A Good Remedy for Teething ...

I just finished reading Mark 5:21-43. As I'm digesting it and trying to figure out it's practical application for me, it seems to provide the perfect remedy for my son's teething pain ... his first molar started breaking through late last night. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night and nap time this morning didn't work out so well. It seems to be the times when he needs to sleep that it's the worst. Playtime is fine, but it's just when he's laying there, that the pain is evident to him (and the rest of the house.) So, to remedy the matter, we already used up the rest of our children's Motrin and we've been applying the baby oral gel religiously. But in reality, the true remedy outside of my human comprehension should be the Lord.

This does sound hokey ... "Just trust in the Lord and everything will be fine." But that's not really what I mean. God gives us the ability to think and pursue wisdom, Godly wisdom, to make Godly choices so that we don't make those decisions blindly. We see this all throughout Proverbs. God gives us access to science and medicine, so why not use it ... but still we need to understand that medicine, science and wisdom are all within the realm of God. But no matter what we do, God is still in control. God controls health and sickness, life and death, wealth and poverty, and the list goes on. Here's an example of this truth from Isaiah 45:5-7:

I am the Lord, and there is no other besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all of these things.

So ... needless to say, I can pursue wise options to help heal my son's pain, but unless the Lord wills it, it won't happen. However, the point here that I don't understand is this: If I choose not to give my son medication for his pain and I just bring it to the Lord, would I just wait on the Lord to direct me to the right remedy or wait for His sovereign healing? I have a difficult time getting my human mind to comprehend this ... Does anyone have any insight here?

But on another note, as I read Mark 5:21-43, I see how Jesus brought the little girl back to life and how He increased her father's faith; ultimately healing him spiritually. I also see how the bleeding woman came to Jesus, despite her embarrassment and shame, touched Jesus with confidence, knowing that He would heal her. Both of these situations, though much more severe than my son's teething pains, bring me back to Jesus' feet too. If Jesus healed people in those situations, why don't I come to Jesus with my son's teething pain? Why shouldn't I have confidence that He can heal him as well, even at a year old, and begin to make Himself real to him in his one-year-old heart and soul? What a beautiful lesson of faith that would be for him and for me!

Once I had this realization, I did take my son to Jesus' feet and pleaded with him to heal him. Now, I don't necessarily think this will automatically stop the pain ... Jesus may choose to do that, but if not, He is teaching me to rely on Him and not on my own strength or knowledge (knowing what medicine's or human remedies to consider). While those options are still good and I will continue to use Motrin and Oral Gel, my confidence needs to be in Jesus first and foremost. I need to take these worries and troubles to the Lord and know that He is faithful to listen and heal, regardless if His definition of healing is the same as mine or not.

Trusting in the Lord ... even in the tough times

This past year and a half has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life. I was pregnant. We had to sell a house. I had a baby. We adjusted to life with a baby. We moved into "temporary housing." We made a choice as a family that I would quite a job that I loved to stay home and raise our son full time. We had to adjust our budget to reflect one salary. I've had to find my "place" as a stay-at-home mom. We're renovating a house, about to move in a month, and now other life changes are on the horizon. If I were to imagine that this last year and half would have been like this even two years ago, I would have been incredibly fearful. But the beauty of it all is that God has only given us what we could handle, and He has taught us to trust in his provision along the way. I am incredibly grateful for this past year and a half, and I'm amazed to see how God has blessed us through what seemed to be "tough" at the time! And in reality, I can't imagine what my life would be like without going through this and experiencing God's joy each step of the way (sometimes in hindsight).

In a very prophetic sense, my father-in-law shared this devotional reading with us yesterday:

The education of our faith is incomplete if we have yet to learn that God's providence works through loss, that there is a ministry to us through failure and the fading of things, and that He gives the gift of emptiness. It is, in fact, the material insecurities of life that cause our lives to be spiritually established.

The dwindling brook at the Kerith Ravine, where Elijah sat deep in thought, is a true picture of each of our lives. 'Some time later the brook dried up' -- this is the history of our yesterdays, and a prophecy of our tomorrows.

One way or the other, we must all learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may last for a season, but the Giver is the only eternal love.

The Kerith Ravine was a difficult problem for Elijah until he arrived at Zarephath, and suddenly everything became clear as daylight to him. God's hard instructions are never His last words to us, for the woe, the waste, and the tears of life belong to its interlude, not its finale.

If the Lord had led Elijah directly to Zarephath, he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man -- living by faith at Kerith. And whenever our earthly stream or any other outer resource has dried up, it has been allowed so we may learn that our hope and help are in God, who made heaven and earth. F.B. Meyer

It is yet again that we must step out in faith. I wish that I did this with the "everydays" of my life, even though these type of decisions have come in bulk lately and seem to be more of our "everydays." I share this simply to encourage you ladies that when God asks us to step out in faith and to "endure" what seems to be a difficult time in our life, that it's God's provision and God's security that will ALWAYS be there for us -- not our own wisdom, strength or material possessions.  God calls us to rely on Him with everything that we are. The more that we're able to submit to His authority in our lives, regardless of the situation, we're going to find ourselves in a much better place -- the place where God has planned for us. The place where He promises to provide for us and make us prosper, regardless if that translates to our earthly understanding of it or not -- usually it doesn't.

Here's one more encouraging thought in relation to this from Womanly Dominion:

Panic attacks are a common affliction in stressful times. Sarah is a heroine worthy of imitation, for instead of fretting and surrendering, she managed to 'hope in God' and 'do what is right without being frightened by fear.'

We're introduced to Sarah immediately after God called her husband to uproot and move from the familiar hometown surroundings of Ur, across the howling Abrabian Desert, to set up house in the alien land of Canaan (Genesis 12:5). She subdued any fears she may have faced, and courageously went, humbly acquiescing to her husband's conscience convictions.

What a beautiful example of trusting the Lord in tough situations!