Curiouser and Curiouser

Image from here

Curiouser and curiouser – today I went to the physio, and he told me that I have not one disc bulge, but four – ahem, I had thought that this was going to be easy to remedy the disc bulge, but four of them are going to be a trifle more difficult. The posterior (bulging backward) disc bulges that I have are L2, L3 and L5, while the anterior (bulging forward) disc bulge is L4.

At the moment, the physio has given me one exercise – lying face down with three pillows under my tummy. Treatment consists of ultrasound once a week, with hot wheat packs in between to ease the inflammation. On my visit today he said that we will continue on the road that we are on until the muscle pain settles, and then we are going to have to go the opposite way to try and heal the posterior disc bulges.

It seems that when I fell down the cellar steps, I really did a ‘good’ job of hurting my back. Little things, such as putting the nebuliser into the boot of the car bring on intense pain;  it’s not until you I do something, and it causes intense pain that I realise how much damage I have done.

One thing that I do know, and that is that God allows certain illnesses to happen for His glory.

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. John 9: 1-3

I need to have a voice of thanksgiving, but this is not easy unless I draw on God’s strength, and then, and only then will He give order and meaning to my life. I need to draw on God’s strength, and know that His grace is sufficient for me. We are told to glory in our infirmities, and that God will use the weaker vessel for His glory – that’s me!

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12: 9, 10

Lord, I am willing to be used for Your purpose – take me, use me, mould me, shape me to achieve your purposes here on earth! I need to remember that God works all things together for our good, and I need to give Him my thanks, no matter what happens, even if I don’t understand the “why” right now. Trusting God means that I am not drawing on my own understanding, for it is not for me to understand – God is our omniscient (all-knowing) Creator God, and I lay my life in His hands.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

God’s Provision

The last week my husband and son have been cutting and stacking firewood, as one of the local farmers said that we could have all of the wood in one of his paddocks. What a blessing! My husband cuts the wood with the chainsaw, and my son loads it into the trailer.

Then, when they arrive home my husband puts the long lengths of wood through the sawbench, which sure saves a lot of stress on the chainsaw. It is so much quicker putting the wood through the sawbench, too. Our woodshed is starting to look as if we might have enough wood for winter, now. In this area the temperature plummets to minus eight celsius in winter, but in summer it soars to a mighty forty-seven degrees celsius.

I praise God for the beautiful, warm and sunny autumn days so that we can replenish our wood supply. In the Old Testament times, the only wood that was allowed to be cut down were trees not bearing fruit. We don’t cut down any trees – we just clean up the wood that has fallen in the farmer’s paddocks. Today was 26C, and it was an absolutely splendid day, although our old stone home is already starting to feel the effects of the weather cooling down. I praise God that He knows what we have need of before we even ask, and that He provides all that we need!

“Tea” Talk

Hooray – it’s Thursday, I’m already here, and today:

I’m having:~

A glass of icy cold goats’ milk in one of our Egyptian stem glasses, and this is accompanied by a couple of Ferrero chocolates – a Ferrero Rocher and a Ferrero Rondnoir - YUM!

My Glass is:~

One that my husband had before we were married, and it is a  24ct gold plated stem glass – these glasses are so delicate and very beautiful.

I’m Feeling:~

Ecstatic that my blog is working once again, and I would like to say a hearty thank you to Susan for explaining to me step by step how to back up my blog and how to schedule it to send the back up files by email each week. It’s not until you can’t access your blog that you realise how much time you actually spend on it, writing those heart-wrenching posts and think how you’d feel if it was gone, all gone! Think about backing up your blog.

On My Mind:~

The LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel 16: 7

How does God see my heart?
Do I live up to His expectations?
Is all that is in my heart God-honouring, or are there areas that I’d rather He didn’t see?
Am I giving Him all of me?

In answer to my rhetorical questions, there are many areas of my life where I could improve. I don’t think that I do live up to God’s expectations, but I do strive to have a personal relationship with Jesus living in my heart. All that is in my heart – that is a big ask, for anyone, for we are told that if we even think something wrong, that we have sinned.

Today has been a very difficult day, as Thursdays in our home are house cleaning day, and with my back being sore, it has made things much harder. Hopefully, when we get help with the housework, things will become easier to deal with. I am trying to rely totally on God, trusting in His promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and that He is my helper, and I am also trying to glory in my our tribulations, knowing that the trying of our faith worketh patience.

Every tomorrow has two handles.  We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of faith.

What about you? How do you think that God sees you?

Thank you for stopping by to say hello and to share Tea Time with me. Ruth hosts Tea Talk each week – care to join us, pop on over to Celebrate Friendship and join in the fun.

From the Rising of the Sun…

Everything that has Breath

Praise Him in the sanctuary
Praise Him in the mighty Heavens
Praise Him
All the earth praise Him

Praise Him in His awesome power
Praise His great and holy name
Praise Him
The whole world praise Him

From the rising of the sun
Let His praise be heard
From the east to the west
And the north to south

Let everything that has breath
Praise the Lord forever
Let everything in my soul
Praise the Lord!



Of Fur Bunnies and Pianos

This morning, when I awoke my son, daughter and husband had already completed most of the housework, so we had breakfast, a very late breakfast I might add, and then the children washed and dried the breakfast dishes.

When they had finished the breakfast dishes, my daughter went off with her dad to collect firewood from one of the local farms, as a HUGE tree has come down in the paddock that they will be sowing very shortly. My son stayed home with me so that he could finish the vacuuming and mop the verandahs. He was still completing the dishes when I noticed fur bunnies along the skirting boards and the carpet near the skirting boards – aargh – this is why my asthma has been so severe, lately,  so I took hold of the vacuum cleaner, thinking that I could actually help with the housework. Silly me!

No such luck – I had nearly finished along the edges of the skirting boards in the loungeroom, and was vacumming one of the corners that didn’t look as if it had been vacuumed for a very long while, when it started. I coughed and coughed, my breathing became more difficult and then the wheezing started. My son was up in his bedroom, and I thought that he was never going to come down, but eventually he did, and I gasped, “Nebuliser,” at him. Of course, where was it? In the car. Where was the car? Not here! Darn it! Usually we are all together as a family, but the wood needed to be cut and the housework finished, and we couldn’t be in two places at once.

He wanted to call an ambulance, but living out here, the calls all go to Adelaide for ambulance, and by the time he had explained where we were, it would have been too late. He jumped on his bicycle and rode the  three kilometres to where my husband and daughter were cutting wood, and found them just arriving there after going to see about buying some oats. He threw the bike into the trailer, and they drove home and set up the nebuliser. I was so hot and unable to breathe, but somehow God sustained me through it all.

There were two lessons learned from this -

• Lesson one is that the nebuliser needs to be with me at all times, which was the reason that we left it in the car in the first place.
• Lesson two is that I need to explain to our children exactly how things need to be done.

Yes, it’s easier to do things ourselves – well, sometimes! It takes time and effort to show our children how we want things done, but how will they learn unless we teach them?

The things of God are learned in the same way -
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. John 6:45

My son is learning well, and this afternoon he has used the crevice tool to clean along the edges, and even went as  far as to shift the piano, which hasn’t been shifted for a very long time. Now all that we need to be able to do is to shift it back…  It weighs a ton! My husband and son managed to shift it back, and my son commented, “Now I have gorilla arms – they have stretched that far!” Now, I wonder, how often should we shift the piano???

I praise God that He strengthens us through times of trials, and He gives us His Peace – the verse that I remembered today was:~

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee:

because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

and He did ~ He kept me in perfect peace!