Why?

Why?  That is a question we hear a lot.  It's even something I have asked myself more than once over the past almost 6 years.  Why us?  Why did God choose us to be the parents of this little boy?  Why did God make him this way?  Why does my son have to struggle so much to do the littlest things that we take for granted?  The answer: I have no idea.

But something I learned very early on in this journey is that God does have a reason for everything and we are not always meant to understand what his reason is.  The only thing I am sure of is that the reason God put us on this earth is to praise and worship him and to glorify him in all that we do. So if being the best parents we can to this very special little boy brings glory to God, then that is what we will continue to do, for as long as he allows us to.  That doesn't mean it won't continue to be a struggle or that I will ever understand God's reasons.  But I know that he has a reason and I look forward to the day where I'll be able to ask him what that reason is.

Sometimes, though, we are able to see God's reasons plain and clear.  Sometimes his reason is as simple as wanting a relationship with us.  He may allow us to go through extremely difficult times in order for us to realize that we can only get through those tough times if we rely on him.

 Philippians 4:13 I can do all things, through Christ, who gives me strength.

This is my favorite verse.  It has been my favorite verse for as long as I can remember.  But it was given new meaning to me recently.  Tommy went to a bookstore to pick up a book for a men's bible study that he is taking part in.  While there he saw a shirt that reminded him of John, so he had to buy it.  This is what the shirt said:

Pretty appropriate, huh?


Sometimes God's reason may be for us to use our struggles to help someone else who is struggling.  They may not be struggling with the same thing, but we can still give them comfort. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

I came across this scripture sometime in the past year and it resonated with me.  I have said for a long time now that maybe this was God's plan for us, to use our struggles with John to help others who are struggling in the future.  We have had the chance to give advice to parents of premature children or parents of children with special needs on more than one occasion.  But after reading this scripture, I realized that God wants us to use the comfort we received from him to comfort others, even if they are struggling with something completely different than us.  So you'll notice that I put this scripture at the top of my blog as a reminder.

Whatever God's reasons may be, when we are able to look back and see how he worked in our lives, all we can do is stand in awe of how good he is.  We all know that God is good to us, but sometimes we just need a reminder.