My absence from posting is due to the ongoing ear/balance problem, now diagnosed as BPPV. It’s not been very pleasant, but the therapy has helped and I’m doing much better. For that I am so thankful! The delay is accurate diagnosis caused the problem to get worse, to the point that my eyes were in rapid side-to-side movement for over five minutes after I tried to read, etc. The therapist had never seen anyone in that state before. It feels like a non-stop dose of the flu for weeks on end. You know, the part when you’re lying in a fetal position on the bed, groaning from the nausea.

I’m improving, though, and can stand to read and type for just a few minutes before my eyes start going again and the nausea hits. Like now.

I’m thankful that testing has clarified what is needed to help recover from this vertigo. I had vestibular testing and therapy today. It stirred everything up to the extent that I can’t type or read much, but I wanted to give thanks that after a couple weeks of therapy I should start to feel better. To all who have prayed for me, I thank you!

I’m thankful…

that last night’s rollicking thunderstorm didn’t knock out our internet. It was only a tripped GFI switch.

that I’ve had some improvement in the vertigo that plagues me. I’m still having trouble reading and typing, which is the reason I’m not leaving very many comments these days. Not posting much, either, but then I haven’t been doing much of that, anyway. A lot gets written in my head that never makes it to the page. (Does that happen to you too?)

that I was able to make a pie for my husband’s Board meeting tonight. Crust yesterday, filling today.

for rain, and that my elevated garden bed is ready to go. Thanks, Harry. You are a great gift to me and I’m so thankful for you.

I’m thankful…

for online sermons. During the past week I’ve listened to the sermons from the recent Gospel Coalition conference. The sermons by Ligon Duncan and David Platt were like coals from the fire to my soul. Listen and weep.

that I’m feeling better today. Hate to sound like one of those old ladies who constantly talk about their health, but I’m so thankful to have the nausea and extreme tiredness lift, I just have to express thankfulness. The dizziness continues, I’m sorry to say.

for news from a missionary couple who serve the Lord in a distant land. My husband saw them as clients several years ago, and since then they have gone to minister to a people who had never heard the gospel of Christ. They learned the language, put it in written form for the first time, and now forty of those people have come to a saving faith in Christ! My husband wept as he read their email to me. Thanks be to God for his faithful work in the lives of that couple, that he took them to spread the gospel to an unreached people, and for his redeeming work in the lives of those people! So wonderful!

Howbeit your faith seeth but the black side of Providence, yet it hath a better side, and God shall let you see it. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; hence I infer that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses or country, are God’s workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you.  –Samuel Rutherford

My thoughts this morning are of the providence of God, and I’m thankful that “everything that befalleth” me is “set on work to work out good” to me. Including this very annoying, ongoing, uncomfortable, labyrinthitis.

There’s a crazy virus going around that apparently I reached out and grabbed with both hands. Since Saturday morning I’ve been light-headed, losing balance and pretty achy. I went to the doctor on Monday to find out what’s going on and was surprised to be told that I have a virus that will last a week or two. I’m thankful to be feeling a little better, especially when I’m sitting.

I’m thankful for the son who cooked our Easter dinner. I managed to make the pie on Saturday, but he took over from there and cooked the ham dinner by himself and did a fabulous job. It’s mighty nice to have a son who can cook.

I’m thankful that “…[T]oday in your life, Jesus can go where no one else can go. He can go where no counselor can go. He can go where no doctor can go. He can go where no lover can go. He can reach you, and reach into you, anywhere and any time. There is no place where you are, and no depths of personhood that you are which Jesus can’t penetrate. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead fits him to do what no one else can do. There is no one else like him in all the universe. He is alive, and he is the one and only God-Man. What he is capable of you cannot imagine. And it is a healing wonder to contemplate that all the complex layers of your life, which neither you nor anyone else can understand, are familiar territory to him.” -John Piper, in this sermon, which ministered to me deeply this morning. It’s well worth your listening time.

I’m so thankful today for our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 Hallelujah, What a Savior!

Today I thank God…

for his continued mercies to my sister-in-law who is to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow! She and my brother have been at an out-of-state hospital for the past month, and they are so, so glad to be coming home.

that the colds Aaron and I have had all week are so much better, and I’m thankful that Harry didn’t get it from us.

for music. It adds so much to every day. I was thinking today about our singing in heaven—can you imagine?

for daffodils, green buds on shrubs that are the promise of summer flowers.

for his sovereign care for his people all over the world. For missionaries who are in distant lands for the specific purpose of spreading the gospel to unreached peoples.

I’m thankful to God…

for the healthy, sweet grand nephew who was born on Tuesday. He is my younger sister’s seventh grandchild!

for the green buds on just about everything in our yard. The daffodils are plump and ready to burst into bloom. Love ‘em.

for salvation through Jesus: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

that my sister is home from the hospital.

Our internet has been down All Day Long, and you know how trying that is! I invited son Nate for dinner so he could fix it—and he just did! Steaks were done on the grill, so his two minutes of ‘work’ was worth it. I’m thankful that he is skilled to do such things. Our family of four had a nice dinner together, and I’m thankful for that too.

I’m so thankful for God’s mercy to family members who have been in the hospital and are still there. One of them had surgery, then had to return to the OR two more times. It has been a very rough time, and it is so good to know that God is with them every moment and His hand is on them. We’re waiting for tests to see if surgery is ahead for my sister.

Two weeks ago I sliced my thumb on a food processor blade. Don’t do that! It is most inconvenient, to say the least. It’s almost healed now, but still finicky about being used. I’m thankful that I got by without having stitches; apparently doctors aren’t inclined to put stitches in fingers. Happy about that! I’m thankful that God made our bodies to heal themselves of such wounds, and for antibacterial gel that helps heal without infection.

This passage was part of my Bible reading this morning, and I praise God for it: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  1 Peter 1:3-9