I Love This Story

New Year’s Eve(2017), I slipped on an icy wooden bridge. After two emergency room visits and trip to an orthopedic surgeon, I had surgery to repair my shattered arm that needed to be connected back to my shoulder. Life got more interesting, to say the least!

It’s been three weeks without a shower to prevent the surgeon’s bandaid from coming off. Mark has to help me do a sponge bath, dress me and put on my shoes. Obviously, I can’t wash my hair. I have to sleep sitting up in a recliner. I’m off work for six weeks and this is my sweetest group ever to teach. I hope they don’t forget me.

The day after I fell, the heater broke in our home. After waiting two weeks on a part, they informed us that it can’t be fixed and I needed a whole new system! The temperature outside was our coldest winter yet.

The week after the surgery, I left a glass pan of brownies on the stove and turned that burner on by accident. The glass exploded into a million pieces. The brownies caught on fire. I have a piece of glass in my finger on my arm that looks like it’s getting infected.

Why am I writing a blog about this stuff? Because I started writing a thankful list a couple of months ago when my precious dad died of ALS. I have realized that it is impossible to have bitterness or jealously or fears when your heart is full of gratitude. I have literally stopped myself in the middle of tears and got a grip and started thanking God for His faithfulness.

Every time I made myself do that, I realized that I could trust a God with that particular problem. When my dad died, I was overjoyed that his suffering was over forever!!! He is now in the “great crowd of witnesses” that are cheering us on.

When I left the emergency room that day with the name of an orthopedic surgeon, we called and found out he was out of town. That office referred me to an incredibly wonderful surgeon who happens to be the team doctor for the Texas Rangers baseball team. Needless to say, I feel like I got the best surgeon in town. After they saw my X-ray, they operated the very next day.

The heater that is broken was the heater to the bedrooms. Even though the temperature back there was 50 degrees, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t sleep in my bed anyway due to my shoulder. It will be warm when I need it to be warm when I can sleep lying down. Perfect timing.

As far as missing six weeks of teaching. Any teacher reading this blog probably understands that this was my biggest concern. God, ever faithful, had this worked out. An incredible teacher from another school had just retired two weeks earlier...in December. What are the odds of that?

As far as the explosion of the glass dish, this was amazing how God protected me. I happened to be in the den. I set a timer for 7 minutes to remind me turn down the burner on the boiled eggs. The explosion took place at 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Thirty seconds later, when the timer went off, I realized that I would have been standing in front of the exploding glass to turn off the burner! I know that this piece of glass stuck in my finger will eventual come out. Until then, it is a reminder of how God kept Mark and I from great harm.

I would encourage you to start a thankfulness list. Write in it often and read the posts when you are discouraged. Build the habit of thankfulness.

“Whatever happens, always be thankful. This is how God wants you to live in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:18‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Trust God Before The Miracle

“That is why we never give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:16-17‬ ‭ERV‬‬

I must confess that deep down I have a fear mentality. I have to strongly fight against fearing that I will have to face something I can’t handle. I learned this lesson well during a time when life was so dark. My younger son lived with deep depression for a period of time. I did not see that his future had any hope. For almost 6 years, there was always a new development that I couldn’t handle. Even though that was almost 15 years ago, I can’t shake the feeling that something terrible is right around the corner and I will not be able to cope with it.

The enemy would have loved to have taken me down back then, cripple me for life. But instead, out of God’s wonderful grace and faithfulness, he had other plans for me. I take no credit whatsoever. However, I remember pulling up to work everyday telling myself “these troubles are helping me gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than my troubles.” I would tell God everyday that I knew that one day I would be with him and these troubles would be over.

I learned that if I was going to survive, I had to pray with faith and not fear. My favorite verse became,

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I realized that if my prayers were driven by fear and not faith, he could NOT reward me. I had to believe in his promises and not pray doubt-driven prayers.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1:6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Also, I had to pray differently about things that I could not figure out the solution to.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If I fixed my eyes on temporary and not eternal, that meant that I had to come up with solution all by myself. Stop and think for a moment. Are you driven by the fact that it is up to you to fix your problem? Be honest. I have not encountered many people who think eternally and pray with faith not doubt, but I want to be a part of that group.

I want that to be my goal in life...to pray with such confidence that God actually can do the impossible. If I believe that this verse is true, why do I worry about mounting finances of this surgery and the unexpected broken heater?

“I already own all the animals in the forest. I own all the animals on a thousand hills.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭50:10‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Why am I worrying about if and when my arm will heal? Am I holding my arm the right way? When should I return to work? I keep thinking that it’s my decision and not the surgeon’s.🙂

“He forgives all our sins and HEALS all our sicknesses.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103:3‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Why do I worry about the future and the faceless enemies of the unknowns of finishing the school year?

“My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭31:15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Instead, I choose to believe that I can trust my future without fear and worry because,

“But as the Scriptures say, “No one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭2:9‬ ‭ERV‬‬

I can remember thinking back in college that I would trust God BEFORE I saw how the situation would work out. Whenever I did that, God would reward my waiting with more than my heart could have imagined. I guess God has not gotten one bit weaker just because my faith is weaker today. He is the same, always faithful and always a rewarder.

Please God Through Faith and Not Fear

“Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:6‬ ‭ERV‬‬

This is one of the most powerful verses that can change your thinking about life. There have been periods of darkness in my life when fear and worry dominated my thoughts, especially about 3 AM. I know that the reason my thoughts were more troublesome at that time, Satan knows that I am halfway awake and this is a great time for him to lie to me.

Also, there are trigger points that can remind me of a bad time in the past. Satan will catch me off guard and lie to me and tell me that God is not powerful enough to help me. One of the most awesome things God has helped me to do is to pray about the eternal and not the temporary. Notice that I said, “God helped me to do this.” In my own strength, I cannot change.

“So we think about what we cannot see, not what we see. What we see lasts only a short time, and what we cannot see will last forever.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:18‬ ‭ERV‬‬

If we think about only what we can see and understand and control, we think that we can handle life on our own. That’s where the fear comes in. We seem unable to solve all of our problems and all of our families’ problems. We spiral into depression and fear about the future.

Back to the original verse, “Without faith no one can please God.” When I realized the weight of this verse, I knew that I can never come close to pleasing God with fear. Only faith can please God! “Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.”

I try to grab my thanksgiving journal when the fears about the future pop in at 3:00 AM. He is deeply in love with each of us and wants to reward us. He wants to save us. The thanksgiving journal reminds me of all the times he has saved me.

“But Moses answered, “Don’t be afraid! Don’t run away! Stand where you are and watch the Lord save you today. You will never see these Egyptians again.”
‭‭Exodus‬ ‭14:13‬ ‭ERV‬‬