CHD Awareness Week - Praise

Each day for CHD Awareness Week I'll be posting about the 7 most important things I've learned as a heart mom.   From practical to spiritual, the past 2 years have been a new experience for me and for us as a family.  My prayer is for these insights to help educate and encourage my fellow heart moms and others who follow our journeys.   

And don't forget to check out this post for a special heart giveaway!

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I’ve learned to praise Him.   In the desert or in harvest, I will praise Him.

I love this song.  Since the first time I heard it, it became my song of choice for worship.  It describes the very attitude I desire to have each and every day.  As a heart mom, this is difficult to do, especially when you are in the desert and in battle…a lot.   However, I noticed that when I truly praise Him for our circumstances, as dire as they seem at the time, His wonderful and beautiful peace that is only His to give, falls on me with grace.   For isn’t it by His grace that we praise Him?

Praise for a heart cath instead of surgery.

Praise for Liam's g-tube – as much as I wish we could take it out, it really has been a blessing.

Praise for doctors who are cautious and protective of our child.

Praise for the red wagons in the children’s unit at the hospital… after pulling a hurting child and seeing him happy again, I’ve realized I’ve praised you several times for this already.

Praise for anesthesia…praise my child won’t remember what he went through in the OR or Cath Lab.  Thank you Lord for your protection over his mind.

Praise you’ve let me stay home to be with Liam, to watch him grow, while You continue to provide for our family.

Praise that our child will have deeper compassion and understanding for others,  given the path you chose for him.

Praise for the lives touched, the people who’ve prayed, the light that is shining from our family because of our son’s life…Praise for your son’s life.

Praise Liam knows “Jesus lives in his heart”…and if Jesus is there, it’s perfect.

Praise that our circumstances bring us closer to you, falling at your feet, even if it’s to collapse in our weariness or weep for a life that seems impossible to bear….You will carry us, hold us and are always there with us.

Praise that You are an ever-present Living God…and You are faithful.

Thank you, Lord.

“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Psalm 100:1-5