Brand new blogger!

Bethany Dillon- Hallelujah

Hello, everyone!

Okay, so I'm brand new to this whole blogging thing and this is my very first blog. God has been teaching me so many new things recently, and so I wanted to share some of them with all of you! So here goes...

So much has been going on with my family the past month (by the way, for all of you who didn't know, I'm kid number 4 out of 10 kids). My little brother Joshua, who is only 6 years old, has spina bifita (we adopted him from China because of his special needs). As a result of this special need, his spine had become tethered. We (Mom and Dad) set up a date to "detether" it on December 9th. They thought that way the surgery could be done and over with, and hopefully healed by Christmas time (we were going to North Carolina and Pennsylvania to visit our extended family the day after Christmas, as our usual tradition.). It's funny how we can plan things, and how God changes those plans! So, God had a better plan for our December 9th-January 11th.

To make a very long story short, Joshua had a lot of problems with the graph from the procedure seeping spinal fluid into his lower back. As a result, he has spent 4 out of the past 5 weeks in the hospital. We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Day in the hospital with him. During this time, my mom would be at the hospital for the day shift and my dad would be there for the night shift, leaving the oldest teenagers with most of the responsibilities around the house (and help with taking some of the day shifts for/with Mom). I had done pretty well with dealing with it all and trusting God with the situation. Finally, a week ago, Sunday night, Monday night, and Tuesday night, I finally cracked. I was feeling down, "depressed," and in a pretty grumpy mood. I started to blame God for all of the pain and for the reason everything didn't turn out how I had wanted it to.

As I was going through this, I realized I had gotten away from my quiet time with God. I had been skipping my time alone with Him and as a result, I was grumpy and upset. But as I picked up that time with Him again, I was much happier and very trusting of God with it all.

When you think about it, most of the times we're down, discouraged, and upset are the times we're not spending enough time with Him. Talking and being with Him is what helps comfort us and helps us to feel better. Those are the best times!

It feels just like it feels when someone you can always count on to be there for you isn't able to be with you (whether it was their fault or something that was beyond them). We get down and discouraged. But as soon as we pick that time up again, we start feeling better and we feel peace. We need God to help us through EVERYTHING we're going through, the good and the bad. It's our responsibility to make sure we're spending enough time with Him!

God, please help us not to skimp out on our relationship with You! Help us to always run to You when we need you! Help us to always remember that You're there for us no matter what we're going through and that You'll always be there to help as long as we ask You to!