Let go and let God

A phrase I have heard a number of times. Sound simple? It isn't! Here's the long version:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

I am sure that all parents can tell you how hard it was the first time they left their first child with a babysitter, family member or daycare. Be it for 10 minutes or 10 hours, there's a level on anxiety that I'm sure is similar regardless.

It requires an unprecedented level of trust in someone who, despite past demonstration, is under a huge level of responsibility that you are just not sure they can handle!

We are thankful for the superb care of the nurses and doctors at the hospital. We can leave Emma with them safe in the knowledge that they know how to care for her. Yet somehow, even while we are actually at her bedside, trusting these people with her life is very hard. they have trained for years and yet the most common thing we hear is "we'll just have to wait and see."

Which brings us to the ultimate challenge. If we can't be sure the medics know how to help Emma, and we can see them and speak to them, where do we put our trust and our hope?

You guessed it - God. You see, we simply don't know! They simply don't know. He knows it all. What's more, he loves Emma as only one who created her can, and also knows her better too.

So our only avenue of peace right now is to let go of the questions, seemingly without answers, let go of the "control", the visions of the future, and instead take it one day at a time, trusting that whatever happens God will give us the strength to deal with it.

I feel the need to point out that God does not create these trials for us. It can be things that people create, the devil schemes or something else. They are allowed by God for purposes like drawing us closer to him, reminding us of our weakness and need for God, or for reaching others.

Today we felt more helpless than possibly before. Emma has a small chin, which means the jaw is set back leaving a smaller airway. For some reason her tongue falls back and blocks it. She sometimes moves it forward herself but other times needs help.

As we watched the alarm sound every minute this evening, alerting the nurses of an episode, dropping her heart rate, we were helpless. To a certain extent Emma must take some responsibility but there are possibly neurological reasons for the weakness in her tongue. Therefore we again must rely on God to provide her with strength and the doctors with wisdom on resolving this until she can lay on her front.

And so that is what we are doing, with prayer and petition for her healing, we leave Emma in God's hands and receive his peace in order for us to sleep, eat and basically live without despair!

Please know that I wrote this to show you why a real relationship with God is crucial to surviving life's trials. And also to let you know that we are doing okay because we know that we are not the only ones who care for Emma.