Shaky Hands

A guest post by Rose H.

I stood up in front of the class and signed Born For This. I made some mistakes, due in large part to the fact that I was really nervous. Normally I'm more confident in front of people. That day my hands were shaking through signs. By the end of my song, I knew I hadn't done a great job.

365.28, a photo by Dyanna Hyde on Flickr.

That day I went home depressed. Was this really going to work? Come on, I've been taking ASL for four months and I still get nervous when I sign. It doesn't matter whether I'm talking to my teacher or an actual deaf person, I tense up and my hands shake. I get scared I'm going to sign something wrong or that they won't understand.

I tried to sort out my conflicting emotions. I wanted to do well, but at the same time I felt like I was failing. It was then that I felt God's gentle whisper (some through my parents and friends), He spoke to my heart. He asked me the why I had taken the class. My mind wondered back to the reasons. I wanted to communicate with the deaf and learn what I thought was one of the most beautiful languages in the world. It hit me that I was doing that. I had been able to communicate with some deaf people. I was learning ASL.

Then I came to another conclusion. God can use shaky hands. For God it doesn't matter that I have poor self-confidence or that I shake while I sign. He just cares that about my heart to reach out to others.
When you think about it, God has never chosen the best qualified. He has always chosen the people who were weak, forgotten by men, the broken-hearted, those with shaky hands.  When we are weak we show God's strength.

In the months since this realization, God has done some amazing things in my life. Not only have I learned a ton of new ASL, but I'm also meeting more deaf people. I'm getting to know them as friends. And sometimes I still shake. Yet the more I let God work with these shaky hands the more people are blessed.

What about you? Are you weak? Broken-hearted? Struggling to make it through the day? 

No matter what you struggle with, God is there with you, ready to take your weakness and turn it into strength. Just trust Him and keep using what you have been given for Him. You'll be amazed at the results. 

My name is Rose H. I live with my amazing family tucked away the country in Texas where I enjoy a myriad of activities. I love singing praise to God, cross-stitching, crocheting, and card making, spending time with family and friends, listening to audio books and reading spiritual books, being out in nature, enjoying a long walk out in the woods behind our house, teaching at a local home school co-op, filmmaking, blogging and sharing my thoughts with others. 

God is at the center of all that I do. I could not live without Him. You can find out more about me from my blog homemadeministry.blogspot.com or forhimsimplethoughts.blogspot.com.