The Broken Parts of Ourselves, How Weakness is Forming Something Deeper and The Fellowship of the Withered Hand

The Intentional Parents Podcast

Intentional

Christianity, Kids & Family, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re getting honest about our inadequacies as parents — when all we can say is, “I can’t.”

Inspired by The Fellowship of the Withered Hand, a concept from John Ortberg’s Steps, we explore how embracing our weaknesses can actually be a gateway to deeper healing and growth. Rather than hiding our shortcomings, what if we brought them into the light — to both God and to trusted community — and found strength in surrender?

Rooted in the story from Mark 3 where Jesus heals a man’s withered hand, we talk about the courage it takes to stretch out the broken parts of ourselves. As parents, that might mean owning our impatience, our fears, or the lies we tell ourselves about needing to have it all together.

Because the truth is, we all have withered hands. The question isn’t if we’re broken — it’s whether we’re willing to hold out our hands for healing.

Steps to Addressing Our Inadequacies:

Admit: Acknowledge that you have “withered hands” and name what they are.
Invite: Ask God for help in your weaknesses.
Release: Let go of control over your shortcomings and the outcomes of them.
Remember: You are not alone in this journey!

Questions to Ask Yourself:

Where in my parenting do I say, “God, I can’t?”
What would it look like to make prayer my first parenting move — not my last?

Prayers to Pray:

God, what keeps me from admitting my weaknesses? What shame is hurting me and keeping me from admitting?
God, point me to the books, podcasts, teachings and people you want to use to speak into my life.

Books Mentioned: Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn’t Enough by John Ortberg + Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You by John Ortberg

Scripture Mentioned: Mark 3:1-6, Matthew 5:3, 1 Corinthians 10:12, Isaiah 66:1-2, Psalm 8:4, Mark 5:25-34, Matthew 8:23-27, Hebrews 4:14-16, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Matthew 7:7, 2 Corinthians 12:5, 2 Corinthians 12:9 + James 5:16

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Intentional Parents podcast, brought to you by Intentional.
0:05.0	Intentional is all about spiritual formation in the family.
0:09.0	We desire to bring biblical hope and practical help.
0:13.0	Enjoy this week's conversation.
0:19.0	Welcome back to the intentional parents podcast.
0:22.8	What do we do with all of our inadequacies as parents?
0:27.9	We want to talk about this idea today of the fellowship of the withered hand, which is not our
0:31.7	idea.
0:32.2	John Wirtberg, thank you for coining that phrase.
0:34.8	But we want to talk about that as a team because we have a lot of
0:38.6	inadequacies and we have a lot of stuff that we all work through and are hopefully failing forward,
0:45.7	but many times failing in. And so we want to talk about that and what do we do and how do we
0:52.2	admit I can't or I don't have what we need. So that's where we're going
0:56.1	to start today. I want to say thank you to everyone who is rated and subscribed and left a
0:59.8	comment. Thank you so much. For anyone who hasn't subscribed, take a second, hit that subscribe
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1:08.3	ton to let the algorithm know that you're interested and want that content. So please do that. Leave a comment if you can even take five seconds to rate it.
1:15.8	That's very helpful. And then for our YouTube audience, just hop over there. If you're listening to
1:20.0	this, you can watch this whole episode and you can even subscribe there. So that's just some quick
1:25.3	business before we start. So let's talk about this, the fellowship, excuse me, of the Withered Hand.
1:31.0	Elizabeth, why don't you tell us a little bit of where this came from?
1:33.3	Because I was reading some of the book of where this came from, too.
	...

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