Is anyone in your family accident prone? Judging by a few scars it used to be Noah in our household but now Esther definitely gets the T shirt, and on Saturday she scrapped her knees good and proper. I have a beautiful image of her skipping along in the spring sunshine (something I’ll hold onto when she’s grown) and a parallel image of a screwed up face and lots of tears, and blood dripping down her legs (one I’d prefer to forget). Having received lots of cuddles and TLC she soon recovered, and is now sporting a pair of crusty scabs, but at the time it was pretty distressing for her.

Metaphorically, we all get ‘bloody knees’ from time to time, and more often than not, the circumstances are beyond our control. The issue is not really what has caused our distress, but how we are going to respond to it, and are we going to let something hurtful paralyse us in our Christian walk and prevent us moving forward? I suggest we get up, bandage our knees and keep going.

The opinions of other people can play too big a part in how we feel about ourselves, especially when they seem negative, and as Christians we have infinite value to our Heavenly Father, regardless of any knock-backs we may encounter. We are on a journey, and every path has a few rough patches, but ultimately we are chosen by God to point people to the truth, and we each have unique giftings and a place to serve.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9