Working this evening at Stick Boy, a lady came in (Elaine), saying
that she knew what she wanted to eat, saying that it is her comfort
food. I had a feeling, so I asked her what she needed it for today.
She told me that she hadn't slept nor eaten since yesterday when her
nephew had been in a serious accident. She had spent all day
contacting churches asking for prayers for her nephew and his family.
We sat down, and she told me how this last Friday night around 7pm,
Matthew, a little 4 year old, was playing with water squirt guns with
a neighbor child on one side of the house. Brad, the boy's mother's
boyfriend (Matthew is her ex-husband and her's son) was mowing the lawn
on the next side of the house... and they met at the corner. They life
flighted him to a hospital and said that the boy's foot could have
been saved had his leg not been so mangled, so they had to amputate
his leg high above the knee.
Elaine asked us to pray for this family in a few different ways:
1. That though the family can't now understand why this has happened
to Matthew, that they continue to realize that God has a reason for
it, and that Matthew in time comes to realize this purpose to the
fullest.
2. That the family has the strength to overcome this in with the best
possible outlook.
3. That the boy's father, Roy, and his family realize that Brad would
never mean to hurt the children because he loves them dearly and to
stop throwing negative comments at him and blaming him and saying if
this had been his own son, he would have been more careful.
4. That Brad can cope with this, as it must be absolutely terrifying
to be the one to cause the accident (and he has fallen apart already
with remorse and guilt).
It was such a blessing to see that though this woman and her family
are going through such a hard time, they are striving to see that God
is right there next to them, crying with them, and holding Matthew's
hand the whole way. Miss Elaine said that she just knew that God was
beside Matthew the whole time, and they didn't have to ask Him to be.
I pray that all of us have or gain that confidence in the love of God
our Father and Christ our Brother and Savior, that we can know that we
will never have to ask Him to be with us. The place that He most wants
to be is by our side, in our hearts, with His love encircling us. We
just have to let Him know that we want Him to be our life, and He will
be with us. "...fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am
your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand." (Is. 41:10) We know that He will be
with us and not forget us, because he has told us so in Isaiah 49:15f:
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on
the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved your name on the palms of my hands".
God keeps us and our names at the front of His mind and the tip of His
tongue continuously. Where do we keep His? Written in a closed book
that we glance upon 3 times a week? May it NEVER be!
Wow. What a trying circumstance. I will be praying for all of them. I'm thankful that already two people, you and I, have learned from something that on the surface just seems sad.
"Sorry I left... the cat wanted in, a bug crawled up my pants, and there was a
slug in the kitchen."
What a week. If I told you everything that happened, you simply
would not believe me. Lets just say it included:
1 drunk guy
1 stolen shotgun
1 blue hole
1 roof adventure + 2 bb handguns
2 barbershop competitions
2 days to lose a heart
3 awesome new friends
1 passionate new enemy
10 more reasons to hate bob dylan
3 cool facts about boone, nc
...and it made for 1 completely unforgettable week.
whew, i can appreciate those 10 ways to hate bob dylan.
Do you work today? I want to call you. BUt I want you to be able to talk on the phone! =) Skype, or regular cell phone?
lol I actually just discovered that the other day. I was going through dirty clothes and I saw that lying there. And I thought "oops." For the record, it's Caleb's fault. He packed our clothes coming back from NC that time.
Name something that was significant to you in school--preschool
through graduate--that was either negative or positive. Cafeteria
doesn't count, sorry. And also maybe some stuff that affected you
in your youth, like learning to ride a bike, a bully that
intimidated you, or a story of that nature. I'm writing and need
inspiration. And at no cost to you!
Thanks, I really appreciate it you guys... post as many things as
you can think of.
The huge fight I had with my i-thought-she-was-mt-best-friend-since-elementary-school.
It was after school, in front of our lockers, and resulted in two friends ignoring me for the rest of my high school career. Drama. Lots of drama.
It was my freshman year at FC. We had just received new that Dr. Roberts was not expected to live through the weekend. It was raining hard on a Thursday evening. Three young men, all friends of mine, walked down to the Riverwalk and sat on the wooden porch. For hours they sat and prayed to God to spare the life of a teacher they loved so much as the rain soaked their clothes and the thunder rolled.
