What Makes Us Think We'd Be Happy With More?

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart

Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~

Sunday Worship..."Healing is in Your Hands"

On this beautiful Sunday morning, I just want to say how blessed our family is that healing is in HIS hands.  When Jack was diagnosed with leukemia we believed God for healing.  But you know healing doesn't always come in the way we want it. We prayed for complete healing, we prayed for no bone marrow transplant.  Our path to healing was one that went through a bone marrow transplant, a move across the country for our family to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, bouts with graph vs. host disease and meningitis...not our prayer request for sure.  But oh what we learned through walking the path God designed.  It changed our lives and in ways we could not imagine... we were all healed.

The call everyone hopes they don't get

Last Sunday night we got the call no parent wants to get.  Our daughter Lauren was on her way home for Spring Break.  It had snowed that day (yes we live in the NC mountains so it still snows in March).  She had hit a slick place in the snow covered road, began to slide, then flipped the car she was driving.  To make matters worse, this was the second wreck she had had in a two week span. Just two weeks earlier her car had been totaled when someone hit her in her apartment parking lot.  Now she had wrecked our friend's car who had let her drive their car while we waited on the insurance $. She was more upset over damaging their car than the possibility of being hurt.

My daughter and I jumped in a car with friends and headed towards Lauren.  She had wrecked about 40 minutes from home. There is nothing worse than coming up on a wreck site in the dark with police lights flashing and road blocks.  We made our way to her where she was waiting in a police car. The car had hit a rock wall (you know the kind God makes) and flipped on its side.  Somehow she had found a way to push the passenger's door open (meaning up) and crawl out. The police were surprised and wondered how she had gotten out.   


After a trip to the hospital to have her checked out, we headed home.  No broken bones, just sore muscles. Not the start to Spring Break that she wanted. 

She keeps asking why is everything happening to me? I don't really know how to answer that. I do know that sometimes God allows things to happen in our lives to get our attention.  I do believe He has our attention.  Sometimes we cruise along in our lives, being our own pilots, doing things the way we want to do them. Sometimes doing things we know we shouldn't. Sometimes we get in a "bad" rut and it is hard to get back on track. And then something happens to stop us in our tracks leaving us with time to make choices. Choices to get back on His track, to re-examine the direction we are allowing our lives to take. 


We are all a little exhausted right now. Mentally and physically. It's been a tumultuous beginning to 2011. And sometimes our kids don't realize that whenever they are struggling that we are struggling right there with them. As parents we worry, we lose sleep, we spend our energies trying to encourage them and keep them "up". It's just what we do.


As Spring Break comes to an end and she heads back to college, I am spending my time thanking God for his protection of her over the last few weeks and even thanking him for stopping us in our tracks and giving us time to re-examine our tracks.