One such friend is Kendra. She and I have been visiting each other’s blogs for over two years now. She, like me, homeschools four children, although she seems to have things a bit more under control that I do. She also shares many wonderful recipes and has a warm, kind heart.
Kendra is now fighting for her life. I have copied this from an update I received from someone else:
“On Sunday, April 15th, Kendra had an adverse reaction to a medication.
She is now in a hospital far, far away from her four children, fighting hard to recover.
Will you join me in praying for my friend? I am going to print this post out and mail it to her. If any of you would like to leave a comment of encouragement or a verse for her, I am sure she would appreciate it.
Before I go, I wanted to share with you something that Kendra wrote when she was a contributing author for a website called Those with Young.
(this is being posted with permission by the owner of Those with Young)
Recently, I found myself getting grumpy and out of sorts over mundane tasks. and chores around my home.
I was wiping a very sticky table down for the 147th time that day. Well, maybe the 5th time, but who’s counting…
In the midst of my grumpiness, I realized the history of that table was something that should bring me joy.
My husband and I bought that table in the early years of our marriage. I wanted a small 4 seater. He wanted a 6 seater. His reason was, “One day we are going to fill those chairs.”
I laughed at him.
A few years later, I was told we would never conceive children “on our own”. That table became a sore spot for me. I prayed to fill just one more seat at the table. I begged, cried, and eventually bent to God’s will. I thought the table would seat 2 forever.
13 years (and 4 children) after we bought that table, it had become a sore spot because it was always a mess. It was full, overflowing to be precise, and it was always sticky, chunky, and a plain ol’ disaster.
Then, I realized that table should be a source of praise for me. Each time I clean the sticky chunks off of the table, I need to offer praises and thanks for two things: 1- the children that make the sticky mess and 2- the food that the children use to make that sticky mess.
It humbled me to address my grumbling spirit and put it to rights.
I found these verses:
2 Kings 25:28-30 (NIV)
He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 29So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. 30Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.
Now, I am not in prison, but I was treating my table as if it were a punishment. I want to be like Jehoiachin and put aside my grumbling. I am eating a table provided by, and filled to overflowing by THE KING. For that, I am going to choose to be thankful. My “allowance” is the joy that God has given my heart, should I choose to accept thankfulness over grumpiness…
…even when I have to figure out how to wipe crayon, glue, syrup, and dried rice off of the top of the table!!
Is there a spot in your home that brings you grief?
Please join me this week as I travel around the home, trying to find Joy in the items/places I see each and every mundane day.
I wipe away tears as I read your story of the sticky table, and I say a prayer for your full, and speedy recovery. A woman full of such grace and spirit should be home taking care of her young and not sick in a hospital. I believe God will shine on you in your hour of need. Blessings to you.
Praying for you from Austin, TX.
Get back to those babies of yours, they need you!
I am with Christi, wiping my tears. I am praying that the Lord will make her well and she will be back wiping that table again soon.
I’ve just recently come through a very scary health issue. On Palm Sunday morning I went to the hospital thinking I had appendicitis. The pain was horrendous. By that afternoon they had diagnosed me with a huge ovarian cyst and scheduled me for surgery. The surgery wasn’t the scariest part. The doctor said that my cyst was “complex” and may be cancerous. Ovarian cancer was not part of my plan for April, 2012. I had to go to a different hospital (bigger & better) so they could deal with my inward parts if indeed they were cancerous. They were able to get me into the surgical schedule by Wednesday morning and I received fantastic care. They were able to do everything laparoscopically (3 small incisions) and only removed the cyst, the ovary, and fallopian tube. As of today all the pathology is back and I am blessedly cancer free. Thank you, Jesus. So here I am to testify that God does indeed hear our prayers and is merciful with those who call upon His name. Nothing is impossible with Him.
I will be praying Psalm 103 for Kendra:
1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
Am so happy for you!
I will pray, too, for a full recovery. I am so sorry to hear of this and am touched by your post, Kendra. It was quite convicting…I do a lot of grumbling. May you be blessed even though you are far from your family and may they be comforted until you return, by the One who is carrying you all, all the time.
Praying for your safe, speedy, HEALTHY return to the precious family the Lord blessed you with! Beautiful post about your sticky kitchen table! We certainly have that in common! Only mine comes complete with dried ketchup too. 🙂 The Lord be with YOU and your loved ones!
Oh no. How awful. Thank you for telling us, I will be thinking of her and her family.
Goodness.
1) Love Kendra’s outlook and writing.
2) I will pray for her tonight. Strokes are one of my big fears. I hope she has a great support system in place.
Kendra,
I’m praying for you and your family. What a beautiful post you’ve written about your family. I’m always so touched by stories where God has shown his true power and incredible Grace – you thought you’d never have children yet here you are with 4! How he loves us and wants what our hearts desire! What an incredible feeling that is.
Praying for a speedy recovery for you.
Suzanne
Good Luck Kendra.
Praying! May these answered prayers be one more reason to praise God at that table in the near future!
I don’t often leave comments, but I was blessed by the story and your concern for your friend. I pray that God’s grace will be upon Kendra and her family. He is the Great Physician.
I will also add her and her family to my prayers
Thank you for sharing this. I’m praying for Kendra and her family.
Please let Kendra know that not only earthly prayers are being said for her, but the angelic ones as well. She will be first in line in my prayers tonite!
I was just having my own grumpiness as I picked half of my daughters breakfast off the dining room floor, thank you Kendra for your kind and gentle story, for your reminder that life is way too precious to have those mundane thoughts. I too will post your story on my blog today and I wish you and your family many many prayers for your recovery. May you be with your children very soon!!
Stories like this are the ones that make me ever so thankful for my health and make me squeeze my child and family a little tighter. Hindsight is 20/20, and I wish that it didn’t always take that to remember that life is so very precious. Prayers for a quick and full recovery for Kendra and also for her family. I hope that she is able to squeeze them again!
Kendra,
I am also wiping away tears, my heart and thoughts go out to you and your family. Wishing you a speedy and full recovery. I cannot understand why these things happen, they say everthing happens for a reason, and cannot fathom what this reason could be.
Sending virtual hugs to you and your family.
Nancy
Of course only good wishes from here for Kendra and her family.
Rest and take care of you. All else will be taken care of.
I’m not religious, but I will hold Kendra and her family in my thoughts. Do let us know how she gets on, Taylor.
I’m praying for you, Kendra! God bless you. Hang on!
I am putting a link in my blog post to this post.
Love the way Kendra describes how she ‘bent to His will.’ We often struggle to understand how God is Lord of ALL our circumstances … even when they are unbearable. It took me 7 years of mental and physical anguish to learn to submit to God’s will and stop trying to pray myself out of the place He’d put me. When I’d learned the lesson, He transformed my circumstances. You may find our story encouraging; you can read about it here – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Impenetratable-Alison-Wellby/dp/1904592627/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334934660&sr=1-3
God bless you and your family, Kendra
Beautiful. Praying for your friend. This verse was recently on my facebook and I loved it Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid, O LORD Almighty, I put my trust in you. (GNT)
I have so many verses that I love.
Kendra sweetheart, I can tell by the beautiful way you write that you have a strong and abiding relationship with the Lord. I could speak to you about how God has provided a way so many times in my life when I needed a “way maker”, or I could give you advice on how to bear up under the suffering you are going through…but I will leave that to the many who have already written these things to you. I will offer encouragemen to you in the one most powerful way I know, and that is the Word of God. In Psalms 34:4 it says “I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.” Philippians 4:8 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” , James 1:2-6 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.”
I will be thinking about you all the way down here in the Houston area, thinking and praying and asking God to show His face to you and heal you comletely. May God richly bless you.
Praying for you Kendra, that you would feel the loving gracious arms of your Savior around you as you recover your health. I know it must be maddening to be separated form your husband and little ones, so I am praying not just for grace poured out, but grace overflowing and spilling out to the extent it envelops every life fortunate enough to touch yours. Blessing to you sister!
Praying for your friend. So many times I have grumbled about picking up for the 1000th time after my boys, but it can so quickly be taken from you. Or not given to you at all, in the first place. Here’s to a speedy recovery and a lifetime of wiping off that sticky table…for all of us.
Praying for your complete healing Kendra, and a quick reunion with your family.
Praying…………..