Tough Love

Today I had to bring my 16 month old daughter to the Dr.'s office to see what was going on with her. She has had a runny nose and a cough for a week now, so I thought I better go in to see why she isn't getting better. Well, come to find out she has Bronchitis, not a very severe case but bad enough to need some medicine.

To my chagrin I was informed that I was going to have to give my daughter medicine via a breathing vapor machine. It required me holding a plastic mask over her little face for 15 minutes while she bawled her eyes out. She tried to move her head out of the way of the mask, she tried to bat it away and desperately tried to put her pacifier back into her mouth... and when all her efforts didn't succeed she look up at me with these hurt eyes. They looked like they were saying, "Why Mommy? Why are you doing this to me?" I looked at her and thought to myself... "because I love you." Then I told her I loved her and that it would be over soon and kissed the top of her sweaty head. Poor little thing. She has no words to express her discomfort, all she has are her cries to communicate when she is unhappy. And boy... was she unhappy! Everyone outside the exam room knew she was unhappy too, she was practically screaming. But with every cry and every gasp she was breathing in medicine that was going to help her breath better and stop coughing and wheezing. It was for her own good that I hugged her against my body tightly and didn't allow her to squirm away, so that she could breathe in as much of that smokey vapor as possible.

It made me think, this must be how it is with God and us sometimes. We are miserable, we are crying out desperately to God, "Why me, Lord? Why are you making me suffer?" Sometimes we don't understand it in the moment, but in the end we are better off for the suffering. I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I don't think my daughter felt very thankful for what I was doing to her, but she did stop wheezing once the treatment was finished. And for that, I am sure she is thankful. I hope that we, as God's children, can learn to be more thankful for the things we don't understand that He puts us through. Its hard, but that verse in 1 Thessalonians is a command, "Give thanks!" It doesn't say, you should give thanks or you may want to think about being thankful some day for whatever circumstance you have been put in today. No... it says to do it, give thanks now!

On the way to the Dr.'s office today I was listening to my favorite Christian radio station and I heard something that goes with that lesson very well. A woman had undergone a major surgery, a hysterectomy, due to some harm that it would have caused her to keep that part of her body, and she was upset with God as first. But she said now she realizes why she went through that. She keeps running across other women who have to go through the same thing and she can be an encouragement to them. What she said reminded me of 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4, which says, "The Lord Jesus Christ comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble." You may not know why you are suffering, but the Bible tells us the answer to that question very clearly. Its so YOU can be a blessing to someone else and make a difference in their LIFE! Amen! What you learn by going through the pain of whatever your circumstance is today, you will be able to use to minister to others in the future. Its a blessing that God wants to use you in such a special way. So, give thanks! And take comfort in the loving arms of your Savior as he holds you against his chest as you suffer through whatever you are going through today, just as I held my baby and kissed her on the head and said, "I love you" while I allowed her to suffer for her betterment.

May God Bless you all!