to the other blogging moms:

thank you. Truly.

Last night, I was browsing links from Et Tu, Jen?'s weekly links post. I don't remember where exactly I found it, but somewhere between Radical Catholic Mom and The Wine Dark Sea, I came across the idea, the reminder really, that when it comes to our children, serving their immediate needs (real needs) is pretty much always what God would have us be doing. If they need water, then getting up and getting them water is serving Jesus, and he'd probably rather have us doing that than doing any other great devotional work.

Anyway, I was glad to have that at the forefront of my mind, because just as my husband and I were getting ready for bed, my three year old woke up, projectile vomiting and with a fever of about 103. Bedtime was delayed by a good hour as we cleaned her up, tried to get her to drink and take some Tylenol, held her head as she threw up again, tried more water and Tylenol, held her head as she threw up again, changed her again, rinsed more laundry, dug out the electrolyte drink and moved her bed into our room so we could keep an ear out for her during the night.

Through all of this I was nursing my own headache and longing to be asleep. But I still managed to be soothing and present with my daughter. I don't think I could have done that as well if I hadn't had in my head the encouraging thought that this was obviously exactly what Jesus would have me doing right then. I'm so glad I read those blog entries; they came at the perfect time, right before I really needed them, and I didn't even know it.

This morning, Bess still has a fever, but she's been able to keep down crackers and water and Tylenol, and her fever's a much less scary 100.5. Please pray for her and for us, though, for healing and that it doesn't spread through the rest of our family.

But I just wanted to say: it was cool to see how God gave me the reminder I needed right before I needed it. I am amazed, as always, at how the Holy Spirit works through his people. And tickled to see that that includes us momma bloggers. :)

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s. the other big reason last night was so much better than it could have been? I wasn't alone. Adam was there, holding and comforting and cleaning right along side me. Thank God, also, for husbands. Amen and amen.