perspective

Has sickness hit your house yet these holidays?  It has hit ours.  The past couple of weeks have been filled with kids (and me) with fevers, terrible coughs and major runny noses.  The other night, the stomach flu hit our little Layla.  This girl seems to attract the stomach flu!  She gets it multiple times per winter!  Sigh.

 

But as you can see from these pictures, she is a very sweet and surprisingly happy flu patient (at least this time, she was!)  What a sweetheart.  (And what a sweet hubby who stayed up with her on the couch for a couple of hours in the night!  He is always willing to do this...thank you , Natie!)

So at times, all of this sickness can frustrate me--it means I get less sleep, have to deal with more fussing, and don't get to do all of the plans that I want to do.  Notice how it is always all about me? 

God has been so faithful in helping me to see my selfishness and unjoyful attitude.  Although it is still no fun to be sick or have sick kids, I have been finding joy in it, in being so thankful for the health that we all do possess...and also remembering that God is so good, even in the midst of suffering.  Ha!  And this "suffering" can hardly be called suffering.

And recently, God has REALLY challenged my perspective...some good friends and neighbors of ours, Lane and Emily, were in a terrible car accident a couple of days ago.  Lane and Emily were married last spring, and they live on the third floor with us at NTBI, just a few doors down.  They are a super sweet and godly couple who are planning to give their lives to missions.  Praise God that Emily came out of the accident okay, but Lane is in bad shape.  Thankfully, it sounds like he came through his brain surgery pretty well, so it seems that prayers are being answered...but wow.  God has used this in MY life to challenge my thinking and my attitude.  Please join us in praying for Lane and Emily!