~ knowing what I didn’t want to know ~
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
How ironic that this verse was my kids’ memory verse for church last weekend and we repeated it over and over on the way to church (yes, we are procrastinators!).
The following day, I got a call from the TrialNet coordinator and I learned some info that earlier in the month I had been wondering, Do I Really Want to Know? I had ended that post with the same verse – Joshua 1:9. It IS ironic. But it’s not a coincidence.
Jesus assured us in Matthew that the Holy Spirit would be with us, reminding us of all God has said to us. (John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”)
The Holy Spirit has obviously been whispering to me!
What I found out is that my oldest child has elevated levels of one of the three autoantibodies that is tested in Phase 1 of TrialNet – these autoantibodies are used as a screening test for increased risk of Type 1 diabetes. I have done much reading since then, and as far as I can tell, this translates into her having about a 15% chance of getting diabetes in her lifetime. (To give you some perspective, a child with no family history of diabetes and no elevated autoantibodies has a 0.2% chance of getting diabetes.)
Honestly I have had a difficult time dealing with this news. And in a way that surprised me. I have had diabetes for 26 years. I knew when I had children that they would have a higher risk. But this news just made it real to me.
I keep telling myself that things could be worse. People can live active, healthy lives with diabetes. This is not a death sentence. However, I also know the day-in and day-out struggles of living with this disease. The way the word “complications” and all that it entails is a stark reality that never leaves the back of my mind. The fact that people with diabetes have a shorter lifespan. These things are what makes this hard for me.
So what does this mean for us in the short term? Well, it means another blood draw to confirm the results, probably within the next week or two. Then if the results are confirmed, she will be included in Phase 2 of the study. Phase 2 is additional testing (including genetic testing) that will give us a more exact risk of her being diagnosed with diabetes within the next 5 years.
Wouldn’t you know it – she was the only one of the three kids that had trouble with her first blood draw. It definitely didn’t go well for her. Blood draws don’t phase me in the least, but she’s not me. They had to stick her twice and they even had trouble getting enough blood. It was traumatic. Would you please pray that the next goes smoothly and for her peace of mind during the testing?
I would also ask you to pray for me as I continue to deal with this news. Pray that God’s words become my true reality…
The Answers God Gives
It’s so amazing how God answers prayer. Last week I posted about my desire for contentment and my struggle with the urge to buy more, more, and more. (You can read the full post here.) I wrote in that post, “Today I’m thinking about how I can store up treasure for myself in heaven – how I can focus my energy on the eternal rather than the temporal. How I can re-train myself to focus on glorifying God rather than feeding my own selfishness.”
I was trying to brainstorm specific things I could do to become more content with what I have and to fill myself up with the things of God rather than the things of this world. I prayed that God would help me figure it out.
Two nights ago in my Bible reading I read these verses:
1 Timothy 6:17-19
“Command those who are rich with things of this world not to be proud. Tell them to hope in God, not in their uncertain riches. God richly gives us everything to enjoy. Tell the rich people to do good, to be rich in doing good deeds, to be generous and ready to share. By doing that, they will be saving a treasure for themselves as a strong foundation for the future. Then they will be able to have the life that is true life.”
The fact is, we in America are rich. And God answered my prayer by giving me a specific checklist to follow:
Am I doing good?
Am I rich in doing good deeds?
Am I generous?
Am I ready to share?
These are the ways I will store up treasures in heaven. This is how I want to live.
Thank you God for such a specific answer to prayer! How has God answered your prayers this week?
TTAH Tuesday – Daily Prayer
Sorry I kept you waiting so long for this post that I promised you last week!
I am discovering that daily prayer is vital to my emotional and spiritual health. And I don’t mean the “Lord, help me”, 2-second variety (although that’s certainly better than nothing.)
I’m talking about having a set time where I sit down and specifically purpose to talk to God for some length of time. I’ve posted before about how I keep my focus, and you can read that here. But today I want to encourage you to make daily prayer a priority in your life.
My day typically starts early – I get up before the kids, shower, get myself some coffee (this is critical) and breakfast and then get comfy on the couch to pray. This works really well during the school year. However, over the summer I didn’t do this. I felt like I needed a “break” and so I slept until the kids woke me. The consequence of this was that I had seldom had any uninterrupted prayer time over the summer. I had weeks where I didn’t pray at all (except for in church on Sundays). And I know my emotional and spiritual health suffered from it. I was prone to weeks (no, not just days) of discouragement. I was, frankly, hard to get along with. I struggled with being patient and loving with my children. My poor family! And I attribute it, at least some of it, to my inconsistent prayer life.
Let’s look at some verses:
Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer…”
Philippians 4:6-7 ”Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Matthew 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread…”
Lamentations 3:22-23 “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Isaiah 33:6 “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge.”
God is my firm foundation – my stability in a life that can become difficult overnight. Even in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus tells us to ask daily for what we need. And I know every day I need God’s mercy – a mercy that never ends and is fresh for me every morning. How can I not set aside time in my day to speak to Him who offers me a rich store of wisdom and knowledge??
So I challenge you to start a new habit – set aside time dailyfor prayer. And believe me, I know all the excuses because I’ve used them myself. Like I’m not a morning person, or I need my sleep, or there’s just not time. But I ask you to set aside those excuses for one week and block out time to talk to the creator of the heavens and earth – and the one anchor we have in this crazy life.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
“I was reminded of the profound truth that prayer isn’t something I had to do, rather, prayer is something I get to do. I get to bring to God every worry and concern that is on my heart today.” ~ Hope MacDonald
