Friday,

To use a sailing analogy, spiritual strength is like a rudder that steers the course of the Christian’s life. Certainly there are a lot of other important aspects of one’s life, such as the moral compass to provide direction and a keel or centerboard to keep it upright.

But, spiritual strength is the character quality we are praying and striving for as we endure another day of unknowns and uncertainties with Bonnie’s disease. The rudder of Christ helps us to navigate the uncharted waters and guides us into the safe harbor.

It isn’t easy and the turbulent waves on occasion cast doubt in both of our minds, but with your notes of encouragement and prayers it opens our blinded eyes to see Jesus is in control of the situation. If He can control the actual raging sea as he drifted along in the boat with the disciples, he certainly can calm the winds of anxiousness and discouragement that Satan would love see set it. The evil one is just looking for the appropriate time where we are most vulnerable because that is where he likes to deceptively attack. Genesis 4:7 says:

"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Please pray that we “do well” to recognize that sin isn’t crouching at the door as long as we have so many praying for us.

And 1 Peter 5: 6 -10 says;

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This verse sums up all aspects of the situation we are enduring with Bonnie’s leukemia and pending bone marrow transplant. We are humbling ourselves to him and cast all our anxiaeties on him In our situation it would be so easy to be devoured by our adversary and it is the spiritual strength and that rudder that steers us through the dangerous and uncharted waters.

We started the blog tonight with what we are clinging to as we continue to feel as if we are floating on a raft in the pacific ocean with no land in site, shark infested waters and a storm on the horizon. It may not be as bad as we’re making it sound, but today felt more on the ledger side of discouragement.

First of all, tonight we got word that the two blood cultures they were growing came back positive still for the yeast infection, which is not what we were expecting with the encouraging words we had received earlier today from the Infectious Disease physicians. Secondly Bonnie has developed a rash pretty much all over her body (mostly torso), be we are thankful it not uncomfortable and something she can endure.

One minute we believe we have cleared the hurdle and have conquered the milestone that the diarrhea has ceased and that we can find more freedom walking the halls and moving about. Today was a set back and very discouraging to Bonnie as she had thought she had cleared the corner on the intestinal issue. In fact it appears that my calculation on the number of “Depends” we used today equaled what we used at the height of the most critical time. Please pray the doctors will effectively collaborate on this topic and come to a reasonable solution to treat it.

In order for Bonnie to maintain a confidence in that boat with the strong spiritual “rudder” we spend a great deal of time in prayer and she surrounds herself with scripture and commentary that boost her encouragement. Everyday the number goes up, but she must have over fifty encouraging words of scripture she reads more than once a day. Secondly she has a number of commentary and books she use as strength and encouragement:

She started the day with Psalms 112:7:

He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.

All in all, she reads 50+ bible verses each day
She has been fortunate to be provided with several devotionals and reads from them each day:

31 Days of Praise, Praying the Names of God, Praying through Cancer, Safe in the Shepherds arms, Keep a Quiet Heart, Calm my anxious heart , and a Deeper Kind of Calm.

Calm in the storm is key. Please continue to pray this for us.
Thank you!