Why Rush Recovery?

For the last several weeks, I have been more anxious as the time for school to start draws near. I will not be able to drive yet, I won't be able to work yet and that really scares me. However, God has been bombarding me (you have to know me to understand this) with people reminding me daily, I have had 2 surgeries, my last surgery was 3 weeks ago, this is a long process, relax.

This morning when I couldn't sleep, I grabbed Joyce Meyer book '100 ways to Simplify your Life,' and began reading it with a flashlight so as not to wake hubby from his much needed and deep sleep. The one thing that hit me was we are to place God first in our life and keep him in that place out front of all other things. My quilting, should take a backseat after God and family.

I even wrote, place Jesus first in the morning and the rest of the day will go smoothly. Place Him at the back of your day & you might find out what chaos is truly about. But my recovery is so much more than not having patience, it is about loosing some of my mobility and freedom, it is about not being a monetary contributor to this family and for the first time since I was 16 years old, I can't work!

I began reading my Spirit Filled Bible and Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 has a letter in it from Ginger Lindsay which basically says,' all things are done in Gods time, not our time and while we wait, we must do so quitly because what God has planned in our lives is a matter of His timing!.' In other words, God is fine-tuning me through this adversity. Amen and Amen!

God continually through this journey is telling me patience my child, listen to my word and relax.' Then it hit me as my dear friend John was leaving once again after spending 4 days at our home, taking care of me, taking me to the doctor, to lunch, mopping the floors, doing laundry. Why didn't I notice it before, it has been right in front of me daily and I walk past it as I leave my porch on those few times I can leave the house?

This is a picture of a Nasturium plant that the two youngest grandchildren gave me on Mothers day. However, when they gave it to me, it was this teeny little spindly thing in a styrofoam cup & I had my druthers on whether it would grow or not.

However, hubby with his green thumb, watered it and when it grew a bit taller and stronger, he put it in a small painted pot that the grandchildren had painted. I still wondered if it would thrive.

Several weeks later, he placed it in this pot and we had a pretty hard rain and the plant kind of looked like it was on the way out, but as you can see, with love and water, it has grown to be this huge plant with an approximately 2'-3' runner and it is beautiful.

As John was leaving for home today, standing on the porch, it hit me. If the grandchildren can be so patient and wait and wait for months for their plant to grow and believe that because they planted it and watered it, it would grow, why shouldn't I have patience to heal?

Then, a friend from church came over and told me, the ladies prayer group is praying over me and my family and that she knows it is hard to not be working, to not be in control, but God has me in this season of my life for a reason and I need to take refuge and rest in this and relax.

So, if I post anything other than patience about my recovery, shine that bright light in my eyes and send me back to this post.

God is good, All the time!

Yesterday, All My Troubles...Or, Who Said I Have Patience?

Yep! As you can tell by the picture, my very closest friend, (next to Bill my back brace) has become Wally, the Walker and it appears by my doctors appointment yesterday, that Bill and Wally will be with me, much longer than I anticipated.

I cannot count on two hands, the number of times I heard with my ears yesterday...'you had 2 major back surgeries, be patient,' or 'you just had 2 surgeries, what do you expect?' Harumph!! Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a patient person, I never have been and being patient drives me crazy!

However, during this time, I feel I am being led in a new direction and perhaps one in which it really is okay to sit back and enjoy the ride. Though I must say, the pain and back spasms I have had the last 4 days gives one, nothing to enjoy and hits me with agony, night after night!

However, yesterday I completed reading the book, The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught,' and realized I am very much like Jodee, I want to jump in with both feet all the time without really taking time to see what God or anyone else wants.
This, I realize is one of the reasons, God with His infinite wisdom and I believe sense of humor, has me needing to be taken care of as opposed to taking care of others at this time in my life.

It is freightening for my husband and I during this time of my not being able to work, but perhaps, this is where God wants us to be for some reason. I believe my lesson from God that speaks to my heart more than anything, is Ecclesaiastes 7:8 which states: 'The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.' WOW!! Patience is better than pride! I need to keep repeating that as a mantra and perhaps it will sink into my thick skull!

So, what did my doctor visit yesterday reveal? It revealed that my husband has taken excellent care of my incision, it was dry and the remaining stitches were removed, some of them painfully because they had imbedded themselves into my skin. But they are gone and now I have steri-strips and bandages.

I return on August 20th with X-rays of my back and this is where I believed they would be evaluating my fusion and how it is doing. This is where I was WRONG! They will be evaluating and checking to ensure that all the hardware I now have in my back, is still where it was placed. It will be months before they begin checking for the fusion and longer than that for when I can begin physical therapy and start back to work!

So, it was with pleasant surprise when we returned home yesterday to several boxes on the front porch (none of which I am allowed to lift) and I found that a dear internet friend had sent me this book by Joyce Meyer. Wow! I do believe God is leading people to show me how I need to change and embrace my solace and peace at this time and stop trying to rush everyone to do things my way!

I also received my new Bible, the Spirit Filled Bible and began to go through it and found some very wonderful things on really getting to know the Bible and what is inside it. Now, I have read the Bible from cover to cover and know what is inside, but I really have a thirst to drink in all of it and have my eyes wide opened.

My birthday was Saturday and I turned 53, not exactly what I had planned to be down, however, my hubby and grandkids had wonderful time planning what they would do.

The children all gave me wonderful handmade cards and later they gave me a cake and ice cream with candles, they had more fun hiding the secret from me I think than they did eating the cake.

My brother and sisters were at my mothers over the week-end and they all surprised me with singing me the birthday song on the telephone and my baby sister prayed for me and prayed God's wisdom in the area of me starting up a prayer group of my own.

Here is the shelf hubby worked on over a week ago, he purchased the flowers and planted them and also placed the bird and rabbit I had received as swap gifts from the Sweet Goodness Swap between them with the rabbit looking into the window.

This, way, when I open the bathroom window I not only see the flowers, I can see into the rabbits eyes and feel not so locked inside the house!

Time to go back to bed and rest, my legs are falling asleep and when that happens, I know it is time to turn in for awhile, because I have over stayed my bodies ability to stay up!