Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.

Say that three times fast. Can't do it? Cat got your tongue? Well then ... imagine how MOSES must have felt.

The poor guy. Sure, we may "diss" him for whining about all that God asked him to do, but you've got to admit ... God asked him to do a lot! First he has to go back to the Israelites, his true family, after having grown up in the Egyptian royal family. Then (after an accident involving the death of an Egyptian official) he has to wander the desert and live there for ... oh, 40 years or so. Then, when he thinks he's had enough and God might be done with him ... God sends him BACK to Egypt, to rescue his people! And let's not get into all the stuff involved AFTER the rescue of the Egyptians. For today, I'm just focusing on poor Moses, trying to figure out what he's going to say.

Now I've got to admit, when I taught 4th grade last year, I fully supported the idea of the "children of Israel" being the Bible's biggest complainers, and Moses being the Bible's biggest whiner. The children of Israel just couldn't be happy with anything, and complained to Moses if their blankie wasn't folded just so and their teddy bear wasn't perfectly clean. Well ... not in so many words, but that's the general idea of it. Moses, on the other hand, decided that a good way out of what God had asked him to do was just whine about it. Maybe if he whined, he wouldn't have to do it! "But Goooood ... I CAN'T talk to Pharaoh. I have this s-s-s-stutter!"

Okay, stop right there. I started thinking about Moses today for a good reason. I have recently found myself with a similar speech impediment. Not that I actually stutter. But when I get talking, sometimes I find that my brain runs like the hare but my tongue is slow as the tortoise. In short, I'll either forget a word I want to say, or blurt out so much that I actually end up mixing my words all up like cookie dough, so nothing makes sense. Moses had something similar. He was TERRIFIED of public speaking. Downright gave him the cold chills, the heebie jeebies, or what have you. And he thought God might let him get out of his assignment for this reason! But as our pastors are so fond of reminding us, "God doesn't call the equipped; He equips the called."

Well in Moses' case ... he still had a stutter. A bad one, from what I understand. But God did provide another mouthpiece in the form of his brother Aaron, and together they went before the Pharaoh. Through a series of trials and horrible plagues, the Pharaoh finally relented, and the children of Israel were freed.

God can use a man with a debilitating stutter to free a nation. He can use the lame and the blind to show miracles to entire towns. He even uses children to show His love for all of us. So what is there about YOU that YOU think holds you back from being used by God? I bet He can find a way!