Last night I was really, really discouraged. We are on week six of ten weeks without my husband. I am tired. I started home from ballet, only to have yet another vomit incident in my car. This makes the seventh time in 3 months that someone has vomited in my car. Not from car sickness, but because my family keeps going through this type of sickness over and over. Nearly all six children are now on their fourth run of vomiting since January, and some are on their fifth. It gets old really fast.
I was really, really tired after being up half the night before with a different child, so I just was not ready to face the mess. However, I had no choices. My father-in-law was visiting, but he was dead tired from a long work day and low blood sugar so he was already asleep by the time we arrrived home. It was all up to me. We arrived home at close to 9 p.m., and the older children got everyone else inside, while I cleaned out the car as best I could in the dark and finally removed the car seats affected and put them in the yard. Carried my little guy in the house and bathed him. Got everyone down for the night. Came back outside to remove the carseat covers and get them in the washer only to discover that a cat had peed on the carseat. Great, let’s just make a gross thing even grosser. I got everything on the sanitize cycle, dumped a pitcher of hot water and soap over the carseat and headed into the house. That’s when I remembered the kitchen full of dishes I hadn’t had time or energy to clean up that day. So, I stayed up some more and cleaned the kitchen. But first, I sat down to rest since I was really out of breath at that moment.
That’s when I opened my Bible. Really, I need to open my Bible more often. I will be honest, I probably would have opened the book I was reading on my Kindle for iPhone if my iPhone had not been upstairs charging. Instead, I looked around for something to read nearby and saw my Bible. What a novel idea! I read Psalms 2-5 and I have to tell you those are encouraging Psalms. In fact, one of the themes of those Psalms and what I needed to here is that we are to praise God through adversity.
Today, I am thankful for disposable plastic gloves. I am thankful for helpful children. I am thankful for a good night’s sleep. I am thankful my father-in-law was patient this morning while I cleaned out the car in day light (missed a few things at 11:30 last night.) He was waiting for me to get two large cake pans out of our storage unit for him before he headed home to Ohio today, and it took me nearly until ten o’clock to get everybody up and dressed and get the nasty car seat bases cleaned more thoroughly and clean the car out better. I am thankful for the Rebecca St. James song titled “Lord, I Will Praise You” which addresses this very same theme and is on the new cd I received a few weeks ago to review on my blog. I was singing it the whole time I washed dishes.
Thanking God for things He has given us is just one way to praise Him.
Last night, I was praising Him for the beautiful stars in the sky which I had happened to notice when I was cleaning up the mess. Praising Him for being the One who hung those stars in place — what unimaginable power! What amazing beauty.
Today, I am reminded yet again to praise God in every circumstance and I find a shocking truth. To praise Him has renewed *my* strength. What an amazing God we serve.
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