I was up for two and a half hours last night, in the middle of the night, with Sophie and Nathaniel. They both had "growing pains"; their ankles and knees were hurting so much they were crying, and I ended up moving them both downstairs into the living room for the rest of the night. Nathaniel especially has a really hard time dealing with the pain. He literally says, "I can't handle it!", with tears streaming down his face. It's hard for a mama to know what to do....it's not an emergency, but it can feel like it. And it's hard to know what will help relieve the pain. (I used a heat pad, arnica muscle rub and lots of foot massaging, and a banana to help them relax.)
I was thinking about growing pains today, and how there are many times in our lives we experience "growing pains"...sometimes its emotional, sometimes spiritual. There is an urgency to relieve the pain, but we don't always know how. We try a lot of different things, hoping to find something that will instantly make us feel better. But often that's not the case, and we have to be persistent and keep searching, or just wait it out. Healing comes in it's own time and it's own way. Or, more specifically, in God's time and way.
Pain is a signal that our body uses to communicate with us that something is wrong, or that something needs to change. When we feel pain, our brain, in an effort to keep us safe, starts an alarm system. Sometimes, there is so much stress in our life, or inflammation in our body, that the alarm system gets stuck on, and it takes a lot of effort and change to get it to turn off again. But sometimes, your brain overreacts, and things may not be as bad as they seem.
Sometimes pain is not an emergency. Instead of viewing your pain as something you must simply stop, or as an enemy, and getting overwhelmed by it, try to determine the cause. Try to understand it. Pain can also signal growth and in that case, perhaps all you need to do is try to make yourself as comfortable as you can with it, and let it do it's thing without resistance. Allow yourself to feel it, grow through it, and from it.
"Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still. "
I was thinking about growing pains today, and how there are many times in our lives we experience "growing pains"...sometimes its emotional, sometimes spiritual. There is an urgency to relieve the pain, but we don't always know how. We try a lot of different things, hoping to find something that will instantly make us feel better. But often that's not the case, and we have to be persistent and keep searching, or just wait it out. Healing comes in it's own time and it's own way. Or, more specifically, in God's time and way.
Pain is a signal that our body uses to communicate with us that something is wrong, or that something needs to change. When we feel pain, our brain, in an effort to keep us safe, starts an alarm system. Sometimes, there is so much stress in our life, or inflammation in our body, that the alarm system gets stuck on, and it takes a lot of effort and change to get it to turn off again. But sometimes, your brain overreacts, and things may not be as bad as they seem.
Sometimes pain is not an emergency. Instead of viewing your pain as something you must simply stop, or as an enemy, and getting overwhelmed by it, try to determine the cause. Try to understand it. Pain can also signal growth and in that case, perhaps all you need to do is try to make yourself as comfortable as you can with it, and let it do it's thing without resistance. Allow yourself to feel it, grow through it, and from it.
"Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
while I am waiting, yielded and still. "
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