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| Will is a gentle soul that cares about others when they are hurting. |
Last night before going to bed I found myself very tired and
ready to hit the hay, just after getting our children in their beds. I needed to do a number of household chores
first though. Anne is gone all week
grading College Advance Placement exams in Kentucky, so I am alone with the
kids holding the fort down.
Towards the
end of the evening, our son Will came up to me and mentioned that he had an
aching tooth. (His filling had fallen
out a few days before and we are now waiting for his scheduled appointment to
get a filling put back in.) I was very
tired and it was late, but I felt so bad for him in his pain. He had a headache earlier so I gave him ibuprofen
and now the acetaminophen was my only option for his toothache. So, I tried that with some Orajel, and he went back to bed. A few minutes later, he came back up and said
that he was still in great pain. His
tooth was again aching and I could see that he was on the verge of tears (which
is unusual for him). I told him that I had
done everything I could think of, and then a thought came to my mind. I hadn’t prayed with him. We both then prayed and asked God to relieve him
of his pain. After praying, he went back
to bed again, and about 15 minutes later he came back to me and said the pain
was much worse. I thought to myself at
that point, “Why Lord did you not heal my son?
He is in such pain. Was it that I
did not have enough faith? Why
Lord?”
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| Will enjoying life. |
I looked at Will and told him that I didn't know what else
I could do. I thought maybe I could
perhaps find some Orajel that was bought more recently, and that perhaps would work better. I then looked below the sink, desperate to
find a solution to his pain. While searching, I noticed that my overnight bag for toilet supplies was all wet sitting there
under the sink. After looking up under
the sink, I could see that water was dripping from the faucet above. It was coming at a steady stream. First I thought, “Great, not this too!” On top of the leaky sink, I did not find the
Orajel, and I was feeling pretty low and desperate. “Now I have another thing to fix.” I was not being empathetic to my son’s pain
at this point as I should have been. I
looked over at Will and I apologized for my selfishness. Being Will, he causally said in his soft
voice, “That’s ok daddy, I am sorry that you have to fix the sink! I will help
you with this.” This made me think, “How
did I get such a wonderful son? I am
surely not deserving of such a boy who is so thoughtful in the midst of so much
pain. At that moment, I was learning
from my child about selflessness. I
smiled at him, and then it dawned on me, if it hadn’t been for his continued
pain after praying, I would never have noticed the leak under the sink, and
that could have cost us a lot in damages to repair. (Our neighbor just had eight thousand dollars
worth of damages in having both a new dishwasher and new refrigerator water
dispenser leak while they were on vacation.
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| Will and Abby making the most out of a hot day. |
After further thought, I came to see that God was allowing
the toothache to worsen, even after our prayer, in order for me to find this
leak under the sink. I then started to
fix the damaged faucet when Will looked up at me and said, “Daddy, my pain is
gone now!” He had a smile on his face
and I could see God’s hand in all that had just transpired. God wanted me to find the damaged faucet, and
by allowing Will’s pain to increase, I then could find the leak under our sink
when looking for the Orajel. He was also
teaching me about trust issues with him, and that of letting go, and showing me
that sometimes I need to let him take control of the situation. God is so good and I am very glad that he is so patient with
me.
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| "I know that it is hot, but do we want to go into an ice cold trout stream?" |
