miss Edgerton will believe me! She’s a nice
teacher.” I sighed, took a sip of her milk (and remembered
immediately why I don’t like milk). “Taking your weekly spelling test has nothing whatsoever
to do with whether or not Miss Edgerton is nice or not. It has everything to do
with showing evidence of what you know.” “Evidence? What do you mean?” “Yes, evidence,” I answered, swallowing the last bite.
“Corroboration, confirmation, substantiation.” There were times when my
advancing years combined with all the knowledge I’d collected made me sound
more like a textbook than a mom. Kristy decided to eat her cookie, because she
knew that I’d be awhile. “It’s important to have validation when you know
something. Knowing it isn’t enough. In school, and in life as well, there are
times when it’s important to have proof of what you know!” “Oh,” she said, which was all you could ever say when I
got started on one of my speeches. Goodness gracious, even though my dear Harry
went on to his eternal reward before Kristy came to me, and they never met, they
each knew innately how to “handle” me and my garrulousness. “So you need to go to school tomorrow morning and show
Miss Edgerton what you know. Okay?” “Okay, Mommy,” she said, looking up at me with those
big brown eyes. So she did just that. And it was amazing. For some reason,
after that day, Kristy never seemed to struggle with spelling. Of course, there
was the occasional word that stumped her, but generally, she and spelling got
along just fine. Ms. Houston, you’re probably wondering what Kristy’s
spelling has to do with your healing. Only that it’s important to have
substantiation of what you know. Even Jesus, after he healed the ten lepers,
told them to show themselves to the priest as proof of their healing. I believe
Jesus would want you to go back to the doctor and get the evidence for your
testimony. And, just think, when the doctor pronounces you 100 percent well,
what rejoicing you’ll do! And who will be able to argue the validity of your
healing then? It’ll be better than that Friday when Kristy came home
with Miss Edgerton’s big red 100 percent on the top of her paper. Lands sakes,
did we rejoice over that accomplishment! And to this day, you can try, but you
can’t convince Kristy that she’s not a speller. She’s got proof. It’s on
that paper still hanging on my refrigerator after all these years. The cookies,
however, are long gone. Sincerely Sincere, ninetyandnine.com © 2002, ninetyandnine.com --------- Gabrigail VanBurden has been offering advice for longer than most of you have been alive. Email your practical Apostolic life questions to Gabby@ninetyandnine.com and be prepared for some straight answers! |
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