“Life is made up of ordinary days, when there’s no one there to praise you and no one to pat you on the back. But throw your very best into today and one day all those ordinary days will make a BIG MOMENT in your life…” – Ann Kiemel Anderson A BIG MOMENT in our lives! Graduation day. The day we get our driver’s license. Our wedding day. The birth of a child. The job we’ve dreamed of… But what about those BIG MOMENTS that we pray for year after year after year? Those are the ones that seem to grow bigger the longer we wait. When I was in my thirties and forties and fifties, I prayed for something in particular. Every year for thirty years I prayed it would happen. Listening to Dr. Dobson’s fatherly voice five days a week on the Focus on the Family broadcast, I whispered my prayer. Mothering three little girls, wishing I was a mama octopus with eight legs instead of a mama without legs, I prayed. I hung on to Dr. Dobson’s counsel for dear life clinging to each word of encouragement and his tried and true advice. Secretly, year after year, broadcast after broadcast I prayed: “Lord, someday, somehow, make me the person he’s interviewing. Pretty please, Lord.” Then came Valentines week, 2013. The Squiers were honored to be invited to the Family Talk Gathering with Dr. James Dobson and his staff in Palm Springs, California. For four days we were present in the same room with him, but never actually talked. I contributed a loud wolf whistle one night when he tried to quiet the audience before the program began and one afternoon I spontaneously prayed after someone’s heartfelt speech. Upon returning home to Oregon, I posted my Where’s Dr Dobson? blog, which made it’s way to him thanks to Sydna Masse and LuAnne Crane. Then came a BIG MOMENT e-mail from Family Talk (I call it the e-mail of the millennium) on April 5, 2013: “We are so pleased to confirm your upcoming interview with Dr. James Dobson on Thursday, October 3, 2013 at our Family Talk offices in Colorado Springs.” Driving our rental car to the interview that day, I asked David, my dear husband, “Are you nervous?” Yes, he was, and imagine his surprise to hear me report that I had not an ounce of fear. Nervous? Why would I be? Wasn’t I on the brink of a BIG MOMENT in my life? Hadn’t I just that morning written A.P. Answered Prayer by Psalm 37:4 in my Bible? Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. First came a tour of the Family Talk site, then a visit with Dr. Dobson in his office, then we headed to the recording studio for THE INTERVIEW. I sat across from Dr Dobson with only our microphones and a table between us. 5.4.3.2.1. He introduced me as the author of His Majesty in Brokenness and Living in the Names of God. Next came a question about my childhood, then another and another – lots of questions about my birth, then early childhood, then teen years. With a PhD in child psychology plus a heart of compassion, Dr. Dobson was greatly disturbed by the delivery room doc’s statement to my father, “Your daughter is going to live I am sorry to say.” He visibly grieved for my father when the church elders came calling to tell him surely his sin had brought on such a calamity. “How did you feel as that little girl, Judy?” “No one ever asked me back then how I felt,” I admitted. That surprised and troubled him. By the end of the interview, I felt Dr. Dobson assumed the protective Papa Bear role for my family and me, as we tried to cope and make sense of one of life’s difficult situations, a child with a disability. Stopped by the clock, Dr. Dobson changed focus of the questions and a second broadcast will be aired regarding the sanctity of human life. We talked about unborn babies with Down syndrome being aborted, we talked about my story being a sanctity of life story. I’m told both interviews will air during sanctity of life month sometime in January, 2014. Looking back, I realize that this interview differed from the three others I’ve done in the past year. Other interviewers have jumped to the happy ending – the orthopedic shoe that God turned to gold, the deformed left hand that now preaches a three-point sermon. But Dr. Dobson’s wisdom chose to highlight the trenches, the boot camp where faith and character grow. He wasn’t afraid to face the beast – we all have one or more – that drives us to the end of ourselves creating in us a need for God.
THANK YOU, Dr. Dobson for escorting and accompanying me back to those early years of pain and shame, for defending me at a time when my family was in too much shock to do so. Thank you for voicing your distress. In so doing you helped me to see our Heavenly Father’s heart. Indeed He, too, was aghast at the obstetrician’s insensitivity; yes, His heart ached when the church elders condemned my father rather than pointing him to Christ’s response about the man blind from birth in John 9:3 It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God may be displayed in him. And thank You, Lord, for scheduling this BIG MOMENT in my life and for giving me the patience to keep the squeaky prayer wheel turning. And one more thing, Lord. Dr Dobson and I ask You to use our broadcast to remind others that No matter what, they are of great value to You; That in Christ, no suffering is ever wasted; And that all human brokenness is a potential display case for Your glory, God! Note: My two interviews are scheduled to air during sanctity of life month sometime in January, 2014. Please check back on Family Talk’s website for more detailed information.
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AuthorJUDY SQUIER has authored His Majesty in Brokenness, Living in the Names of God and the Living in the Names Bible Study. Husband David and she have three adult daughters, three sons-in-law and seven grandchildren. Never did Mr. and Mrs. Squier dream that their long-awaited golden wedding anniversary would coincide with David’s memorial service. Judy resides in southern Oregon, alone, yet not alone. Thanks to the Good Shepherd! Categories
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