Getting Peace On A Plane
"I have been trying to thank God all day for taking care of my family and I during this time. I thank Him for us growing during these hard times. The last thing Mom and I said to each other when we hugged bye was “we are growing!” I thank Him for his power and His protection. He can wrap His arms around us and hold us. Just like a father holds a child".
That was part of the blog when I was flying to Portland the Monday prior to hurricane Florence on Thursday. The Monday before the Saturday that Mom would fall and break her wrist, fingers and have a brain bleed. I am so glad we can not see the future! I am thankful for our tender goodbyes each time we part companyr!
Boy did we grow?! The hurricane was not the only thing that made us grow. Mom and I knew we were growing every day in the ICU at UNC and the room and the rehab center when we returned to Wilmington. We both learned a lot of patience on so many levels. We thanked God every day for what He had done, what He was doing and what He was going to do. We had no idea what was going to happen. We just had to trust Him and trust that, as always, His plan is better than ours! We constantly encouraged each other and reminded each other that God was working and we were growing!
Around six weeks after Mon's fall I took her to the neurologist. I kept telling Mom how wonderful she was doing. The neurologist would be checking her memory and looking at the brain bleed. He did several test and looked at her x-rays. He said, "for a woman your age and the severity of your fall, this is amazing. I cannot even tell you fell by the x-ray and you are fine. Your memory is fine! You do not have to come back and see me any more." I shed tears of joy over that visit! While that was wonderful to hear there were times in the beginning that I did not think things would end this way.
There were times in the hospital that I focused on the problems instead of the problem solver but thankfully I did not let my mind stay in that dangerous place. I knew I had to move on from that and focus on God. When the "what if's" start coming to mind over and over we have to ask God to take those thoughts away because they are not of Him. If we ask Him to take the thoughts away, He will take them away. Sometimes we have to do it over and over again until it stops.
We have to be still and soak in God's presence. Psalm 37: 7, "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him..." It is not in our time but in His time and that can be hard. Philippians 4: 6-7, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” When we leave those scary thoughts and what if's in our head we can make our problems snowball. When we discuss our true feelings with God instead, He can give us peace.
Going through tough times helps us grow in our faith. When we know we cannot handle things ourselves we turn to God. We decide to be still and listen. We pray and turn our worry over to Him. The more we feel peace the more we want to turn to God....sooner! The more we see answered prayers the more we begin trusting His timing. The more we begin seeing that nothing is impossible for God the more our trust for God grows!
Remember faith and prayer can move God. And God can move mountains!
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