Thirty Sterling Principles, Part 13

Skipping ahead a few principles to #24. Principle #24 is found in Proverbs 24:10 and says,

“If you fall to pieces in a crisis,

            there wasn’t much to you in the first place.”

This is a thought-provoking statement. When I think back on my life and try to isolate the crises in my life-story, I don’t really have that many of them. Once I was in a severe car accident where there were deaths in the other vehicle. At the time, I didn’t know there were deaths, but I knew things weren’t good. But my daughter was with me in my truck and I had to remain calm for her sake. I was able to check her out physically while we waited for emergency personnel to arrive, I was able to use my cell phone to call my husband, I was able to take account of my injuries, and I was able to assist the firefighters in getting both my daughter and myself out of our flipped over vehicle. I didn’t panic. I was possibly in shock to some degree, but I didn’t “fall to pieces.”

Another crisis in my life was when my daughter was born. She had pneumonia and was very sick. The doctors and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) didn’t know if she would make it or not. They prepared my husband and I for the worst. However, I was able to remain calm throughout the five days she was in the hospital – in large part because I had faith that God would work everything out according to His plan including whether she lived or died. I didn’t fall to pieces in that situation either.

There have been other crises in my life of a more minor sort ranging from disagreements with my husband to situations requiring disciplining our children. In all of them I did not fall completely apart. There was something to me in the first place. I believe that what I had was a faith in God and an ability to trust Him no matter the outcome of the situation. That’s what there was in the first place.

Even in times when I was severely depressed and thinking about taking my own life, I didn’t fall to pieces. I was able to think rationally enough to know to get help from therapists, doctors, and even the hospital when necessary. What caused me to seek help? I believe it was the prompting of the Holy Spirit. God and His Spirit in me is what “was to me in the first place.”