Thanking and Praising Him

Exodus 15:11
Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? 


The diseases and disorders around here, they overwhelm me, the caregiver, this week. Compassion fatigue it's called, suffered by people who provide care for a special-needs population whose suffering "is continuous and unresolvable".


Yes, that describes Peter and Beth, who are in flares this week. 


Added to these chronic problems are Mary's fear issues--she's awakened three times per night over the last three nights, due to dreams and fears. And my Paul, who has a pervasive fear of throwing up. 


My husband and I, we don't know what normal is anymore, but we wish normal resided here, at least once in a while.


What to do? 


Katie (Kisses From Katie) writes from Uganda this week:

Sometimes my 16 passenger van and I clamor down the driveway and I think that I will get out and life will be easy. That 14 daughters will greet me laughingly at the gate and there will the smell of fresh wheat bread baking in the oven and a long run at nap time and clean laundry on the line and 14 bodies pressed close against mine on the couch before bed.

 It was once.

 Except today life is messy. And there are 14 girls at the gate but they are fighting with each other and one comes with a grouchy birth mother who lives in my guest room and there are burn victims in the yard who need their infected skin scrubbed out and a ten pound three year old abandoned little girl on the couch and my baby has pneumonia and life is busy so cuddling on the couch gets postponed until tomorrow because today I just want to go to sleep and wake up when some of the mess is over.

I park. Turn the keys in the ignition, close my eyes, open my hands and just sit. And He fills up my spirit with just one word, enough.

 Enough.

 Jesus.

 Jesus bent and carrying my burden. Jesus with nails in His hands and water, living water flowing from His side. And even when I think that I have learned this already, He teaches me AGAIN.

 Jesus.

Katie doesn't title her blog posts, so I can't give a specific link to the above excerpt, but it's from her March 22, 2010 entry. 


I read her words and I know their truth. Jesus is enough. 


And through Him, I can do this. I can rise above the fray of the moments and know Peace...a Person.


Instead of wanting normal, I can find beauty and give thanks for messy. His graces are new every day:


~ Tulips in bloom


~ Bird nests all over


~ Children helping mommy


~ A husband's loving arms


~ A husband who endures and believes


~ 80-degree weather with skies all blue 


~ After an unspeakably unpleasant verbal bullying incident, one of the consequences is for Peter to write 20 loving things about Paul. And the list of 20? It's beautiful.


~ A Holy Spirit who reminds me that ADHD children? They always feel unloved because they displease others so frequently. Keep up the fair consequences, He tells me, but don't forget the love. He must feel loved.


~ I worry about Peter's future but He reminds me: The future is His. Being faithful in the small things of right now? That's my job. Read the Bible. Love. Pray. Give thanks. Disciple.


~ I make mistakes and He redeems them.


~ Food prices scare me. We're already living on lean ground turkey, and Walmart quit selling their large family whole chickens--the ones without the hormones and solutions. What to do? He interrupts my anxious thoughts, reminding me that...He owns the earth and everything in it!


~ Peter took the camera outside to capture spring for me. Included are some pics of the children celebrating the eggy and bunny part of Easter (last weekend).