A
This is one of those days that encouragement could help me. I need to see the good side of life with God.
So, seriously asking -- what's the last thing (big or small) that happened with/to/in your family (blood family, the person you married, or family in Christ) where you absolutely know it was a gift from God?
I'll give you mine just so you know it doesn't have to be huge.
I got into growing herbs in our garden before I learned enough about which ones to grow for which benefits. If it was an herb and it was pretty, I planted it. Because of that, we have bee balm in our garden. Ends up, bee balm has no culinary purposes.
But hubby has a slight autoimmune disorder which causes a rash. It comes the first time he sits out in the garden every spring, so we call it "allergic to the sun." (It eventually goes away within a month and he still sits in the sun, so technically it's not a sun allergy.)
The rash itches, and, as I said, sticks around for at least a month. Sometimes it stays for six months because it itches enough he has to scratch. BUT the bee balm stops the itch and it stops the itch of a mosquito bite too. So it's been one of his favorite plants. I like it because it's bright in a bouquet.
It blooms in June, and, if it isn't deadheaded, it simply fades into a dried up patch of garden that looks like dead weeds. I read if you deadhead it, it's supposed to rebloom. I tended to cut as little as possible, which made me think that wasn't true. This year, I got serious about deadheading, and cut it way back.
Also this year, summer left early into a wet soggy autumn. Today is the fifth day in the last three weeks it hasn't rain, so we haven't been out in the garden much lately. But last Sunday I had enough time between rain and rain to pick one last bouquet. There were two bee balm flowers so I picked one. (I like to save one to enjoy when we go out to sit in the garden.)
Today is the day we learned Dad's being taken to the hospital tomorrow to be declared incompetent. He won't return home. We knew this was coming for the last four months, so it's not surprising. Something between relief and sadness though. (He has so little awareness of what's wrong, it's hard to judge how much he understands of what is going on.) And today has been up and down for both of us because of that and because we're both having insomnia issues.
But hubby looked over at the bouquet and noticed the bee balm for the first time. (Hey, the bouquet has many herbs in it, so it's hard to pick out one single flower when just looking at it.) He had a smile that showed all the fond memories we have of our garden and that herb in one quick expression. Contentment. Like all is right with the world. And happy surprise that we had one to pick this late in the season.
That was God.
So what's the last thing that God did to encourage you and/or your family -- whatever family means to you?
Sometimes we need to see God in the world, instead of coming to this forum just to tell what horrible thing is happening to us at this moment.
So, seriously asking -- what's the last thing (big or small) that happened with/to/in your family (blood family, the person you married, or family in Christ) where you absolutely know it was a gift from God?
I'll give you mine just so you know it doesn't have to be huge.
I got into growing herbs in our garden before I learned enough about which ones to grow for which benefits. If it was an herb and it was pretty, I planted it. Because of that, we have bee balm in our garden. Ends up, bee balm has no culinary purposes.
But hubby has a slight autoimmune disorder which causes a rash. It comes the first time he sits out in the garden every spring, so we call it "allergic to the sun." (It eventually goes away within a month and he still sits in the sun, so technically it's not a sun allergy.)
The rash itches, and, as I said, sticks around for at least a month. Sometimes it stays for six months because it itches enough he has to scratch. BUT the bee balm stops the itch and it stops the itch of a mosquito bite too. So it's been one of his favorite plants. I like it because it's bright in a bouquet.
It blooms in June, and, if it isn't deadheaded, it simply fades into a dried up patch of garden that looks like dead weeds. I read if you deadhead it, it's supposed to rebloom. I tended to cut as little as possible, which made me think that wasn't true. This year, I got serious about deadheading, and cut it way back.
Also this year, summer left early into a wet soggy autumn. Today is the fifth day in the last three weeks it hasn't rain, so we haven't been out in the garden much lately. But last Sunday I had enough time between rain and rain to pick one last bouquet. There were two bee balm flowers so I picked one. (I like to save one to enjoy when we go out to sit in the garden.)
Today is the day we learned Dad's being taken to the hospital tomorrow to be declared incompetent. He won't return home. We knew this was coming for the last four months, so it's not surprising. Something between relief and sadness though. (He has so little awareness of what's wrong, it's hard to judge how much he understands of what is going on.) And today has been up and down for both of us because of that and because we're both having insomnia issues.
But hubby looked over at the bouquet and noticed the bee balm for the first time. (Hey, the bouquet has many herbs in it, so it's hard to pick out one single flower when just looking at it.) He had a smile that showed all the fond memories we have of our garden and that herb in one quick expression. Contentment. Like all is right with the world. And happy surprise that we had one to pick this late in the season.
That was God.
So what's the last thing that God did to encourage you and/or your family -- whatever family means to you?
Sometimes we need to see God in the world, instead of coming to this forum just to tell what horrible thing is happening to us at this moment.