Prayer brings peace...oh, so sweet.

​We’ve been talking about our emotional and mental health for a couple weeks (well, mine!) and I wanted to thank you for your prayers for our unspoken family situation.  God has wrought a miracle, and I feel I can now tell you what was going on.  Our new granddaughter, Milaney (Tyler and Molli’s), was trying to come early, at 25 weeks.  Molli had begun experiencing contractions and other conditions that indicate the body is preparing for labor, so she got put on total bed rest.  The week that all this went down, her sister Morgan was getting married in Memphis that weekend, and now she couldn’t go.  Tyler had a big conference he needed to go to the same weekend, so everyone she loved (but me!) would be out of town, right when she was facing the biggest crisis of her life.  To top it all off, her mother came to help her one day before she was leaving for the wedding, fell off their porch and broke her ankle!  That really sent Molli into a spell, feeling all helpless, can’t move out of the bed to do anything, being left out of all these huge events, and scared out of her mind. 
 
I had the privilege of spending the weekend with her, which turned out to be one of my greatest blessings for the year.  When you are a mother-in-law, you pray you love your daughter-in-law and she loves you, but you don’t push your way into places where the mother is best suited.  Molli and I have always been great together – she practically lived with us before they were married, and she and Tyler did live with us for almost a year after their marriage, while waiting to get their home fixed up enough to live in.  But that has been four years ago (this week, exactly!) and we haven’t had much time to spend alone with each other. 
 
Molli and Tyler have this dog, Gidget, who can be super annoying, licking, barking, jumping around, and I wondered how Gidgey and I were going to do.  She got all settled down once she licked and smelled and did all she needed to do, and I was really enjoying her.  It came time to go to bed, and I ask Molli if she wants me to sleep with her or just be on the couch close in case she needed me.  She says, “Well, you probably don’t want to sleep with Gidge, and I think I’m okay, so let’s do the couch.”  Fine by me – I had never slept with a dog in my life and wasn’t sure I wanted to start.  I get all situated on the couch, and – you guessed it – Gidgey decides to join me!  She stayed on the couch with me most of the night, and I cannot believe I am even saying it, much less putting it in writing, but she was a comfort!  She just snuggled in and never moved the whole night.
 
Saturday, we had a good day together, but by Saturday night, the more Molli worried and thought about the possibilities of a baby born at 25 weeks, and the more people “checked on her,” it just makes your mind race, and when in that situation, it makes the contractions faster and harder (as close as eight minutes at one point).  We get ready for bed and Molli says, “Sleep with me tonight – I think I would feel better.”  I figured by this point, me, her and Gidge would be good to go, and I was honored to get to lay by her side and be her comfort.  We get settled in, and Molli begins to cry and says, “Will you pray for me?”  We had prayed a lot, and she knew I was literally in constant silent prayer, but I think both of us needed to cry out to God together, as a team.  I reached over and took her in my arms, holding my hands over Laney Lu, and we prayed for healing and peace and more time and more peace and more time and more peace. 
 
Isn’t it AMAZING how God begins to show up when you ask Him?  Why are we surprised?  How is that we get our minds so worked up that we forget the awesomeness of His answers, of His spirit, of His plan?  We prayed and we put this little one right back in the hands of God, where she had been all along, but where we had tried to worry her into a place where we could control.  God is so, so good, so good, and He has worked a miracle in Molli’s body to the point the contractions are almost gone!  She is still on many restrictions, but her body is acting more normally every day, and we are hopeful for a full-term (or as close as we can get) little girl! 
 
I want to praise Him for his blessings and His power and His peace, and if you are in a bad place, even a bad moment, begin to count your blessings.  Molli and I lay in bed and counted blessings constantly over that weekend – and there were SO, SO many.  It is amazing how many things you are blessed with and don’t even know it because you don’t take time to add them up! 
 
I praise God this morning that I have a job I love, I have employees who are loyal and so hard working and have such positive attitudes, I praise Him that my hands are not locked up with arthritis, my mind is sometimes clear, my husband loves me, my parents are still alive and wonderful, my sister is an amazing woman to be admired and is my best friend, I have friends who travel long distances to connect with me (thank you, Mona Bailes!), I have children who are serving the Lord and whose spouses I love and they love me, I have a granddaughter who is right where she belongs this morning, I have food on my table and praise on my lips – what else could I ask for?  Begin to count your blessings today – keep praise rolling off your tongue – it will revolutionize your life and your mind!