Eric & Emma happily hiking in Tahoe about a week before they both got sick.
As mentioned briefly in my “Summer Snapshots” post, Eric and Emma were both sick for a good 10 day span in August. I was thankful that God kept little Ella (in my belly) and I healthy and also that He continued to daily be giving me enough energy to care for my two sickies in our little family. However, by Thursday afternoon the wave of complete exhaustion came crashing right into me head on.
From this particular “crashing wave of exhaustion moment” on (I’d say literally right about noon on Thursday afternoon) I prayed even more continuously for God to give me the grace, energy, patience and discipline throughout the day to fulfill my role as wife and mom in a way that honored Him through all my actions. I was feeling overwhelmed. And then kicked in my superpower…
Thursday morning I had briefly mentioned on my good ‘ol facebook status that sadly Eric and Emma were still sick. Then oh so sweetly later in the afternoon I saw that I had a comment on my status from one of the women in our church, asking if she could help by bringing us dinner. Now normally I would be like “oh no that’s okay don’t worry about it, you’re so sweet” but because I knew I had specifically prayed for extra help and energy from God (along with the fact that I really was completely exhausted) I very excitedly and gratefully accepted her sweet offer! Then, just like that we had dinner a great dinner Thursday night that I did not have to lift a finger to cook, total God thing!
Come Friday morning I was feeling a bit more energy but still lacking a little on my full energy level. Then God just decided to have my mother-in-law working nearby on this particular Friday afternoon. She called sometime early afternoon asking if she could stop by to see little Emma for a little and offering to bring some Subway for lunch (a total pregnancy craving of mine)!! As she spent some fun Grammy time with little Emma I got the chance to catch up on some housework that had fallen to the back-burner for the past week (as I focused on getting Eric and Emma healthy again, while also wanting to keep little Ella healthy inside of me)! It was perfect timing, once again…another total God thing!
Though at first glance these situations may seem just like nicely timed coincidences, I knew better. God gifted those special ladies to me to help me out and show me His care in the middle of my exhaustion.
So you see in the end, this “Superpower” I am referring to is not actually me at all, but rather Christ in me. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” and I have no doubt that this is true because, as little as it may seem, in the world of this stay-at-home wife & mommy the exhaustion of those sick days was a serious time of weakness for me! Yet because of this great truth in 2 Corinthians 12:9 I was able to be refreshed and strengthened through that weakness. God once again reminded me of His great love, provision, and care for me and how I would not make it one day without Him as my Savior.
And so I thought I would end by boasting the same way Paul (the writer of 2 Corinthians) did in verses 9 & 10 …following the verse above…. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
God’s strength in my weakness is a great thing for me to remember as we head into these next two weeks, in which we will sometime be moving to a new place and I know I will and do need God’s strength and energy to get me through! This truth allows me to look at what may seem overwhleming with a joy, peace, and calmness that I know I would not have with God’s “superpower” living in me! I am so thankful to God that He so graciously allowed me to see this truth played out in my seemingly simple day to day life!
Simple Joys of Home 