“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls,
for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
There are so many Scriptures that encourage you to be strong, and to be of good cheer. We’re reminded that even though there will be problems in our lives, Christ has overcome the world, so ultimately we know we’ll be okay! But there are still days when all we want to do is pull the covers over our heads and stay in bed. Is today one of those days?
Jesus knew life would be hard. He knew that infertility and loss would be hard. The precious comforting words you read in Matthew 11:28-30 were spoken from His lips. If today is one of those days where everything feels too hard, hear Him say to you today, “Come to Me, you who are weary. I’ll give you rest.” You’ve tried to be strong for so long. You’ve tried to build your faith and tried to believe through so many failed procedures and negative pregnancy tests. Nothing could have convinced you that last month wasn’t the month--until your period and your tears started again. You’re just tired. Tired of trying and tired of crying.
Perhaps my friend, Erin, can say it better. She’s shares her heart with you in a poem she wrote and allows me to share with you.
One day, I won't need to hear "Mommy" or hold you or help you or feed you.
I will see clearly, instead of "through a glass dimly."
I will trust that God's ways really are "higher than my ways."
I will see how He "worked all things together for good."
Faith will be in Him alone-not in any earthly relationship.
Faith will even pass away, becoming sight of all things hoped for.
But today, I feel like such a baby.
God, will You please hold, me, help me, feed me, and call me Your child?
So if you’re tired today, hear the voice of Jesus beckoning you to come to Him, to rest in His embrace. To learn from Him and find rest. You can resume the fight tomorrow. But for today, just let Him hold you, help you, feed you and call you His child.
We at Sarah’s Laughter love you. We’re pulling for you! We’re praying for you. If there’s anything this ministry can do for you, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Recklessly Unannounced
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
After a quite intense battle with infertility, God blessed my husband and me with a daughter. We see Him in her every day of her life, and could never express the gratitude our hearts hold for His indescribable gift.
When she was two years old, Lexie had a seizure. We were visiting with my parents who lived smack dab in the middle of a national forest, and were about 45 minutes from the nearest hospital. Since she had not been feeling well that day, my husband slept in one bed and I put Lexie in the bed with me. About 4 AM my bed began to shake as if we were in the throws of a major earthquake! I flipped the lamp on to see this miracle baby God had given me with her eyes rolled in the back of her head and her entire body violently thrashing in every direction all at once!
I immediately grabbed her in my arms and began to run through the house alerting my family. I banged on the wall to wake my husband and headed for my parents’ bedroom. When I got to their room, I slammed the door open, threw my seizing baby on my parents’ bed and screamed “Daddy, pray! Lexie’s having a seizure!”
Before they could shake the sleep from their minds, both of my parents, my husband and I were crying out to God in a way I never had before. I could not even begin to think that God would grant us the miracle of this child after fighting infertility like we did, and then lose her to a seizure in the middle of the night. We called on God with amazing fervency, and He heard our cries. God brought my daughter through the seizure that night, and she has never had another one. To God be the glory!
I share this story with you, because I think there is a great truth for you to learn in your struggle with infertility. In the moments when I realized we had a major problem on our hands, the first thing I did was wake my husband and run to my parents room. I called out to my dad to begin praying. (My dad was a pastor for nearly 60 years. It seemed the natural thing for me to call his name, although I knew my mom and husband would pray just as fervently, and they did!) Do you think I knocked on the door? Do you think I stood at the door to their bedroom with my seizing baby in my arms and wondered if it was okay for me to disturb their sleep? Should I have called someone else down the street who might still be awake? Of course not! I burst through my father’s door, threw my sick baby on the bed and cried out for help.
This is a great example of what God tells us to do when we need His help! Hebrews 4:16 says:
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
God invites us to come to Him to receive mercy and grace in our time of need. The words “draw near with confidence” literally mean “come recklessly unannounced”! God tells us to come recklessly unannounced into His throne room to find the help we need! The night of the seizure, I didn’t wait to be invited before I burst into my father’s room. I didn’t ask someone else to go there for me. I didn’t wonder if he’d be mad for me waking him up, or if he would refuse to help me pray. I didn’t have to. He’s my father, and I’m his child. That’s all the authority I needed to burst through his door recklessly unannounced.
Burst into God’s throne room recklessly unannounced to find help when you need it. When you feel like you can’t take this struggle anymore, go recklessly unannounced to your Father and cry out for help. He won’t turn you away. When another period starts, or you and your spouse just can’t agree on what steps to take next, cry out to your Father and approach Him recklessly unannounced! Bring your hurt and your problem to Him and cast it on Him. He knows how heavy the burden of infertility is for you. He’ll respond to the cry of His child with grace and mercy to help you in your time of need.
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
After a quite intense battle with infertility, God blessed my husband and me with a daughter. We see Him in her every day of her life, and could never express the gratitude our hearts hold for His indescribable gift.
When she was two years old, Lexie had a seizure. We were visiting with my parents who lived smack dab in the middle of a national forest, and were about 45 minutes from the nearest hospital. Since she had not been feeling well that day, my husband slept in one bed and I put Lexie in the bed with me. About 4 AM my bed began to shake as if we were in the throws of a major earthquake! I flipped the lamp on to see this miracle baby God had given me with her eyes rolled in the back of her head and her entire body violently thrashing in every direction all at once!
I immediately grabbed her in my arms and began to run through the house alerting my family. I banged on the wall to wake my husband and headed for my parents’ bedroom. When I got to their room, I slammed the door open, threw my seizing baby on my parents’ bed and screamed “Daddy, pray! Lexie’s having a seizure!”
Before they could shake the sleep from their minds, both of my parents, my husband and I were crying out to God in a way I never had before. I could not even begin to think that God would grant us the miracle of this child after fighting infertility like we did, and then lose her to a seizure in the middle of the night. We called on God with amazing fervency, and He heard our cries. God brought my daughter through the seizure that night, and she has never had another one. To God be the glory!
I share this story with you, because I think there is a great truth for you to learn in your struggle with infertility. In the moments when I realized we had a major problem on our hands, the first thing I did was wake my husband and run to my parents room. I called out to my dad to begin praying. (My dad was a pastor for nearly 60 years. It seemed the natural thing for me to call his name, although I knew my mom and husband would pray just as fervently, and they did!) Do you think I knocked on the door? Do you think I stood at the door to their bedroom with my seizing baby in my arms and wondered if it was okay for me to disturb their sleep? Should I have called someone else down the street who might still be awake? Of course not! I burst through my father’s door, threw my sick baby on the bed and cried out for help.
This is a great example of what God tells us to do when we need His help! Hebrews 4:16 says:
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
God invites us to come to Him to receive mercy and grace in our time of need. The words “draw near with confidence” literally mean “come recklessly unannounced”! God tells us to come recklessly unannounced into His throne room to find the help we need! The night of the seizure, I didn’t wait to be invited before I burst into my father’s room. I didn’t ask someone else to go there for me. I didn’t wonder if he’d be mad for me waking him up, or if he would refuse to help me pray. I didn’t have to. He’s my father, and I’m his child. That’s all the authority I needed to burst through his door recklessly unannounced.
Burst into God’s throne room recklessly unannounced to find help when you need it. When you feel like you can’t take this struggle anymore, go recklessly unannounced to your Father and cry out for help. He won’t turn you away. When another period starts, or you and your spouse just can’t agree on what steps to take next, cry out to your Father and approach Him recklessly unannounced! Bring your hurt and your problem to Him and cast it on Him. He knows how heavy the burden of infertility is for you. He’ll respond to the cry of His child with grace and mercy to help you in your time of need.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The Ridiculousness of God
Oh, I wish you could have been with me yesterday! Every single one of you! I know that infertility is so hard and can drain you of your sense of humor. You can sometime use a laugh! You would have gotten a chuckle if you could have followed me yesterday! You see, I took my 73 year old mother to the doctor and my 79 year old dad tagged along. (Don’t see the humor yet? Hang on!) The appointment was with a new doctor and we were not quite sure where the office was, but figured we’d just follow the signs once we got close. When we got to the appropriate floor of the physicians’ tower, my parents stepped off the elevator and began “confidently” heading straight toward the office of an infertility clinic! It was the funniest sight! A duo of septuagenarians, wrinkles, gray hair, one with an artificial knee and one with a walker, determinedly headed for fertility center! What if the fertility staff had looked out the door? What would they have thought? “Hey doc! Don’t plan on going to lunch today! You’ve got a doozy of a case coming this way!” We all laughed when I pointed out the sign over the door where they were headed as I quickly steered them toward the much more appropriate office. (I think I heard my dad say something about just popping into the fertility clinic to get checked out, but he complied with me and followed us into mom’s doctor’s office!) What a ridiculous sight!
If my parents had been going to a fertility clinic on purpose, there is no doubt in my mind that the fertility specialist would have thought they were out of their minds! I’ll bet he would have scheduled a psychiatric consult rather than a fertility work-up! But do you realize that Scripture tells of a couple with an even more ridiculous fertility story? Add more than 25 years to this story and you have the family history of Sarah and Abraham! Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 when they were the proud parents of a brand new, bouncing baby boy! God performed a ridiculous miracle in the lives of Sarah and Abraham to do for them what He promised He would do. The Bible is full of God doing things that the world would deem ridiculous. Oh, the ridiculousness of God!
Friend, God can still do the ridiculous! If God decides to place life in a womb, it doesn’t matter if that womb is 42 years old! God is the giver of life! If God says there will be life, there will be life! If God chooses to conquer PCOS, endometriosis, and low sperm counts, He will! How ridiculous it may seem to believe that God can take a child conceived in a tiny village on the other side of the world, and destine that baby to be raised in your loving Christian home in the United States, to be taught of the love of Christ at your knee, and to call you Mommy, but if God calls it done, then friend, prepare your nursery! How unbelievable that even God could help you survive months or even years of waiting until His plan is made manifest in your life. But He does. He has. He is. I love the ridiculousness of God!
God is still able to do exceeding, abundantly above all you can ask, or even think to ask Him to do for you. He is still working and moving through the infertile days of your life. Trust Him through the confusing days. And look for the ridiculousness of God!
Submit a prayer request or join the Sarah's Laughter Prayer Team at
Requests@Sarahs-Laughter.com
If my parents had been going to a fertility clinic on purpose, there is no doubt in my mind that the fertility specialist would have thought they were out of their minds! I’ll bet he would have scheduled a psychiatric consult rather than a fertility work-up! But do you realize that Scripture tells of a couple with an even more ridiculous fertility story? Add more than 25 years to this story and you have the family history of Sarah and Abraham! Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 when they were the proud parents of a brand new, bouncing baby boy! God performed a ridiculous miracle in the lives of Sarah and Abraham to do for them what He promised He would do. The Bible is full of God doing things that the world would deem ridiculous. Oh, the ridiculousness of God!
Friend, God can still do the ridiculous! If God decides to place life in a womb, it doesn’t matter if that womb is 42 years old! God is the giver of life! If God says there will be life, there will be life! If God chooses to conquer PCOS, endometriosis, and low sperm counts, He will! How ridiculous it may seem to believe that God can take a child conceived in a tiny village on the other side of the world, and destine that baby to be raised in your loving Christian home in the United States, to be taught of the love of Christ at your knee, and to call you Mommy, but if God calls it done, then friend, prepare your nursery! How unbelievable that even God could help you survive months or even years of waiting until His plan is made manifest in your life. But He does. He has. He is. I love the ridiculousness of God!
God is still able to do exceeding, abundantly above all you can ask, or even think to ask Him to do for you. He is still working and moving through the infertile days of your life. Trust Him through the confusing days. And look for the ridiculousness of God!
Submit a prayer request or join the Sarah's Laughter Prayer Team at
Requests@Sarahs-Laughter.com
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