For five days, our son-in-law Jordan could not concentrate, process, or think clearly. Two times, once by ambulance, he was taken to the UAB emergency room. He spent three days in the hospital. Blood tests, a CT scan, two MRI\u2019s, a spinal tap, and examinations by numerous doctors produced no hint of the source of the problem. Of course, Kinsey was at his bedside wondering whether life would ever be the same.<\/p>\n
All of us were praying, but I could only share the truth that God was with both of them. On the fifth day, there seemed to be improvement and on the sixth day, the confusion finally subsided. Unfortunately, the spinal tap caused another several days of intense headaches that didn\u2019t clear up until Thanksgiving. It is amazing how thankful we become after something lost is restored.<\/p>\n
Jordan has completed four years of medical school and is in his fourth and final year of residency as an ophthalmologist. Having been named \u2018chief resident,\u2019 Jordan was looking forward to giving the speech to welcome thirty-five candidates for residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He missed his speech and all the festivities because he was in the hospital. But now Jordan and Kinsey are simply praising God.<\/p>\n
Our brilliant Father is able to use difficulties, trials, and even loss for the good of His children. I would not presume to say to my daughter and her husband: \u201cThis is what you should learn\u2026\u201d But Kinsey and Jordan claim God is teaching them\u2026 and they gave me permission to share a bit. They keep using phrases like \u201cnew perspective,\u201d \u201cnew priorities,\u201d \u201cre-dedication to what is important,\u201d and \u201cnever be the same.\u201d God alone knows our hearts, thoughts, and needs. And He loves us enough to teach us and discipline us and mold us and bless us. As parents here on earth, we do the best we can, but God\u2019s brilliance goes beyond explanation.<\/p>\n
Jesus and the Holy Spirit say: \u201cTrust Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!\u201d Matthew 7:11<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dear child, don\u2019t shrug off God\u2019s discipline, but don\u2019t be crushed by it either. It\u2019s the child He loves that He disciplines; the child He embraces, He also corrects. God is educating you; that\u2019s why you must never drop out. He\u2019s treating you as dear children. This trouble you\u2019re in isn\u2019t punishment; it\u2019s training<\/em>, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God\u2019s training so we can truly live<\/em>? While we were children, our parents did what seemed<\/em> best to them. But God is doing what is<\/em> best for us, training us to live God\u2019s holy best. At the time, discipline isn\u2019t much fun. It always feels like it\u2019s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it\u2019s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.\u201d Hebrews 12:5-11 (The Message)<\/p>\n \u201cGod, brilliant Lord, Your name echoes around the world.\u201d Psalm 8:9 (The Message)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For five days, our son-in-law Jordan could not concentrate, process, or think clearly. Two times, once by ambulance, he was taken to the UAB emergency room. He spent three days in the hospital. Blood tests, a CT scan, two MRI\u2019s, a spinal tap, and examinations by numerous doctors produced no hint of the source of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-struggle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2767,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions\/2767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}