That Time of Year

Editor’s note: its flu season and families throughout the church are feeling the effects. Flu bugs running through a family can be a particular challenge for moms, who must add the role of nurse to their already bulging job description. Of course it’s always understood that ‘a mom can never get sick’, so when you do there’s the additional temptation to press on rather than rest and recover. Just about this time last year Christina Roth sent in a post we didn’t have a chance to use that seems particularly timely for Flu season 2009.

It came, later than I expected, but it came. It’s the dreaded season when all the Roth kids get sick. I feel trapped in the never-ending cycle of wiping noses and many tears, washing soiled bedding, giving asthma treatments, hot showers and endless teaspoons of the miracle drug Motrin (preferably bubble gum flavor). Unfortunately, this season even included a recent trip to riddle emergency room. These are days I feel like I’m on auto pilot…I’m sure you can relate. I’m caught up in the business of it all, wondering when it will end. Though I continue my morning devotions, I often find myself feeling far from the Lord in the midst of my weariness. Flu season can do a number on your spiritual perspective.

During this season my prayers were little more than short cries to the Father, “Lord help him”, “Lord please heal her”, and then “Lord help me, I need to hear your voice.” Doesn’t He always answer these prayers? He did… while I was reading from a book by Anne Ortlund called “The Gentle Ways of the Beautiful Woman”. She writes “If you have made God your highest priority of all, he is there. You are learning to abide in him, and he in you. There is calm, there is peace. He is your refuge, to which you continually run.” That’s it! It’s times like these when I truly learn how to abide in Him. Even when I’m tired from treating an ailing family, or battling sickness myself, I realize something wonderful. When I can barely walk in my physical state, I can run to the Savior in my heart. He is my refuge…He is my peace.