Trusting God with everything!

Do you find yourself praying for God's intervention in a situation and then you later take back from Him the very thing you asked Him to handle for you? I struggle with this at times. But, I'm so thankful that God continues to prove Himself over and over again to me in this area. He never loses His patience with me but lovingly reminds me of His power time and time again.

My dad was never in Alcoholics Anonymous but for some reason he loved that serenity prayer that is recited at every AA meeting. When he was sick and dying with brain cancer he would say it.....

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
To change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I think there is more to it than that but that's all daddy ever used to say. He was facing death but I had never seen him so strong. The doctors told him there was nothing else that could be done. He made his peace with God and a few of his loved ones here on earth and that was that. He trusted God. He wasn't stressing out looking for another doctor, a clinical trial or some other new drug. He just seemed okay with dying. I couldn't believe it.

I remember asking him why he wasn't afraid. He told me that he had been through war, in battle, and, after seeing that, nothing was scary to him. I don't know when daddy was ever in a real battle. He was stationed in North Africa at the end of WWII and he was a photographer. At least he was never in the trenches, on the front line. That's what I pictured when he told me he had been through war. Daddy was quite the joker!! But, it was obvious to me that he wasn't scared to die, no matter what he thought had prepared him for it.

That year, 1988, I witnessed exactly what it meant to trust God with everything. My daddy loved my mom, his kids and his grandkids. This was not what he expected...to die at age 64. I'm sure that he thought he would live into his 70s, for sure, maybe 80s. He wasn't mad at God. He remained positive about his treatment until the day he began to slip into a coma, two days after Christmas.

I was 31 years old and spent much of my time that year by his side. I was fortunate enough to be able to quit my job to help my mom take care of him and give her a break when she needed one. I wouldn't trade that time for anything. Seeing the strong faith of my mom throughout my dad's terminal illness really impressed me. I knew that if my mom and dad could deal with this tragedy without falling completely apart, I could handle anything.

In 1997 I watched my sweet, loving mom fight gall bladder cancer. It was horrible. She suffered much more than daddy did. Gall bladder, or any type of intestinal cancer, is extremely painful. Yet, through it all, mom stayed faithful. She was more vocal about her faith in God than daddy was. I remember one day she said to me, "Theresa, promise me, when I get too weak to lift my hands to praise the Lord, that you will lift them for me." I'll never forget that. How she loved her Lord.

Both mom and daddy fought their cancer; doing what the doctors said to do. I know that they prayed to God for guidance and they always put their lives in God's hands. When the time came and they knew there was nothing left to do, they had a peace about things that only comes from giving it all to God; trusting Him with it all!

During the past 19 months as I've dealt with Matthew's murder, I've so often thought of my mom and dad and the resolve they had about their circumstances. They knew that almighty God was totally in control. It wasn't ever an "Okay, I give up, God" thing (after trying over and over again to handle things; change things) but a PRO-ACTIVE "I give it all to you, God" thing. I've learned that there is a huge difference.

Trusting God means giving your problems to Him BEFORE you tire yourself out trying to handle them yourself. That's the important part of TRUSTING Him. Trusting that HE can and will handle your "stuff" for you. Trusting Him also means that we don't take it back once we've given it to Him. That we don't fret or worry about the "stuff" He's handling for us.

What a valuable lesson I learned from my parents about trusting God in every situation in life. Through every trial and every difficult circumstance in my life, I know for certain that God is in control. I can trust Him with everything!