Praise Him Anyway

This is going to be a longer post...you might want to get a nice cup of tea or coffee (or hot chocolate if you're my beloved friend Susan).  :)

 In the past 2 to 3 weeks, life got pretty tough.  In a short amount of time, our family lost not 1 but 2 precious women who were matriarchs.  

Backing up, a little over a month ago, a nasty storm blew through our county, and it took out the electric meter and mast from the family home that hubby's Mom and Dad occupied for over 55 years.  The home was unoccupied as both Mom and Dad had moved to a local nursing home together not long before, as Mom had a below the knee amputation and Dad has had dementia slowly robbing him of what he used to know so well.  Since the home was unoccupied, the insurance company took several weeks to finally work on the claim on the house in order to restore electric.  Their claim check was less than half of what it would take to put power back up.  

In the meantime, the house has look obviously unoccupied, and it became a magnet for the local thieves who'd rather steal from hard working people than work a job themselves.  At first the shed received the hits.  Thieves broke the lock on the shed, literally taking the screws out of the door, and stole Dad's brand new $500 self propelled push mower.  They also stole all pieces of metal, from the old rusted wheelbarrow to pieces of metal fencing and other items that were close by.  Even scraps of wood and new gardening tools.  We of course filed police reports, but of course nothing could really be done without proof of a particular person taking the items.  It got frustrating.  Very very very frustrating.  

While this was going on, hubby's mom declined in health.  She had an amputation to remove infection and dead flesh, osteomyelitis, from her foot.  It didn't go away.  She developed the same infection in a covered wound near her stump.  Since Covid precautions are/were in full force, we as family were not able to see her in the nursing home,  we could not see that she was declining, that she was in pain, that she wasn't eating or drinking, and so on.  She developed that wound, osteomyelitis, and it went ignored by the nursing staff, so it went septic.  When she finally got help at a local hospital, she was already septic, and she was deemed unable to handle IV antibiotic strong enough to fight it off due to her malnutrition.  She had stated before she did not want a feeding tube, so my hubby, her power or attorney, had to make the decision not to do that.  She went to hospice and comfort measures, high doses of meds to keep her out of pain.  She passed soon after, within days, to the Heaven she looked forward to since she was a little girl.  

Her husband of 65 years held her hand as she passed.  Her son, my husband, quietly did what a nurse does and kept a quiet eye on her respirations until there were no more, then silently pressed the call light to alert the nurse's desk she had passed away.

I also had another loss, in my son's grandmother--his dad's mom--whom he loved very much.  Nana passed away with some acute issues within 2 days of hubby's mom.  My son, hubby's stepson, took it hard, but also did show much  maturity in the loss.  Both women were buried at the same time on the same day, in 2 different states.  

A bible passage has been helpful throughout these past weeks.  Psalm 145 is David's psalm praising the Lord.  Praising in the midst of heartache and frustration??  

Yes.

Psalm 145

King James Version

145 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.

7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.

8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

9 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

10 All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.

11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;

12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.

21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

When your heart is hurting, it's not always easy to praise the Lord.  But I've been able to.  God is still good no matter how my emotions are, no matter what hurts go on.  God never leaves us, never goes away when we're sad/mad/hurt.  He remains always.  

I'm sure you're in a storm, just came out of a storm, or getting ready to go into a storm....praise His name all the way through.  God is with you all the way through.  Praise His name!  Sing to Him with all your heart, keep praying and praising!  Let your tears flow, but keep on praising.  

I hope this small part of our world here at ABA helps you to be able to keep going through a hard time in your life.  It's hard to keep praising when you're hurting, but you can do it.