Jan
21
2019
Leftie
Posted in Worship 4 Comments
It happened again.
I was writing something on a piece of paper.
Someone, who was watching me write my contact information, made a comment.
Oh, she’s a leftie!
The man asked my husband if I was the only left handed person in our family.
My husband told him I was not.
I’m left handed and two of my children are left handed, I added.
Three out of seven of us, I said.
I thought about my two sweet daughter-in-loves and my son-in-love.
None of them are left handed.
I wonder about my grandchildren.
Will any of them be left handed like Grandma?
It is interesting to be left handed in a right handed world.
My husband can never understand when I make that comment.
He has never had to struggle with scissors.
He has never had to turn the paper towel roll around in order to pull off a sheet.
It happened the other day.
My husband just put in a new sink in one of our powder rooms.
It is an old fashioned bowl sink with a faucet that looks like a vintage pump handle.
The engineer in him liked the design.
You just push down on the circle to close the drain.
There is nothing to pull up.
Less pieces to break, he told me as he installed it.
When I cleaned that powder room, I saw what he meant.
I also noticed that the circle came off as I wiped the sink.
I screwed it back on.
The next time I cleaned the powder room, the circle did the same thing.
I happened to mention it to him a few days later.
We both went into the powder room so I could show him what I meant.
So what do you do before the circle comes off? He asked me.
I wipe the sink like this and it pops off, I explained.
There it is, he said, you need to wipe the sink the other way.
Try it, he suggested.
My left handed brain could only wipe the sink in the direction that felt most comfortable.
The direction I wiped the sink was actually loosening the circle on the drain.
When I tried to wipe the sink in the other direction, it felt wrong.
He laughed.
He really could not understand, even after all these years, how very left handed I am.
He should have seen me in college.
Sitting in my college classrooms was difficult.
There were only a few left handed desks scattered here and there.
The majority of the desks had the writing portion on the right side.
I had to turn my entire body around just to be able to take notes.
I usually turn my book or paper at an interesting angle; which was impossible there.
I do not play guitar but even that instrument has to be right or left handed.
There are some guitarists who play a right handed guitar upside down, but that is another story.
Even a computer mouse must be on the left side for me.
If the mouse is on the right side, I cannot maneuver it.
I heard the expression as I was lamenting over the accommodations that must be made.
Well, that was a left handed compliment, I heard a person say in conversation.
I had not heard that expression in quite a while.
I wondered if there was a succinct definition of that expression.
Left handed compliment: a remark that seems to say something pleasant about a person but could also be an insult.
Not too flattering for those of us who are left handed.
Some young children were encouraged to write with their right hand when they were young.
I am so thankful that no one ever did that to me.
I am a leftie through and through.
Left and right has now taken on another connotation.
The word, left, is used to stand for liberal minded people.
The word, right, is used to stand for conservative minded people.
That is troubling to me.
We are people.
We have a God ordained handedness.
We are either right or left handed.
Those words describe what hand we prefer, not our ideology.
But when the sons of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. (Judges 3:15)
Out of all these people 700 choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. (Judges 20:16)
God sent Israel a deliverer who was a left handed man.
700 choice men were left handed and incredibly accurate with slinging a stone.
In the Bible, a left handed person is one with skill, dexterity, and precision.
It is simply about handedness that was determined by our Creator God.
I am a leftie and proud of it.
I am different.
I do things differently.
There are things I cannot do as well and have to make accommodations.
That is the way God made me.
I like it.
I am unique.
But then again, aren’t we all?
No two fingerprints are the same.
No two people are made exactly alike.
We are made in the image of God.
God designed every detail, even whether we are right or left handed.
Praise Him for His wondrous creativity.
Gina, you should have been a professional baseball player. Good leftie pitchers and power hitting left handers are highly sought after and most first basemen are fefties. On the “other hand”, you seldom see left handed third basemen or catchers.
Actually, I prize lefties. I’v been married to one for 51 years!
Jeff
Jeff,
It is good to know that I have other options as a leftie! I agree! You are married to an amazing leftie! Your marriage of 51 years is a wonderful example to follow. Blessings to you and your favorite leftie!
Gina
Yea for us lefties! I’m one for many things, but do a few with my right (mixed-up brain!). I didn’t know the passages you quoted, but I wonder about the one where God puts the good people on the right hand and the evil ones on the left. It’s been a less-than attribute for centuries, but I’ve read that us lefties are more intelligent and creative, so that’s good! I feel special because I’m a lefty, especially when no one else in my family is!
Sue,
It is interesting to be left handed in a very right handed world.
So glad to know that you and I share our left handed!
Gina