A Family Flu is About God, Episode 2

Few things are more alarming than each of your children breathing in your face to wake you at different times of the night with high fevers and terribly sore throats. They all want to cry on your shoulder or snuggle into your cheek while they wait for the ibuprofen to kick in. Makes you want to just empty the vitamin C bottle in one setting, does it not?

Welcome back to another episode of “A Family Flu is About God” except this time it’s either a terrible head cold, or strep throat. So, I am telling myself as I sit here next to two of the 5 sickies, that this situation is about God, not poor me and how I slept last night. Poor me is not poor at all, although the enemy wants me to linger there and wallow. 

I am not poor. Self-pity is easy for us women, and it must be hunted down and snuffed out. I have the riches of Christ inside a tired body. I know this because of two verses:

“Whoever serves, [let him serve] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies”  1 Peter 4:11

“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

 I draw from those riches as I pour another syrup cup of meds for a little one while the other asks for water from the couch. I could pout about how I can never catch a break, or I can remember that Christ will supply my every need as I obey the call to help the high needs of my children. And the good news is, that when I draw from the strength of Christ to obey him, the endless well of strength and mercy is still overflowing. So I will be dipping my cup with weak, shakey hands from the strength of Christ, and trust him as I imperfectly care for the kids. 

Another thing God has taught me is that when this is over, somehow I will resemble Jesus more. I will trust him more deeply. So, the next time, whenever that is, that I feel the hot breath of a child whisper, “mommy I don’t feel so good,” I know God will also say, “Okay, remember when we got through this last time?”