"Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted with grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing." - Psalm 31:9-10
The Bible and the Pain of Infertility (a Resource)
I'm pretty sure I have read this article at least five times since I first learned about it a little over a year ago. I have a number of good friends who have read it too, so I know that for some readers this is probably not a new resource. But I have found it extremely helpful. If you are not struggling with infertility yourself, but are close to someone who is, this article provides a clear window into what the infertile person might be feeling and going through.
God is On His Own Timetable
True confession: I am an impatient person living in an impatient age. This does not work well when I stop to realize that God’s timetable is often much different than mine. Immediate for him is not immediate for me. For God a day is like a thousand years. That’s a long time for a person who wants things to happen in minutes, not millennia. And I don’t think I am alone in my desire for the immediate. In this digital age, our impatience is even more pronounced.
Lessons from Unanswered Prayers
I have said it before on this blog, and the Lord keeps bringing me back to it. The psalms are filled with tremendous encouragement and hope for the weary Christian. In them we find honest human emotion: joy, pain, sorrow, happiness, and the like. There is something for everyone in the psalms. In the last few years I have repeatedly gone back to this precious book. I have found encouragement, hope, comfort, and peace from God through these inspired writers.
A Surprising Encouragement (at least for me!)
One of the main reasons I enjoy running in the morning is the fact that I can usually make my way through a sermon over the course of my run. It's primarily owing to how slow I run, which is more of a jog than a run. But it serves my soul. I like morning, but I also find that it is in the morning where the greatest battle for my joy happens. I can go to bed feeling pretty good about the next day, and wake up completely discouraged. And all I did was sleep! It is in these dark moments that I have experienced God's kindness through the preaching of his word.
Rejoicing When It's Hard
Rejoicing with others is sometimes really hard, especially when they are getting what you desperately want. I have been convicted lately that I put people in categories: those who are easy to rejoice with and those who are more difficult. In the second category it can be much harder to rejoice with them. Maybe you want to be married and your friend (who always seems to have a guy hanging around her) just recently got engaged. Maybe you are hoping for a certain job and the person who cuts corners gets the promotion or the opportunity. Maybe you want a particular scholarship and you are looked over, again. Or maybe you have been trying to get pregnant for a while and every time you check Facebook one more person is expecting a little bundle of joy.
A Quiet Father's Day
Our little apartment is pretty quiet this morning. There is no fanfare, no breakfast in bed, and no presents waiting on the table. At first glance, we are just another married couple getting ready for church on a Sunday morning. But we are more than that. There is a father here, just not according to the world’s definition of fatherhood.
Putting My Eyes Where They Belong
Do you ever find yourself going to bed overwhelmed and anxious? Does the prospect of a new day, filled with new demands and new trials, cause fear to rise in your heart the minute your alarm goes off? Or maybe you have been living with a constant trial. The pain is relentless. There never seems to be any release. And just when there seems to be a little light at the end of the dark tunnel, fear and dread plague you. What if it never gets better? What if this prospective light is actually the beginning of another trial? It can be hard to hope when the cares of this fallen life are pressing in.
Infertility Does Not Define You
One of the constant struggles in my journey of infertility is to not believe the lie that I am defined by my infertility. Many times it feels like if you were to look up the word infertile in the dictionary my picture would be there staring back at you. Of course, it is easy to feel this way. Regardless of the medical condition causing the problem, the diagnosis from the doctor is that for the time being I am infertile. Infertility is keeping me from getting pregnant. Treatments, medicine, tests, and the like occupy my thoughts.