Thankful Thursday - God's Purpose

Monday, I picked up Lil Man from After-Care after I got off of work. He started going to After-Care when his mom's shift changed from days to swings last week. He gets out of school at 3. I get off work at 4. His mom has to be at work at 4. It just made sense.

Anyway, we were having one of those in the car conversations that I just love. We were talking about God and how God does not make bad things happen. He allows bad things to happen and then gives us the grace to either make good things happen from the bad or to see what good came from the bad.

Lil Man is VERY literal. He was talking about some event that seemed bad but then turned good for him.

I was telling him about a long time ago when I was mad at God. I was mad at God for years. During this time, I heard a sermon from a very wise pastor who had just sat with the family of a little girl who had died. He questioned himself all the way to the parents' home, wondering what he could possibly say to comfort this mom and dad. He got there and the mother said to him that hit was all right, that it was God's will.

He said in his sermon that he truly did not know what he answered the woman but that he trusted that God had given him the right words. He said that he did not believe it was God's will that an innocent child die. He said that he thought God allowed bad things to happen and allowed evil to flourish and allowed us to see the good in and from these things.

I started thinking about what good had come from the terrible accident that killed my husband and injured my daughter.

My husband had not suffered. He never regained consciousness, not during the 40 minutes it took to cut him from the car, nor during the 14 hours in the hospital prior to his death.

My daughter, 4 months old at the time, had made a full and total recovery from the 11 skull fractures she sustained in the accident. There was no, absolutely NO, residual damage either physically or intellectually.

I had no memory of the accident. I remember leaving the store where we had purchased a porta-crib to take to my parents and the next thing I knew, I was at the emergency room and my mom and brother were already there. They lived 3 hours away. (I recovered that memory shortly after I married my current husband. I think He knew I would be taken care of).

I learned that I can do anything that I need to do.

I found a job with absolutely no prior experience.

I supported myself and my child without accepting government assistance.

I learned that I am one of a long line of very strong women - and not the last in that line.

I learned that if I allowed myself to lean - on family, on friends, on God, I never fell. I teetered occasionally but I think that was due to choosing Jose Cuervo as a friend.

I used to think that I had learned that nothing that catastrophic could ever happen to me again. I was wrong about that one but that's another story.

Anyway, long story short, I was reminded of all of this while I was blog-hopping Monday night. Katrina, at Callapidder Days, was having one of those angst ridden days and was reminded, by something she read, that we are supposed to be thankful for all of our blessings. Those we see and welcome and those that we cannot see and do not necessarily welcome. We are to have faith that God will use all things to His purpose.