How we chose to see things will dictate how we react to them.  Dealing with our daughter being in the NICU has been hard, but at lunch today this sweet girl saw my pink bracelet and asked if we had a little girl.  I said yes and she asked if she was born today and I said no and told her that she was born on January 19^th and that she was in the NICU.  She quickly said she was sorry, but I quickly told her not to be because the way I saw it was that I got to hold and kiss my daughter 41 days before I should have been able to and that God knew the exact time she was going to enter this world.

What we must realize is that nothing ever happens unless God chooses to allow it to happen.  We can never fully understand why He allows them to happen, but we can try to always look for the silver lining.  Tragedies happen every day and when we become fixated on our trials, we can’t see past them and we potentially miss out on something great God is trying to do in or through us.  I truly believe it is a little bit of both during our current chapter of life, but as I look back and see God’s faithfulness and provisions He has provided, I am assured of His sovereignty.

If given the choice of allowing good or bad things to happen in our lives, most of us would choose to allow only the good.  There is nothing wrong with only wanting the good, but in our times of trials, we truly get the chance to see God in action and our faith has the chance to grow exponentially.  When we trust that God has a plan, even in our pain, we grow closer to the Lord and a transformation occurs in us.

In the midst of our circumstances, it is sometimes hard to see the big picture.  As I was leaving the hospital today, I ran into a friend of mine whose young son has been in and out of the hospital since birth and has already lived beyond when the doctors said he would.  That in itself is profound, but what he said to me was even more.  His father asked him who was taking care of him and his response was Jesus and that he was going to see Him soon.  This was such an encouragement to me and a reminder that God can and will use everything we walk through to better His kingdom and accomplish His will.  I want to encourage you that whatever you are walking through to always look for the good, especially when it only seems to be bad.  Even though this young child knew his time here was limited, he made sure that I knew that Jesus was his heavenly Father and that he would see Him soon.  This was exactly what I needed to hear, so I would realize that even in our pain, God can and will use everything we endure to better His kingdom.