The Answer...Balloons

We arrived home from major dental work, and she was reeling. I looked at her father and knew what we needed to do...ASAP....get balloons! This pain was going no where, anytime soon (at least for today) and the balloons would be the tool, to help this daughter of mine, not focus on the pain. And keep her hands out of her mouth, and holding the balloons! It would also work to sooth her heart, while healing is working its way out.

The renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2), and setting of our affections (Col 3:2, 1 Peter 1:13) are tools that do very much the same thing...in our own pains and hurts. Like that balloon rises, our eyes look up, and our attentions take in view the color and beauty of our Father.  We see things there (heavenly places) that give us perspective, and hope. And looking to HIM gives color and joy, that we need from this gray place of pain.  Sometimes the greatest trap of pain, is thinking that we need it stopped NOW, instead of understanding our own need to endure.  Enduring in HOPE (Romans 12;12) is a walk, that does more than distract from our trouble, but gain rich lessons in the midst of them. 

I walked a mile with Pleasure

She chattered all the way;

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow

And ne'er a word said she;

But oh, the things I learned from her

When Sorrow walked with me."

Robert Browning Hamilton

We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person ...... the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus. --Oswald Chambers

The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger. --Elisabeth Elliot