This blog is for all parents enduring with sick children.
To endure is to go through something painful and difficult, but with patient suffering, without giving way. I rarely think myself as the enduring kind, due to the fact that I oppose and fear challenging situations. I somehow feel thwarted in my attempts to sustain long-suffering. But this year I am learning courage and strength from some amazing people.
For some reason this year, so far, has proven to be frequent with children suffering with illness. Psalm 127:3-5 says: ” Behold, children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.” So, then why does God allow these precious children to get sick and suffer? We are not sure since God is sovereign over all things, and His ways are mysterious. We all want things to be perpetually good, and happy, and for all suffering to cease. That may be one day in God’s timing, but meanwhile, we are here witnessing and experiencing pain. The good news is that it all has a divine purpose.
In my community, alone, there are a few families struggling with sick children, waiting on God’s will…But the amazing thing that took place since the news of their battle , is that everyone is coming together in prayer, people that don’t even know these families are praying for the first time in their lives, there is a general surge of love, unity, and dependence on God that overwhelms me and inspires my own relationship with God. Already, there is so much purpose that came forth through these difficult and incomprehensible illnesses.
I do not claim to know what the parents of these children are going through, the suffering, the waiting, the fervent prayers, the tears, the exhaustion, being present for their other children, the pain of seeing their kids in hospital beds, the doctors approaching with discouraging news…But what I do know is that this is the year of the “warrior”, because that is exactly what these parents and children are: WARRIORS. They fight with all they have, as God keeps faithful sentinel over their lives, and over their already significant impact on others’ lives. One particular mother impressed me to tears with her unwavering faith, describing how she is still praising God through her ordeal, being in awe of Him and all He has created and how He uses her situation for a greater purpose. I consider it an honor and a privilege to witness such surrender in God. I am watching these parents equipped with incredible courage, faith, dedication, and integrity. During these hard times, they are exemplifying strength, stoical character, stillness, grace and peace.
Dear parents and children, do not feel somehow that we are not noticing or embarking on this journey with you, because we are. We pray to God with you Psalm 143:8-11: ” Let me hear of your unfailing love in the morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I have come to you in prayer”. We are also, amazed by your beautiful, valiant, and joyful endurance, and trusting the Lord the way you do.
Psalm 77:14 says about God: ” You are the God of miracles and wonders”… Oh God, you have the power to heal these children and lift the pain, and even though our burgeoning desire is to heal these children, we try to relinquish to you will.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, He lets me rest in green meadows, He leads me beside peaceful waters. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name” Psalm 23:1-4
Thank you warrior parents and warrior children for teaching us faith, for setting a Christ like example, for awaking in us the awareness of brevity of life and how we are all supposed to be knit together for eternity, by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you God for strength, devotion, courage, endurance, and finally hope, for I hear a child is being born near by…
By Roxana Phillip-Hackett
Roxana is a wife of one, mother of two, who loves to share her faith with sincerity and honesty from her home in Hendersonville Tennessee.
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