Comfort In The Word

So, my son deployed three weeks ago today. And my oldest daughter is not handling it as well as my youngest.  She's been diagnosed with depression (which is most likely situational, and nothing to worry about long-term) and she is also the middle child, plus she is at the onset of puberty. Can you imagine the joy that is my life?! We have heard from my son regularly, but this week its been 3 days since our last contact. And of course, tonight would be the night that my oldest daughter is missing her Confidant and Partner-In-Crime.  Her counseling appointment was cancelled this week due to illness, so I'm sure she's feeling like she needs to vent. I spend my days listening to the woes of foster children with what I deem to be real problems, so maybe I'm not as therapeutic as her therapist is when it comes to the subject of hearing from her brother. I mean, we are certainly fortunate to hear from him several times a week! Trying to get that through her thick brain of hers is tough. Maybe its the fact that she feels like poo b/c her asthma symptoms are flaring up? Maybe its her hormones? Or maybe its just the fact that she misses her Bubba and still holds out hope that he comes home and we can be a unit again. The two men in her life that she is closest to are miles away, and she's struggling with that, according to her therapist.

So, feeling inadequate, as I quite often do when it comes to being emotionally available to my daughter, I turned to scripture to find just what I need to help me help her. And sure enough out pops 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:


"Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God." (HCSB)


So I read it to her, and she asks, "Can you read it in 'The Message version'." She prefers that translation when we cuddle in the mornings and do her devotionals together. So I read:

"All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." (MSG)


I advised her that she needs to take comfort in the Lord, and that Bubba is exactly where He needs him to be at this moment in time. I also reminded her that the Lord has brought me through some rough times, and now it was my turn to comfort my daughter the way that Christ has comforted me throughout my life, using Him as the source of comfort (if that makes any sense??). And so we talked. I asked her if she felt better, and she nodded. Then I reminded her that, just as Christ has comforted her and I, and I have comforted her, she will be given the opportunity for Christ to shine through her pretty little self and give comfort to someone who will need it. She smiled. Then retreated to her room where she's laying in bed, jotting a journal entry, as I enter a blog entry.


It is amazing to me how God many times uses our loved ones to humble us, and reflect on His Word. He uses them to draw us closer to Him...especially when we go off on a tangent.