Okay, so I fear this blog may be a sad one. There's a few things on my heart, that are making me sad, that I just want to get off and out of my mind. Who knows, maybe my Awesome God will make this an invigorating blog.
So first, there is this little boy. He doesn't go to our church, but his aunt does. He is only three. He died this morning. I feel absolutely tore up about it. Ethan is just two and a half. I cannot imagine what his mother feels. What his father feels. What anyone close to him feels. If this is how I feel and I don't even know him, I have never met him this side of heaven, and the only reason I know of him is because his aunt has been fervently requesting prayers for about a month now on f.b. through the church page, then I just cannot imagine. He had brain cancer and they started chemo on him, he went into a coma, and he just "earned his wings" as his aunt put it, this morning at 10:44. Honestly, I feel the tears welling up in my eyes as we speak. The thought that comes to my head is, what if that was my child. Kris has said before, how in the world did they even know he had something wrong with him? How would you know to look for something as CRAZY as that? I assume, because Ethan is getting to the point of telling me when something hurts, that he probably told them his head hurts until he was in just pure agony. But honestly. A little baby. A three year old. I don't want to say it, much less think it, but I am struck by how utterly unfair it is. And I need to remember, God is awesome, God has a plan, and I am positive God had his hand on that little boy from day one and held his hand all the way to heaven. And I struggle with what was God's plan in all of that? It sucks to lose someone, no matter the circumstances. I still feel grief when I think of not getting to see my grandpa when I go home to Wisconsin next, and I don't even want to consider how I will feel when the day comes that I can no longer call my mom when I need someone desperately to rant and rave and cry to or the day when my dad or brother are no longer here. But your child? How can you cope with some thing like that.
Kris and I watched Courageous a few weeks ago, and the little girl dies. The father goes to see the pastor wanting to know how to carry on, how to be a good father and husband to those he has left. They build the movie up so you can see that he is very much in love with his daughter (not in a gross way, but in the way every father should love his daughter), and his loss is so devastating to him, he isn't sure how to carry on. And I am reminded what that pastor said to him when I think of losing something so dear and near to my heart. He basically said losing someone like that is like losing a limb. You survive. A part of you is always missing, but you relearn to live, to cope, to move on. The loss of that limb never ever fades, but you move on. And then he said something so powerful, I can't wrap my head around it. I know that I would STILL struggle with this. He said, how are you going to spend the rest of your life, morning over the time you didn't get with your daughter, or cherishing the time you did? And now I am crying again. Because, honestly, I think some of my day to day stuff gets in the way of cherishing my loved ones. I get to caught up in trying to clean up the messes, and do the dishes, and prepare for dinner, and go grocery shopping, and paying bills, and balancing the check book, that I forgot I only have a few precious years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes left with my son, my husband, my family. Whether God is going to decide to call me up, call Ethan up, Kris up, or whom ever, or whether time is just going to do what it does, and keep marching on, and when I next blink my child will be a man marrying his wife and having his children, my time is limited. I don't know how many precious moments are left. And I already regret the ones I wasted on worry, doubt, anger, and pain. I pray God knows my heart, and heals my heart of this pain I feel. That he HELPS me sit on the floor and play with my baby instead of shooing him away. That he helps me listen to my husbands needs instead of trying to voice my own over his. That he helps me find time to laugh more often, and love more often, and hug and kiss more often, and store away all the memories I can. And build beautiful memories with my family. And to fight this sadness I feel coming over me to dwell in what has been lost. But to hold vivid this pain so that I can do my DARNDEST to avoid it at all costs.
So on to another thing, but I know in my heart I am not done with that little boy. I have a many more prayers to say for him and his family. In the mean time, some other things that have been weighing on me. It appears my next surgery is creeping around the corner. I can feel the internal struggle already beginning. I feel the fear I felt the last surgery, the doubt, the anxiety. And I know my God did not give me a heart of fear! (2Tim1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind KJV). This is the DEVIL whispering in my ear, trying to create chaos in my life by bringing forth worry over something that is NOT even in my hands (or honestly, in the surgeons hands either, because above all, GOD GOTS THIS!!), fear for the what ifs (honestly the worst what if means I get to spend eternity with Jesus in heaven, that's not a bad what if at all), doubts if this is what needs to be done, fear over the pain (which in this life, is a constant, and we are not promised, as Christians, to live a pain and conflict free life, if anything, we probably are going to live a life of more pain and more conflict as the devil tries to weaken us and break our bonds with God.), monetary fears, man, I can just keep going. But I think I need to stop. Honestly, that is the devil encouraging me to keep dwelling on my downfalls, my fears and failures, my pain. How greatly the devil attacks those who have given their life to Jesus! And I need to be clear, the DEVIL CAN NEVER TAKE AWAY YOUR SALVATION (although I can guarantee he would like to make you believe you can lose it), he can only influence you to make your relationship with God an unsteady one, and unfortunately, that weak relationship may affect someone who is watching you trying to decide if God and Jesus is for real. That is the devil's plan! He knows he already lost you, but he will do EVERYTHING to keep you from saving ANYONE else. Take heart my CHRISTian brothers and sisters, for I can promise you that I have never had such internal turmoil, never had such terrible tests of faith, nor felt such pain as I have since I have become a Christian. But, on the flip side, I have never felt so completely loved, so completely secure in who I am, bumps, bruises, lumps, imperfections, and flaws, never so completely confident that during those trials that God is CARRYING me and I am not alone than I have had in my life, EVER. If you have children, than I think it is easy to make the connection that God is a father first. That he is there, he loves you with all his heart and soul even when you fall and make a mistake, and you are disobedient, even when he told you one hundred THOUSAND times not to do something, that he is going to be right there, to scoop you up in his loving arms, kiss your pain, hug you, and wish he could take it for himself. He is a good God. He is a good Father. His punishments are just and right. They are to make us BETTER. Let's take a little look at society. What in the world has happened to it? Can it be that someone some where along the way thought someone else should discipline their children, or that children don't need discipline or structure because they felt burned by what their parents did? Can it be that we have gotten so politically correct in spanking and what extremists consider child abuse (like popping my sassing child on the mouth, or spanking in public, or snatching your child up to prevent them from something seriously dangerous, such as that big shelf of heavy cans or the speeding car in the parking lot) that we are now AFRAID to discipline our children in fear they will be taken from us by the state and put into foster care where you can probably bet your bottom dollar they would have a WORSE situation there. Can it be that this lack of discipline is raising up a very disobedient, very rebellious, lack of respect for authority, overly righteous generation? Can you IMAGINE what 20 years is going to be like? What if God did that to us? What if he decided that he would be better to just let us be and not interject at all, just a pat on the head when we do something right? What kind of people would we be? Honestly, that scares me more than surgery. It scares me more to think of raising my son to be this terrible person as an adult. I think God wants the same for us. My heart will break if my child ends up being a terrible person anyway. And I don't want to think of it, but there are very few mothers that don't love their children whole heartedly and would be devastated if their child was the next nasty serial killer. Okay, I totally didn't go there. But the thought has crossed my mind. No joking matter there. Proverbs 22:6 says: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" (NIV). So we put our faith, again in God, for as long as we do God's will in our children's life, he shall lead them in the right path. That doesn't mean that they won't struggle, and possibly fall some pretty nasty falls. But God will not forsake them as long as they KNOW him.
Wow, I got kind of off on a tangent. My thoughts seems a little random. But all this is leading some where, I promise. It goes back to my struggles with the next surgery. I have a date with some doctors coming up, and I am sure that my next surgery date will be scheduled for early March. Kris and I have started to discuss this surgery, because honestly, we both like to "forget" about all this mess until we are forced to confront it. We both feel this surgery is probably going to be a pretty bad surgery, considering they'll probably be breaking 3-5 ribs, removing some left lung (they aren't sure how much they'll need to until they get in there and find out the quality of the tumors are, like do they have long roots like a tree, or are they mushy like oatmeal, or are they hard as a marble. All those factors determine how much further from the tumor they remove). But I will have to do some breathing exercises to keep my lungs expanding and deflating, and working out any blood clots as well as any fluid build up, and I can imagine that I will probably have a hacky lung feeling for months afterwards. But then, God willing, this will be the end of the bad surgeries. We know of one more, that we both feel is going to be an outpatient surgery, because the tumor is NEAR my bladder, no on it, not in it, etc, it is just there, and we feel that it will be relatively easy to remove. We pray. And I know I pray, when I go in for my next scans, that nothing else "pops" up like the bladder tumor did (although, thanks to a wonderful doctor who went through all my scans will me one by one from 2003 on, it was actually there the entire time, it just "blended" in with my bladder because it glowed the same color as a full bladder does on CT, and after time, it has grown enough to become asymmetrical and noticeable to the radiologists that that is NOT actually a part of my bladder, so it didn't just pop up, but we just
noticed it.) Honestly, I just want to be done. I have considered pulling up some ostrich. In other words, if I bury my head in the sand and pretend it isn't there, maybe it won't be (but I have a visual of a lion or wolf or tiger, thinking to itself, how wonderful is this! My dinner isn't even RUNNING!!), and I know that that solution is not the right solution. God gave us some WONDERFUL doctors who are brilliant at what they do, HE gave them the steady hands, the ability to understand all the crazy medical mumble jumble, the drive to study study study research research research, to not use the talents GOD gave them would be a shame!! I JUST WANT TO GO ON WITH MY LIFE. I am tired to driving to Houston and fighting all the red tape, and dealing with receptionists that don't like their job, and getting poked and prodded, and sat in a chair three hours after my appointment time, and forced to drink the nastiest stuff you have ever tasted (although, I should say, the mocha one might be a winner, it really isn't that bad, it is ABOUT time they listened to the patients! Haha), and having to hold your arms a certain way until they are asleep to the point of pain, and then to get up, and go sit in another chair, and wait for the doctor to come in, all the while your heart is pounding because you are so nervous they are going to come in looking like the grim reaper and give you a LOAD of bad news. It is all ridiculous! All I can say IS THANK YOU GOD FOR GIVING ME SOME OF THE COOLEST, MOST CARING DOCTORS! And that says a lot . For the 4 years I have known of what I have, I can only say that before these 3 I am currently working with, I only felt like 1 doctor cared for my OVERALL well being, not just my physical well being.
So I feel so much better. What a huge rant and rave! Holy moly! I am glad I only have a few readers! Haha! But to be honest, I would not care if this went viral. If a million people read it. I would have to say though, I cannot stand negative comments. I hate reading some one's blog or OPINION on something and someone leaves a nasty comment on how ignorant that person is or has to leave an annoying, uncalled for opinion. Seriously people, go start your own blog and go blog about that persons blog that bothered you so that you can get it off your chest without being a complete jerk to the original poster. Because, I can promise you, there will be many who agree with me. And there will be many who do not. Hence, the reason it is called an opinion, not a fact. And if you don't agree, move on. It is that simple. Or better yet, STOP reading, STOP following, STOP commenting. Now, I am NOT speaking to anyone I know, just giving my opinion on how I feel about the comment box comments on other peoples blogs.
Wow. I just prayed to God to give me something inspiring, something for my struggles and pains and sorrows. I flipped to Psalms 57. Let me share it with you:
Have mercy on me, oh God, have mercy on me,
for in you my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who fulfills his purpose for me.
He sends from heaven and saves me,
rebuking those who hotly pursue me;
I am in the midst of lions;
I lie among ravenous beasts-
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.
They spread a net for my feet-
I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path-
but they have fallen into it themselves.
My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken at dawn.
I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches the skies.
Be exalted, O God, about the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.
How awesome is God that he just answered my prayer and gave me a nice snippett of a Psalm to encourage me that God is great, that my enemies cannot twart him (the flesh, the world, and the devil have NOTHING on God) and tomorrow morning I will rise and PRAISE him before, during, and after Church!!!!!!!! Have a good night my readers, and I apologize in advanced if I made you mad, sad, angry, cry, laugh, snort, or any other feeling. So no negative comments ;-p (hahahaha)