Sister-in-law who is scheduled for painful surgery and who is already addicted to narcotics and is at exceptionally high dosages that are not, apparently, touching the pain any more. How can the doctors possibly medicate her post-surgery pain? And how can she get off of oxycontin and percoset addictions? Two trips to the ER for potential accidental overdoses in the last two weeks. Very scary, lots of confusion and anger and family conflict. After one particularly bad scene, I went home and shouted at God for why He couldn't intervene more. I asked Him if He was powerful enough to really help. He certainly and very swiftly answered me "Yes", which is a topic for another post. I've spent a week or two apologizing to Him! But my prayer for her is just that God be most mindful of her needs and intervene where He can to save her life and get her heart and mind back to good strength.
My brother, who cares for her. He was so overloaded a few weeks ago that he had some sort of emotional collapse at church and the brothers there went with him to the ER, where he was admitted on a suicide watch. There is no one to care for her so when he got out of the hospital, he went right back to it. I helped the best I could but made things worse because she already does not like me and with me in the role of doling out her meds, it blew up. Spoke with my brother about it, she cannot comprehend that everything I did, I did under doctor's orders. I am no longer welcome anywhere around her, cannot even call the house. I text my brother and he calls me on his cell the next time he leaves the house.
Her kids, that they will somehow be impressed to come and help. My brother and I have both spoken with them and they feel they both can't afford it and can't take time away from responsibilities and work. I pray that I can forgive them. My own mother was homeless and my sister and I knocked ourselves out to stay in touch with her and get her off the street. We made many sacrifices, many. When we were broke college students, we drove a couple of hours each day to go to another city to try to find her. When I lived in another state, I either gave her bus tickets or air tickets to come see me (which was a real treat for her) or I flew up there several times a year. When we finally got her off the street, I paid the down payment and most of the house payment for many years, and flew up several times a year to "spell" my sister and help with housework. This was all when I didn't make much money. So I don't have any sympathy for people not making the effort to help care for a desperately ill parent and relieve the primary caretaker. Ah, here's the prayer for me... not to judge. Need to forgive. Need to pray for their hearts to be softened and their courage strengthened so they can step in.
My sister, always. Her circumstances are fairly dire in terms of health, income, and housing. I have no doubt that the Lord has intervened many times in her behalf. I just pray that it will continue and most especially, I pray that He will heal her eyes in a miraculous way and that He will help her to write effectively and find many avenues to publish. She is very talented and is a writer and editor by profession, just open doors for her. Help guide us to a way for her to get health insurance.
Updates:
- Spoke with my sister 1/4/08. She was able to get an earlier appointment with an eye doctor; the appointement was on 1/4/08. I told her not to worry about the expense for special contact lenses, I will cover it.
- Spoke with my sister 1/6/08. She has a prescription for new glasses and just needs to come up with the full amount. I won't have it to help until 1/15 but will be glad to give it. But listen to what a great soul my sister is. She accidentally hit a dog with her car the other day. She lives in a rural area and was taking my brother to work. It's cold and it's winter and she had no money to help. The dog was very badly injured. So my brother dragged it to the side of the road and she gave him the keys so he could continue on to work and she sat with the dog, covered it with a blanket and held it's head and talked to it. She called a friend with the local animal control who came out. They would have transported it but the dog died. But her commitment was to stay with it and get what help she could and she is now looking at community flyers and "lost dog" news items so she can find the owner and let them know what happened.
My little brother, because of his line of work, I always pray for his protection.
A single-mom friend who is out of work and whose background makes it challenging. She had an interview recently that I pray leads to good employment.
Updates:
- She called me, said the church would pay $950 on rent. She needs to come up with the remaining $350. I offered some suggestions but omitted the key one, which I'll tell her today. Come clean with the landlord, let him know you're struggling right now, be straight with him. That's always the best. Then file the papers to get your 401k money ASAP. I will also send her to my list of resources in the community.
Another single-mom friend, educated but burned out and now unemployed. I pray that SHE will also be productive in her job search and that her eyes will be opened to good possibilities.
A very dear friend, my best friend, who would like not to travel 100% in her job. She has an interview today at my place of employment. If it's the Lord's will that she come back, I pray for it and thank God for the possibilities.
Updates:
- Interview went well. Turns out another former employee has also applied. She opted to turn in her two week's notice and complete her last two week assignment in Canada so that she can be free to interview locally. It's just too hard to find a new job when you're on 100% travel in a different country and timezone. Continuing to pray for her, of course.
For myself, that I won't have any major house problems while I'm trying to win some long-running financial battles. And that I'll be able to pay my bills honorably this month and also pay my tithing.
For my team, that I will see what I can do to alleviate their workload and stress and to encourage them and help them to work more effectively.
For my company, that we will win this next contract, which will change many of our lives.
For a particular person on my team who is on a lay-off list, that he will be okay and find new employment, good employment, quickly. There are always regrets and it's a situation where you wouldn't cut him if it weren't mandated. So I pray for him.
Updates:
- Praise God, good news, as of 1/4/08 there will be no lay-offs. My prayer for this person will shift to seeing how to help him to become highly productive and to find the right assignments for him. I told a couple of non-believers yesterday about my prayer for him, my prayer list experiment. It was funny, they looked bemused. Made absolutely no comment, just tolerating or accepting what I say about God and prayer. I don't care, it's been that way for years. It's not proselyting, it's my natural exuberance for the witness of God's hand in my life, not much different from them talking about their children or ski days or the new car.
No comments:
Post a Comment