Apr 21, 2010

Set Me Free, Casting Crowns

It hasn't always been this way


I remember brighter days

Before the dark ones came

Stole my mind

Wrapped my soul in chains

Now I live among the dead

Fighting voices in my head

Hoping someone hears me crying in the night

And carries me away



CHORUS

Set me free of the chains holding me

Is anybody out there hearing me?

Set me free



Morning breaks another day

Finds me crying in the rain

All alone with my demons I am

Who is this man that comes my way?

The dark ones shriek

They scream His name

Is this the One they say will set the captive free?

Jesus, rescue me

CHORUS

Set me free of the chains holding me

Is anybody out there hearing me?

Set me free



As the God man passes by

He looks straight through my eyes

And darkness cannot hide

Do you want to be free?

Lift your chains

I hold the key

All power on Heav'n and Earth belong to Me

You are free

You are free

You are free



Apr 19, 2010

Are We Seperate Enough?

"Parents, what are your children learning from your worship? Do they see the same excitement as when you go to a basketball game? Do they see you prepare for worship as you do for a vacation? Do they see you hungry to arrive, seeking the face of the Father? Or do they see you content to leave the way you came?.....They are watching. Believe me. They are watching." - Max Lucado


We studied Acts 2: 37-41 in our Sunday evening service last night. This is the account of the result of Peter's Sermon at Pentecost.

After hearing Peter, the scripture tells us they were cut to the heart and asked, "What shall we do?"

Peter said to them“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

That last sentence, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." sparked a discussion about what 'crooked generation' means AND are we, the followers of Christ seperate enough from the world.

I think that we are not set apart enough for the world to notice much of a difference.

So what if we go to church on Sunday morning.  How we behave and what we choose to do AFTER church is what matters.

Years ago when I was working at a restaurant I dreaded the Sunday night crowd.  They came in after the Sunday evening service and were the most difficult to please, the worst tippers and generally just a bad witness. I used to do anything I could to help the waitress assigned to wait on them.  It was always a big group, they sat in the big dining room and the kids sat apart from the parents which made writing up orders more difficult.  I happened to have a couple of waitresses on my staff that were members of this church, those waitresses got good tips, but beware if you weren't part of their group...

So, where does that leave me?  Well for one thing, David and I have chosen to tip well when the service warrants it.

But mainly we have tried to be different...different from the world, different in our expectations, different in how we spend out time and money....different

does it matter?   I think it does.

So we will continue to be, do , think, speak differently. Are we good at it?  It depends.  Could we improve?  Yes

I want our children to become used to being different.

I want my life to count for something.

For a good resource read John Piper's 'Don't waste your life'  It was written after Piper's battle with cancer.

Let us choose to be different because we serve a holy GOD.  Holy means set apart.  We need to be set apart.

Apr 15, 2010

Check out my new job

 Here is the 'where'   Whatever Kids


Here is the 'why'   Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable –if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
Philippians 4:8

Here is my bio from the site  I'm Susan, wife to David for 20 years and homeschooling Mom to Daniel and Sarah. I have been blessed by God with a wonderful husband who wants me home to raise and teach our children. I have been crocheting for at least 14 years and enjoy teaching others the craft. I also weave baskets and sew. I look forward to passing on my knowledge of crochet to others.

Philosophy:
Whatever Kids provides "enrichment" opportunities to enhance your child's current education. Our goal is to make knowledge accessible and affordable for all ages in a comfortable environment where Christ's love is evident.


Apr 6, 2010

Praise Him With Us

I saw the cardiologist yesterday. He reviewed all the tests done at the hospital on Wednesday, Thursday Saturday & Sunday. EVERY SINGLE test was negative for ANY heart damage or blockage.
After I gave him a detailed account of all that had been going on, he asked if I had ever had a neck injury. Why yes, I have. I told him the details of the injury and he shared with me an incident that had happened to him. He had 2 slipped discs in his neck but without neck pain. He had terrible pain in his upper left arm.
I also had not had any neck pain until yesterday. But Dr Colavita is 99.9% sure that my chest pain was related to my neck injury and the arthritis in my neck.
So, he recommended the neurologist that he used and I will see Dr Petty next week
We are so thankful. I do have significant risk factors, bad family history, diabetes, HBP, high triglyceride's, weight... So David and I are going to follow the South Beach plan and increase our exercise. We started last night and walked 1 mile last night.

So Praise Him with us and ask Him that I/we will stick to our plan and be successful in becoming more healthy.

Apr 5, 2010

Apr 2, 2010

Migraine Abortive Leads to Chest Pain

Wednesday, March 31, 2010
7 PM

We had just finished dinner.  I took my migraine abortive (treximet) and dramamine for the nausea.  Within 15 minutes I felt like my chest was being crushed and I had a burning sensation up the back of my neck.

I quickly called my pharmacist, (thanks Sherry) who talked to me and looked up side effects.  This wasn't listed as a typical side effect and furthermore I  had taken the same combo on 5 previous occasions with NO problem.

Sherry advised me to call 'Ask First' a well staffed division of the hospital.  I called and within 2-3 minutes a nurse was on the line going through my symptoms.  She advised me to get to the ER immediately

ER: it seemed like hurry up and wait.  The ER was BUSY
EKG: looks good
Blood Work : looks good
Chest  X-Rays: look good
Urine Sample:  You have a UTI,  iv antibiotic

I finally saw the ER doctor and he decided that because of (a) my symptoms & (b) my high risk factor, they would need to keep and observe me for about 24 hours.  At this point the diagnosis was angina.

David and the kids left around 11 pm, very concerned and tired.  None of them got much sleep.

I finally got moved to a room on the cardiac unit around 1am.  Can I have a snack?, Well you're NPO for tomorrow but I'll move your test back a bit and bring you a sandwich.  Cindy brought me a huge turkey sandwich, baked Lays chips and a diet Sprite.  I only ate 1/2 the sandwich. 

More blood drawn, a second iv antibiotic, a breathing treatment, hook me up to CPAP,  nothing on t.v., nothing to read except the phonebook,  no Gideon Bible.

Finally fell asleep around 3, only to be semi disturbed around 4 am for another blood draw (she was GOOD, I didn't even feel it) and vitals.

I woke on my own at 8 am.  tried to wash up without disturbing all the wires hooked to the monitor.  I think I forgot it was on because it was a wireless feed to the nurses station.  All my walking around and washing up made the heart monitor gives some unusual readings.  Of course this concerned my nurse. She was relieved to know I had just been brushing my teeth.

Then off to more tests.  1st a CT scan of my chest,  then a chemical stress test, yuck, then another CT.

At some point in all of this I complained about more chest pain and was given nitroglycerin.  Not a fun med to take. It felt like acid under my tongue, then it caused my headache to get worse. (The same headache that I had taken treximat to treat the previous evening.)

I also had a nice chat with a hospital pharmacist, trying to verify what pain meds I could tolerate.

Finally able to eat around 2pm.  Hospital food never tasted so good! (it really was good) And get my morning meds and a pain pill for my headache.  Oh great now I'll be asleep when my family arrives.  (I wasn't asleep)

Call David and tell him I'm finally able to have them come visit.  At some point before David & the kiddos arived I saw my 5th doctor in less than 24 hours.

Dr. Morrow brought good news.  It was not my heart.  It was caused by the treximet and I could NEVER have another drug in the triptan class again.

Cindy, my nurse came in around 330 or so to tell me I was being discharged and she had a lot of paperwork to go over with me.  That done, I was finally able to wash up again, and get dressed.

David and Daniel went to bring the car around and we headed home.

By the time we got home it was 5pm or a bit after and we still needed to eat supper, pick up 3 new prescriptions and change to go to church.

We made it to church for Maundy Thursday and considering all we had been through in the previous 24 hours, I think the service was sweeter to us than ever.

I am soo thankfuol that my life has been spared.