Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Battleground

Good news today. Peter's eyes are fine. His optic nerves are enlarged, which happens with glaucoma, but the doctor thinks it's congenital and not something sinister. She will check him again in two years to make sure everything is still fine. She said the Strattera ADHD med is not at all related and he should continue with his medicine. Peter had a horrible time with his OCD the whole time we were at the appointment, after being off the med for 2.5 days. It made me realize just how much Strattera helps calm the voices in his head. I felt so sorry for him!

Beth's arthritis flare seems to be gone, though right now she is sick for the first time since April (mild cold). New flares can sometimes come from illnesses, but so far so good. She's able to walk right out of bed more often now and the swelling has been consistently down in her knees for a week. She's still walking on her toes, though, so the pain must be persisting. Reminding her to walk heel to toe isn't working. She simply says, "No, Mommy. It hurts." She is getting better about letting me flex her feet to stretch the muscles involved.

Looking for specific information the other day, I found two personal mommy blogs about Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. They detailed the ups and downs of parenting a child with JRA. One was about parenting two children with the worst kind of JRA--the systemic type! I couldn't read for very long, but I skimmed enough to remind me that this disease is a long haul. One mom wrote that her 12-year-old daughter's eyes were free from any inflammation for the first time in ten years! That floored me, though I knew the eye involvement could persist beyond the arthritis symptoms. And the severity of the arthritis is not related to the severity of the eye inflammation.

I can't think about Beth's eyes being inflamed for that long, requiring steroid use or worse on a long term basis. The 12-year-old daughter's vision, miraculously, did not seem impaired. The steroid drops did not lead to glaucoma, even after ten years of use.

Something else I noticed? Both those mommy blogs were written by Christian women. Spirit-filled Christians pointing to God's provision and blessing despite having to watch a beloved child experience pain, frequent doctor's appointments, therapy appointments, and endless procedures.

God puts Christians on the front line. The first couple years, my newly Christian life seemed full of blessing. God showered me with goodness. Three years in, trials arrived.

They keep on coming. I had to redefine blessing, but God is still showering me with goodness.

The front lines. The Christian life is a battleground wherein God must get the glory. He trains us, his soldiers, to decrease, so he can increase. When he increases we are victorious in battle, no matter our circumstances.


As your day progresses, ask yourself....am I being a humble servant today? Picture the battleground. You don't fight to win. You fight to let Him win.


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