Angry About Pain

Well I absolutely love how the Lord uses my children to teach me of His Truths so I decided to blog about it.
A few months back I was sitting on my bed folding socks and praying. Pray with out ceasing right? Well I was talking to God about what it was that makes people choose to live a life of sin. I kept thinking about someone I love very much and how it was that they ended up where they are and, though we come from similar backgrounds, how did I avoid the same fate. I am not kidding you God had been working on answering my question starting the night before. He knows all things and knew I would be asking Him that very question and to demonstrate His omnipresence began answering my question before I asked it.
Well I better go back to the night before. My husband and I were leaving our home fellowship group and decided to make a quick stop at the store to pick up a few things. It was about 8pm on a Sunday night as we stood in line to buy our items. The kids were, of course, grabbing bubble gum and candy bars from the checkout stand asking, "please can I have this." I didn't feel like dealing with the whinny responses after I told them no, so I asked the kids to go over to the bench that was directly across from us and wait till we were done. They all abandoned their candies and ran to the bench to see who would get there first. I have two boys and a girl. Keegan is the oldest and is 8 years old and Josiah is the youngest at 3 years old. Holly, my 5 year old, has a hard time keeping up with her brothers so she was determined to win this race. I don't know how but she missed the bench and ran straight into the corner of the wall. Instantly she picked herself up and slowly walked back over to me at the checkout stand. She was covering her head with her hands and I figured that she would be fine. "Just a little bump," I thought, until the women behind us said, "Oh my, she's bleeding!"
We found ourselves at the emergency room that night, doctor's offices are never open when you need them. After a long, long, long wait, the doctor said Holly would be fine and didn't even need any stitches. We headed home and put the boys in bed and let Holly sleep with us. She had a killer headache and a wicked bump so of course we gave her some extra attention. Isn't it just like God when we are hurting to pour out some extra love and care for us?
We decided to keep Holly home from school the next day since we got in so late. She was playing in her room with Josiah as I sorted socks and asked God my question. I could hear them talking and Holly was being just plane old mean and bossy. "Holly, get in here!" I called and heard no movement and no response. I called again and this time Josiah said, "Holly mommy wants you." Obviously she heard me if her brother heard and obviously she knew she was in trouble or else she would have come when I called. After I persuaded her that not coming would be far worse she slowly walked into my room.
"Please tell me what you are thinking in that room of yours that is making you talk so rudely to your little brother."
"I don't know," she replied with her arms folded in front of her.
"Well listen little lady," I said firmly, "Just because you're hurt and getting extra attention doesn't give you the right to be mean and angry towards your little brother. He loves you and he was so concerned about you last night and even prayed for you, and this is how you treat him?"
As I heard those words come out of my mouth I heard God's answer to my question.
He said, "You see Alyscia, sin is apart of this life. When you get hurt in this world, and everyone does, you have a choice to make. To sin or not to sin. You can either accept that; as horrible as some pains are, pains happen, pain is just part of the fall of man, or you can get angry and bitter at those who haven't been hurt the way you've been hurt." I was floored that, for one, God answered my question so quickly, but that He had been working on the answer to my question before I asked it. Isn't He amazing!

Talk about a lesson learned. James 1:20 says, For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God (ESV). It's easier to be angry, at least for me, than to be vulnerable and weak. We want to be strong and independent but God wants us to depend on Him. He wants us to come to Him for our healing. He is more than willing if we humble ourselves and ask. I pray that bitterness and anger will fall away from your heart. I pray that you were moved by this little life lesson via my children the same way I was.
Father please help us to see when we are filling up our heart with bitterness instead of relying on You for our healing and our strength. God pain hurts but You are willing and able to heal all hurts. Thank You for the pain that You endured as You watched Your Son be crucified so that we might be reconciled to You through faith in Jesus Christ. God You are good, please use this blog for Your purpose and for Your glory in Jesus name amen.