Sunday, October 12, 2014

Mountaintops and Valleys

I was thinking, yesterday, on our drive up into the mountains full of colorful trees, "Whew.  What a year!"  Who knew when we tromped up and down those apple filled hills last year, that He had big plans for my life just following that day.

Within a week of our apple adventures last year, I started having significant pain in my knee joints.  I chalked it up to the change in my "stature" after about 8 months in flip flops.  My knees couldn't handle the switch to boots.... or so I thought.  And I started to exercise more vigorously to "work off" the adjustment.
 
 After about 4 months of this, along with more discomfort in my ankles and elbow joints, I decided I would let a rheumatologist decide.  She took one look at me and named it:  Psoriatic Arthritis.  
 
Hmmmmm.
 
Really???
 
 Me with an auto-immune disease??  Go figure.

 This year has held many days of pain so intense that I couldn't rise from the bed without assistance.

It was tough.  How is the family suppose to function without a functioning momma?  Huh?  I had a lot of conversations with my Heavenly Father asking him that very question.
 
 And this was His answer:

"I will teach your children to serve with a genuine heart for Me.
 
I will grow in you a 'joy in the journey' that you have never known before.
 
I will show Myself to you in the deepest and sweetest of ways.
 
And I will make you grateful for things that you never noticed before.
 
 And you will see My healing in the land of your sojourn."

So this year, as we climbed up and down those orchard hills...
 
 I celebrated His goodness to me....

 His Grace, and His Mercy.