By: Lee Ann Jackson December 5, 2016

I look at my youngest and I see the passage of time.

She’s 14 now, yet it seems like yesterday we were just celebrating her 4th birthday.

The dolls collect dust on her shelves, the toys sit in the closet and with every passing day, she stretches her wings more and more towards independence.

It’s been my province and privilege to do what I can to prepare my children for the day they would each soar off into their own lives.

In Joni Eareckson Tada’s new devotional A Spectacle of Glory, she speaks to how Isaiah 40:31 describes eagles and the way they soar. She shares an insightful observation from Author Ben Patterson which so spoke to my mother’s heart that I had my daughter read it:

“As birds go, eagles’ wings are big, but the muscles that make them flap aren’t.  Pound for pound, an eagle’s strength is no match for the strength of a hummingbird.  The strength of eagles is not in their flapping but in their soaring.”

Joni’s encouragement is one I wanted Rebecca to read and seal in her heart:

“I’ve done enough frantic flapping for a lifetime – trying so hard to do Your will and make things happen in my own strength and energy.  How foolish I have been!  I know I need to cast myself on you in faith before I will find those beautiful updrafts that lift me higher and higher.”

Joni’s life and testimony as a woman changed by disability and saved by a relationship with Jesus offers a unique platform for inspiration . . . contact me to add “Joni and Friends” (4:00 feature) and “Diamonds in the Dust” (1:00 feature) to your line-up!

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