Peace Through Adversity

Just because this was the title of our MUSICAL FIRESIDE last night, don't think for a moment that we have this mastered. We don't.

I find it so interesting that in an opportunity to teach the principle of finding peace in our afflictions, the Lord gives us the opportunity to learn it for ourselves. Last Sunday, Jessica was just coming off her chemo treatments and for some reason, her body swelled up huge this time around. I don't know if it's just that she's had so many toxins pumped through her lately that her body is struggling to know what to do with it all so it just swells. Anyway, She was pretty puffy and added to that was the beginnings of a cold. I think the extra fluids in her body tipped the scales and her eardrum ruptured. She spent the week mending and trying to keep up with her school work.
By Saturday night before the day of the fireside, Jessica got an upper respiratory infection. It started to spread to her eyes. Normally, this would be something that could just play out on its own, but when you are immuno-suppressed, infections can be pretty serious.

So, Saturday night before the fireside, we spent a better part of our night in the hospital, fighting an infection that was beginning to spread.
Sunday morning, we reluctantly peeled ourselves out of bed to go to church. All of us were exhausted. I thought I would sneak in a couple hour nap after church to be rested for the Fireside that night. It was a heavy day of Sunday responsibilities and splitting myself between two different church buildings; the Single's Ward where David Serves in the Bishopric, and my own ward where my kids needed me to help with their responsibilities, my head was pounding by Sunday School.

I got home from church, fixed dinner, cleaned up from dinner, attended to what the kids all wanted to tell me and show me and thought to myself, "I'm going to go lie down after I just print off my talk, do a music check, charge my i-pod, and do some last minute finishing touches to my slides." The device that I had all my music for the fireside stored malfunctioned and failed. That put me into adrenalin mode to try to figure out a solution (okay, okay... I was totally stressed out).......not to mention that we were still praying up until 4:00pm that Jessica would be able to be upright and able to sing and speak.

Well, my nap didn't happen, my headache didn't go away, but just as it always does, things worked themselves out and the actual fireside was a thrill to get to participate in. All the details came together and our goal was accomplished. Now, if I would just learn to trust in that process more and know that the Lord works things together for our good. Things always work out the way they should whether we stress about them or not.

How ironic that we were given the opportunity to live the very principle we were trying to teach even on the day we taught it.

A big thank you to all who helped make this happen. We had so much help and people who selflessly gave of their talents and their time with no thanks or recognition.

Amazing.

I will post a few clips from the fireside on here later .