another blog to read...

I recently learned how to use the Google reader to help me manage the blogs I enjoy reading every day. Sometimes a particular blog will recommend another person's blog. I found this one called: http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

This woman's tribute to her daughter Audrey literally took my breath away - I was in awe and in tears of how the Lord has been intricately involved with this family and the trial they have endured this past year with the birth and subsequent death of their daughter Audrey Caroline, a precious special needs baby who only lived in this world a few minutes before she died in her mother's arms....

My heart ached from reading what this mother felt through-out her pregnancy, from the moment she and her husband learned of the severe physical issues her daughter had while developing in the womb... to the time her daughter was born and died.

Most of what I marveled at was this woman's faith in the Lord and how this incredible trial only served to strengthen and deepen her relationship with the Lord. It put so much into perspective for me. Who am I to complain about what hardships the Lord deems appropriate to bring into my life? This mother's story does not minimize or trivialize my own pain and difficulties; but it certainly helps me to keep an eternal perspective and to realize that the Lord allows trials in our lives in order to conform us into the very image of Christ....

II Cor. 4:16-18 states: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Thank you Lord for helping me to see things through your eyes.... and for giving me the exact portion of your grace that I need to get through each day....