Pearl Diving

"They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls."-Charles Spurgeon

This afternoon Haley had some time with her dad speaking about deep things of faith and hope and life. Haley reads a daily devotional on her phone and she shared the above quote and read the devotional from April 11th to her father and me. (Larry's sitting in the wheelchair because he says it's comfortable. Plus, he can roll right up to the bedside.) In it, the author says,

"I have never heard anyone say, 'The really deep lessons of my life have come through times of ease and comfort.'  But I have heard strong saints say, 'Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God's love and growing deep with him has come through suffering."-John Piper.

Haley is continuing to learn these deep lessons of life, most of which I will never learn. Sure, it's painful to see your child suffer, but none of us knows the reality of the suffering that she has endured these last 11 years.

As a mother, you always wonder what your kids will grow up to become. When Haley was about 4, she wanted to become a cowgirl. (Probably not going to happen.) And of course, anyone who knows her and has seen her on stage and heard her voice, knows that she would love to become a Broadway actress. (Could happen, who knows?)  But today, as I listened from the background, I realized that my daughter has become a pearl diver!! Wow. I never saw that coming. (We live in the mountains, after all!)

As you continue to pray with us as the surgery on Wednesday comes closer, pray that God would open our eyes to see the pearls that he leads Haley to find as she dives in this murky, dirty, nasty sea of affliction.

Thanks, friends.