"They were astonished"

If you are a Facebook friend you are aware that Dennis was in the hospital from Wednesday until yesterday afternoon. Long story short: I took him to the ER in Pryor on Wednesday morning. He was having chest pains, dizziness, headache and just a general bad feeling. They ran tests there-EKG (normal), chest xray (normal), CT of the head (normal) and blood work (elevated heart enzymes which evidently can indicate heart attack/damage). They called for transport to a Tulsa hospital-St. John. Once there they admitted him to the cardiac floor. They started another round of blood work and scheduled a cardiac stress test for Thursday morning. Three blood draws indicated no elevated heart enzymes. However, the stress test showed some abnormalities. So began the long wait and see process while the cardiologists decided what to do next. On Thursday evening it was decided that they would do a CT angio scan instead of jumping right to the heart cath. That was scheduled for Friday morning. That was done and the cardiologist (he saw four cardiologists in total) reviewed it and explained the results to Dennis. There was no evidence of heart attack, no blockage, no tumor, no irregularities of any kind. His explanation was a false positive on the stress test.....it happens.

I have thought about this a lot as people have asked "well, why did he have the pain and this episode if everything is normal? What do they say about it?". I have offered the answer we were given - "false positive" but have decided that just isn't adequate.

As soon as people knew Dennis was in the hospital they began to pray. Technology is such now that people all across the country were praying for him within hours. What a comfort. We pray for God to intervene and to heal and to restore.....then keep asking why and what and how when He does. It reminded me of the story from Acts 12.

Peter was in prison. Herod had him arrested because of his faith. The church was gathered and praying for him. The Lord sent an angel to bust him out of prison. He walked right past the guards without detection. HE recognized how his escape happened: "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

He went to the house of Mary where people were assembled praying for him. He knocked on the door. A young servant girl came to the door. She recognized his voice without opening the door and ran back to tell the others. They told her she was crazy. When she insisted they said it must be his angel. But, Peter kept on knocking and when they opened it they were astonished.

Isn't that just like us? We pray for God to heal and restore and when He does we try to explain it away or we are astonished. Weren't they praying for that very thing?

So, my new answer to what and why and how in the matter of Dennis' hospitalization is answered prayer. Pure and simple.

Our God is an awesome God.

Giveaway time with Whitney!

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Go to this site and enter to win something really cute!!!!! Do it.

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

The new year prompts most of us to make promises and resolutions and pronouncements of better eating, more exercise, etc. I have been sucked into that machine more times than I care to number. Good intentions are just that....good. But, they do not always stick. Guilty.

So, this year, knowing that I desperately need to make major changes in order to enjoy more new years, I have decided to take a different approach. Sure, I would like to lose weight and move more and look better and feel healthy. So, I could announce that I am going to go on a diet and that I am going to train for a 5K. You would encourage me and I would try very hard. I might succeed and I might not. It's happened enough times over the years.

My new approach isn't going to be a revelation to anyone but me. Are you ready for it? I am going to convince myself that Food is Fuel. I have been thinking about it for several days and realize that I see food as so much more than that. All of my life food has been joy, happiness, good times, sadness, comfort, a stress reliever............you name it. If the emotion has a name, I have a food for it!

I am the person who knows her "fuel gage" is sitting closer to full than empty but pulls up to the pump anyway.

I don't do that with my car. I fill it up and run it out. I don't keep going back to the station just to top it off. I wait until I NEED to fuel up. Wow! What a concept. I told you it wasn't profound....well, maybe it is for me. It has taken me 55 years to believe that food is a tool not a crutch.

I am going to work on changing the way I look at food and what it does for me. Today I repeated my new mantra a few (dozen) times whenever I thought about grabbing a snack or a soda. "Food is fuel"- do I need fuel right now or just a walk around the office because I am bored and tired? I know it's just one day, but for today it WORKED for me.

So, I am going to try to only pull up to the

when I really do need FUEL. It's okay with me if you ask me about this.