Spiritual & Inspirational Sunday June 21, 2009

Welcome to my Spiritual & Inspirational Sunday post. Each Sunday I want to share with you some of the quotes or scripture that I have collected over the past twenty-five years. My hope is that after reading the quote or scripture I share below, you take a moment to pause and reflect. Perhaps you will share it with someone who is in need of reading this very quote or scripture. 

In the past few weeks I have been forced out of my comfort zone, the one I call peace and serenity. You know how it is when it rains, it pours! For me, when lots of things happen at once, I submerge myself into whatever it is that is happening and sometimes find myself forgetting to ask God to come along. Then, I realize it is my faith in God that I need. With that in mind, I wanted to share a few quotes I have dealing with faith.

Getting out of my comfort zone began with my daughter having  leg/vein surgery. You know that feeling of nervousness that creeps in when our children have any sort of health issue or other issue for that matter. Fortunately, there were no complications and she tolerated the pain and discomfort well. A bonus, I got to spend some time with two of my precious grandbabies.

Soon after returning home I found myself dealing with a reoccurring ear issue called a preauricular pit. Something I was born with and never knew the medical term until last August when it became infected. If you have ever seen a tiny hole in the upper part of a person’s ear, it was probably a preauriclar pit.  I was asked on many occasions if that was a hole from getting my ear pierced.  This was way before body piercing was popular. I have met nine people who have these including my surgeon.  (To see a photo, click on this link. http://www.doctorhoffman.com/xpit.htm   I share this information so if perhaps you know of someone who has one of these or one on each ear as I do, you can tell them what it is called. If they have ever had trouble with “the pit”, you can tell them there is a surgical solution, something I wish I had known years ago.) My first infection surfaced last August and I was told if it occurred again they would operate and remove the pit.  Fortunately, this is not inner ear and does not affect my hearing.  I went to see my surgeon who scheduled my operation on his next surgery day which was the day after the Memorial Day holiday. Unfortunately, infection set in two days prior to surgery and the surgery had to be postponed indefinitely. Later that week, using syringes, the surgeon drained the infected and inflamed area around my ear, temple and cheekbone. Imagine an area so inflamed and tender that feeling the air blowing from a fan hurts and he is going to put needles into it. Yikes! Talk about painful, I wanted to lose my last meal right then and there! Fortunately, my sweet friend Laurie went with me and she held my head tightly against her chest as instinctively I was trying to move away.

So after almost two weeks of dealing with my ear, I was getting back to a full nights sleep and  my peace and serenity. Then came the news of the death of two friends, three days apart which I mentioned in my last Spiritual & Inspirational Sunday post. Of course both of them are still in my mind and heavy on my heart but each day is better. My peace and serenity was beginning to return until last night.

After going to bed, my other ear felt tender. As I went to sleep, I thought to myself, there is no way the same thing is happening to that ear. Well, it is. Ugh! I called one of my best friends who is an internist and ran by his home this morning. He put me on an antibiotic which hopefully will prevent infection.  I plan to call my surgeon tomorrow and see if he can see me. He operates on Tuesdays, so hopefully he can fit me in. I am putting my faith in God and turning all of this over to him. Letting go and letting God!  Blessings. …susan

Where the footprints of God lead you, the grace of God can keep you.

God is not going to give me anything I cannot handle.

Faith is not like gasoline in danger of running out if we go too far, it is more like a  muscle that strengthens and grows from practice and use.

God is with me, God is helping me, God is guiding me.

Faith…in God, in ourselves, in other people and in the natural order and destiny of things in this world.

The source of these quotes are unknown. If you know the source and contact me, I will give credit.