Thanks for your prayers, Mom is doing a lot better!

Hi friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers. Mom has been able to sleep pretty well the last two nights and has been able to start eating again about 24 hours ago. Dad and I have gotten rested again too. She still has a cough (and apparently 2 dislocated ribs from the cough) but it’s under control and it looks like she will pull through, thank You Jesus!

The hardest part was not so much the extra physical labor but just the emotional drain of watching Mom in great suffering and not being able to do anything about it. This whole thing has given me a lot more respect for people who serve as caregivers, either voluntarily or professionally.

Also I learned something about comforting those in distress. When we were in the middle of the really tough time, I didn’t have the emotional capacity left to deal with any well-meaning comforters who might want to call up and encourage me with a 10 minute prayer or Bible passage, or write me a long email with lots of advice. And all of you friends were great… your short notes of “We’re praying for you” were exactly what I needed to hear. I discovered that I don’t need to give a nice sermon on the benefits of suffering to those who are in the middle of distress. Sometimes fewer words are better. God used you to encourage me. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

And you know, I guess God knows how to balance out our days. Yesterday a friend was, due to various pressures in his life, suicidal (very unusual if you knew how “macho” he is normally). Dad was able to encourage him with the truth a bit then and more this morning. I couldn’t help but think how we might not have been able to handle that call too well if it had occurred 24 hours earlier.

Thanks God. You are good. All the time.