Helmet

My granddaughter, baby Molly (7 months) has a doctors appointment on a regular basis to evaluate the sizing of her little helmet. Her skull has a flattened side which is able to be corrected, hopefully in a 12 week time frame, by leaving an inside portion of the helmet with an open space for growth on the flat side of the head while the other side is snugly fitted. She wears the helmut for 23 hours of the day, and this baby is such an easy going baby, she seems to have adjusted quite well.

Jennifer was in the doctor's office this week with her, and she says people do pay attention to the helmet and often unconsciously stare. Surely they wonder why and how this works. Yesterday she was sitting in the waiting room with another lady who did speak up. She asked very sweetly what the diagnosis was that instigated the need for a helmut and Jennifer told her the reason behind it and their conversation began. The lady responded that at least you know what to do to fix the situation. Her child, who was with her, was now five, and appeared to be normal at birth but throughout the years her child has had surgeries, and appointments and evaluations to try to explain why her daughter cannot walk and why there are some mental holdbacks, but to no avail. Her child had a life expectancy of two years and still today at five years they are trying to figure out what to do next. What a tremendous burden to carry for your child. She is doing all that she knows to do but still questions are left unanswered, and solutions are yet to be found.

Jennifer is blessed to have a solution and a remedy for the health and well being of her precious Molly, but oh there are so many people who are floundering in the same life boat as this lady who she had met. The situations may be vastly different, it could be something with your own health issue, a tangled problem within a relationship, or finances or anything that you have wrestled with and have searched for answers for that have made us weary. The choices that we are faced with are 1) give up and accept defeat or 2) to keep fighting until all hope is gone. It is hard to maintain hope when nothing seems to change and answers are no where to be found or the answers that have been given do not line up with what you want to do or are willing to do.

We carefully select the folks that we go to who are experienced in dealing with selected topics and we are blessed many times with answers and solutions but what happens when the answers are not there? Then what? May I suggest that hope abides. It is when we lose our footing on God's foundation of hope that we begin to crater. Even in the direst circumstances, and the darkest pits of life, if we allow that tiny spark of hope to flicker, it gives us the courage and perseverance to carry on even in the midst of our weariness, loneliness or despair. Hope is God's nudge that keeps us moving forward and gives us strength in the midst of our restlessness. Oscar Wilde said: "We are all in the gutter, some of us are just looking at the stars". Maybe that is what hope is all about...looking up... and not allowing ourselves the undisciplined act of accepting darkness as a permanent status.

We all have struggles that are woven within and through our lives that entangle us. And some of those struggles may never be resolved as long as we are on this earth. But God has given us hope, hope in who he is, hope in his power, hope in his strength to cope, hope in his authority and hope in his grace. And it is on the foundation of that very hope that we can confidently stand without waver.

Some verses on Hope:
Psalm 25:Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. (I love this one for my baby Molly)
2 Thessalonians 2:16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
2 Corinthians 1:10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,

Dear Lord, Thank you that no matter how overwhelming our struggles may be, that you are with us and have given us your great hope to stand on. Amen

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!