I'm a Job kinda gal!

This week I had the privilege of sitting with some very dear friends as their son had surgery.  I woke up very early and met them at the hospital and stayed until the entire family left.  And yes, I said “privilege”!  You might ask why and all I can say is “It’s just what I do”.  See, I am a firm believer that God does not bring bad to anyone, but He uses the bad that the enemy brings so that we can minister to others and use the bad things in our lives for His Kingdom! 

Over six years ago our daughter became very ill; she was in the hospital for a month straight and has been in and out of the hospital ever since.  We have battled minor to very serious illness with her and been “through the wringer” when it comes to her health and I am a firm believer that the enemy tried and continues to try to wipe our daughter out.  He knows that God has amazing Kingdom purpose for her and the enemy doesn’t want that to happen.  I am also a firm believer that the enemy will try to use bad things to take our focus off of God and that we have a choice to either allow the enemy’s plan to work or to use what he intended for bad to show others the love of Christ; our family chooses the latter!

It would be so very easy for me to sit down, quit and blame God for all that we have endured and believe me, the thought has entered my mind many times.  However, I have come to a realization that doing this wouldn’t change the circumstance and it wouldn’t make my daughter well; it would merely drag me into a depression with my daughter soon to follow.  Reality is, I CAN do something to change the circumstances because I can choose to not let the struggles we have had be in vain; that is exactly what our family chooses to do!  When there is an opportunity to be a part of research studies we leave that decision to our daughter and every time she asks us “Will this help another child to not have to go through what I have gone through?”  Every single time, if our answer is yes, she very boldly and selflessly says “Then I want to do it.”  We have been given the incredible task and assignment from God to use our experiences to help those around us and we do not ever want someone to have to go through things that can be prevented by our experience and we don’t ever want someone to go through things alone when we have been there and know exactly how they feel. 

The point I am trying to make is:  through everything we go through in our lives we have a choice to either use it to drag us down and take our focus off of God or we can use it to serve others and God!  I can never change that my daughter got sick, I can never change that she struggles regularly with her health; what I CAN change is how I react to these circumstances.  I can either wallow in the sadness that the enemy intended or can rise above it and use it for Kingdom purpose.  I have had the honor to speak to many people about things like the importance of blood and organ donation.  I have been able to pray with so many people, encourage many and help other parents make tough decisions about treatment for their own children.  I consider it such an honor to have gone through what we have.  That doesn’t mean I like it and certainly doesn’t mean I enjoy having a child that struggles in her health.  What I do like is the fact that, like Job, God knew we could handle it; He knew that we could fight the battle for ourselves and for others and come out winners on the other side!  He had faith in us to use this for His Kingdom so who am I to loose faith in Him?!

I don’t know what you are facing in your life, but what I do know is that you have a choice to allow it to define you for the bad that the enemy intended it for OR use it for Kingdom purpose.  YOU get to make that choice!  You can sit and wallow in the sadness and the thought that it just isn’t fair, because you are right, it isn’t fair; you can also choose to rise above it, see that it isn’t fair and choose to do whatever you can to make it not be in vain!  My prayer for you today is that you choose the latter!