It may seem odd to start a blog with a post about life being hard. But honestly, that's why we decided to start this blog. Jess and I have recently been walking through what seems like an overwhelming number of trials. It feels so easy during these times to give into thoughts of bitterness or discontentment. We have often found ourselves tempted to say "when we have more money," or "when we have more time," or "once we get past this stage of parenting," life will get easier. But we have been especially convicted lately of our desire to escape the difficult parts of life. Instead of running from them or dreaming about when life will finally feeling easier again, my sweet husband has started simply saying, "you know, life is hard." There is something in that simple phrase that has allowed us to put away the ice-cream, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, and embrace these trials, knowing that they are ultimately for our good. It also has allowed us to move past our own selfish hearts and to give thanks for all of the blessings that we are enjoying during the difficult days. Our hope is to create a record for ourselves of God's faithfulness during these early years of marriage and parenting that we can look back on.
We'll probably end up writing a lot about our sweet little girl. Our tiny two year old who can only seem to tolerate a handful of foods and who can't seem to gain weight no matter what we feed her. As we face what seems will be endless days of cooking, trialling new foods, long nights of crying and moaning when she fails these new foods, and invasive doctors appointments and procedures, life feels very hard and very, very scary. But we have recently found great peace in trusting the goodness and sovereignty of the Lord. He lead us to a doctor who has taken a particular interest in helping Addie and with his help we have finally found a group of foods that our baby can eat, and for the first time in her two years of life, she is actually enjoying some pain free days (and nights!). And now, even on those rough nights where her tummy keeps her up, we can usually pinpoint what bothered her. God has already been so faithful in her short life!
Eventually we'll probably start writing about our little boy too. With such an easy pregnancy, his life hasn't felt very hard to celebrate so far. Like his sister, he was completely unplanned and unexpected, but our hearts have been singing with joy since the moment we discovered he was on his way. We know that living in a fallen world, we are in store for some heartache as well as joy in these coming years. But we so look forward to seeing what God has in store for our little man, and we pray that the way Jesse and I embrace our daily trials will testify of the goodness of the Lord to Jacob, and that the Lord will save our boy and that he will faithfully serve Him all the days of his life.
Someday this earthly life will end, and life won't be "hard" anymore. Until then, we are resolved to give thanks to the Lord for both the trials and the blessings, and to record His goodness to us in our every day life.
We'll probably end up writing a lot about our sweet little girl. Our tiny two year old who can only seem to tolerate a handful of foods and who can't seem to gain weight no matter what we feed her. As we face what seems will be endless days of cooking, trialling new foods, long nights of crying and moaning when she fails these new foods, and invasive doctors appointments and procedures, life feels very hard and very, very scary. But we have recently found great peace in trusting the goodness and sovereignty of the Lord. He lead us to a doctor who has taken a particular interest in helping Addie and with his help we have finally found a group of foods that our baby can eat, and for the first time in her two years of life, she is actually enjoying some pain free days (and nights!). And now, even on those rough nights where her tummy keeps her up, we can usually pinpoint what bothered her. God has already been so faithful in her short life!
Eventually we'll probably start writing about our little boy too. With such an easy pregnancy, his life hasn't felt very hard to celebrate so far. Like his sister, he was completely unplanned and unexpected, but our hearts have been singing with joy since the moment we discovered he was on his way. We know that living in a fallen world, we are in store for some heartache as well as joy in these coming years. But we so look forward to seeing what God has in store for our little man, and we pray that the way Jesse and I embrace our daily trials will testify of the goodness of the Lord to Jacob, and that the Lord will save our boy and that he will faithfully serve Him all the days of his life.
Someday this earthly life will end, and life won't be "hard" anymore. Until then, we are resolved to give thanks to the Lord for both the trials and the blessings, and to record His goodness to us in our every day life.
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