{"id":357,"date":"2025-12-22T23:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T23:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforgabrielaswarriors\/?p=357"},"modified":"2025-12-22T23:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T23:39:02","slug":"hard-times-are-meant-to-be-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforgabrielaswarriors\/2025\/12\/22\/hard-times-are-meant-to-be-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Times Are Meant to Be Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leslee and I were talking last night about how one of our biggest frustrations with health care is how treatment for one thing, often, means making other<\/em> things hurt. This has, certainly, been the case this trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you got a chance to watch the last video we posted, then you were able to appreciate Ela\u2019s good spirits and general positivity. Sure, she\u2019s been trending in the wrong direction as far as her BNP but she\u2019s been happy and comfortable\u2026.she\u2019s been normal! Not now though. The first line of treatment (even before whatever we find from the heart cath) includes IV steroids and these steroids have, somehow, torn up her stomach. She\u2019s had diarrhea for about 24 hours\u2026and not the normal kind either. Things have been like back in February when we suspected she had an abscess\u2026that was the most pain I\u2019ve ever seen her in and we\u2019re going through that again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean\u2026what do you do? What can<\/em> you do when a 5 year old is screaming in pain and asking for help\u2026for you to take her home? Do you pray?\u2026Yes\u2026do you beg the nurse for stronger drugs to manage the pain? Yes\u2026do you try to distract and comfort? Yes\u2026does it make the stress or the grief or the difficulty at the moment any easier? No\u2026sometimes it doesn\u2019t. Sometimes nothing helps. It\u2019s frustrating and tiring and overwhelming. Every episode of cries and tears feels like an emotional workout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a not-very-insightful truth: God intends hard times to be hard. Hard times are not supposed to feel good. They are not intended to feel \u201cunder control.\u201d They are not intended to bring out our best qualities or strengths or virtues. It is actually the opposite of all of this. Hard times are intended to feel bad, to feel like they are completely out of our control, and they are meant to bring the worst out of us! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How else will we see our need to be sanctified? How else will we see our need for God\u2019s grace?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 <\/strong> Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 <\/strong> It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.  (Proverbs 3:7\u20138<\/a>, ESV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temptation in times like this is to give too much weight to the way we feel, to be \u201cwise in our own eyes.\u201d However, we need to fall back on the truths of Scripture and on what we know about God and His character. In doing so, we fear Him: God is good and does good (Ps. 119:68), God knows all things (including how we feel through hard times!)(Ps. 139:1-4), God is working things out for good (Rom. 8:28), God is faithful and He does not let us be tempted beyond what we are able (1 Cor. 10:13). These truths might not make things any easier in the heat of the moment yet falling back on them distinguish the way we grieve from the way unbelievers grieve (1 Thess. 4:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ela\u2019s on her way back from her cath. What we know so far is that her heart pressures are a little bit higher than last time she had them checked. Tomorrow we find the biopsy results and what kind of rejection we\u2019re dealing with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before the Cath Video<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leslee and I were talking last night about how one of our biggest frustrations with health care is how treatment for one thing, often, means making other things hurt. This has, certainly, been the case this trip. 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