White appears through her\u00a0pink gum. For days, tears flow – pain, agitated – pain, tired – pain. Teething. The crying, fuzziness, sleeplessness and I tell my friends, ” I am thankful I don’t remember the pain.”<\/p>\n
But is that really something to find satisfaction in? Without the pain, is there joy? Again, I pause at the thought of pain. Is pain all bad?<\/p>\n
Days of rain. Creek overflowing. Rain, dreary rain. All I can think is “yuck!” I can’t go outside. We are imprisoned in our home…days. All I see is the bad. The loneliness. The lack of my creativity when it comes to entertaining my one-year-old. This situation stinks!<\/p>\n
Finally, feeling claustrophobic\u00a0I wrap my hand around the olive green umbrella and I walk. It doesn’t take long. I begin to see something different. It’s not all bad. Even in the light rain falling around me I see the towering trees of vibrant greens and their leaves shimmering from water’s touch. Puddles underneath me. The awe of how water pools in gravel. Even that, beauty, miracle.<\/p>\n
Rain. Pain. All bad? Is there good? Beauty?<\/p>\n
With my human lenses, I can’t always see the good, the beauty. In my human eyes, the perspective\u00a0is skewed.<\/p>\n
My baby’s symptoms of pain let me know something is changing.<\/p>\n
My symptoms of pain slow me down. Cause me to evaluate. And when I evaluate I turn my thoughts from the outward to within. And within I call on the One who knows me best. The One who can guide me through the pain. The One who can bring healing. The One who causes me to see the trees shimmering from rain’s touch.<\/p>\n
In seasons of pain and rain…even there is beauty. Dare to see it. Dare to believe that God is good…always…forever.<\/p>\n
Psalm 143:5-6\u00a0I remember the days of old;\u00a0<\/span>I meditate on all that you have done;\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I ponder the work of your hands.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I stretch out my hands to you;\u00a0<\/span><\/em>my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.<\/em> ESV<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Psalm 73:28\u00a0But for me it is good to be near God;\u00a0<\/span>I have made the Lord God<\/span> my refuge,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em>that I may tell of all your works.<\/em> ESV<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n James 1:2-4\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Dear brothers and sisters,\u00a0when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.<\/span> For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.<\/span> <\/em>So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.<\/em> NLT<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" White appears through her\u00a0pink gum. For days, tears flow – pain, agitated – pain, tired – pain. Teething. The crying, fuzziness, sleeplessness and I tell my friends, ” I am thankful I don’t remember the pain.” But is that really something to find satisfaction in? Without the pain, is there joy? Again, I pause at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","sharing_disabled":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[11,13,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/AS6_5873stock-173.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7NWg5-9q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}