Amy's 'momentary trouble'

Today is the first day in 6 weeks that Amy didn’t have to get up early and travel to Madison for treatment. She was able to stay in bed and get a little extra sleep. It felt kind of strange not having the usual morning hustle of getting all the kids ready and on their separate ways while making sure that we left in enough time to get to her appointment promptly. Amy is still tiring easily and deals with a queasy stomach every once in awhile, but all in all I feel she’s doing well. She asked me today if she was ever going to get back to normal. I told her ‘of course!’ It seems to me that in the mornings she has issues with nausea due it part (or wholly) to draining in her throat and in the evenings, she just plain runs out of gas.

In my estimated count, about 270 people supported Amy (and Pancreatic Cancer Awareness) by wearing purple yesterday. Amy’s mother wrote a letter to the editor of the Baraboo News Republic which appeared in today’s paper. Her eloquently written letter expressed her gratitude to both the Baraboo community and our church family for supporting Amy and our family. She went on to say (and I have to agree) that Baraboo is a small town with a big heart. To all of you, we say Thank You!

We are given a command in the Psalms to ‘Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.’ (Psalm 100:4). I have come to realize that the quantity as well as the quality of thankfulness I express to God is anemic at best. We are shown in the book of Romans what can happen when we forget to be thankful. ‘Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.’ (Romans 1:21). We have been so blessed by God through each of you that life starts to get in the way and at times I forget to nurture my gratitude towards God. When you enter into prayer, do you take the time to thank God for specific blessings that He has bestowed on you or do you offer up a general thank you? I have done that, I’m not proud of admitting it, but I have. God has provided His son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins. As if that is not enough to be thankful for, consider your family, friends, health, safety, religious freedom or the very air we breath; the list is endless. When we are truly and deeply thankful with God, we will find peace. The Bible says ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.’ (Colossians 3:15). The book of Psalms mentions the word thanks nineteen times. That is just one word. Many of the words that David used were in thankfulness. David was considered a friend of God. I want to be considered a friend of God. So, I am determined to give Him more thanks. I must change the way I think so that I remember God in all things. That is the goal to aim at; to thank God in all things, in all circumstances, in all places, even in the worst circumstances of life. After all, That is what "entering into the gates with thanksgiving" means to me.

This is Amy's story as seen and told by me - V