Looking Upward -- Grace

You can choose to have a pity party, or you can choose to look upward.

(Hint hint: Looking upward is the correct answer).

On December 11th, 2015, my tonsils swelled soooo large that they almost cut off my air supply.  I ended up in the ER for seven hours, wondering whether it was just strep or a scary abscess behind my tonsils.  You can read about that experience and testimony here if you're so inclined.

Well, the swelling in my tonsils never exactly went down.  The pain was gone, but my tonsils were still HUGE.  I wasn't too worried, but I prayed that if I was going to get sick again, that I wouldn't until after Christmas and New Year's were over.

I made the mistake of teaching a class, trying to get a book together, and accompanying a choir this month...all aside from my high school classes this month.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up yesterday morning and my tonsils were swelled up so large that I couldn't see my uvula anymore.

I was alarmed, but when I went to church I asked for administration.  (If you're not a Latter-Day Saint, here's an explanation: Administration is basically when two elders anoint you with oil and pray over you.  There's a lot of power in it).  I had never been administered to before, but I asked two elders whom I hold in high esteem.

During the prayer, one of them asked that the pain would go away, and that when I tried to rest that my thoughts would be filled with the majesty of God and that I would be allowed to rest.  Then, he said this:

Even as You walked on the sea here on earth, You are never sleeping and never slumbering, and You are in control of all the winds and storms.

I thought that was really, really neat.  It meant a lot to me when he said it.

I slept for ten hours last night, despite the discomfort in my throat.  This morning when I finally got out of bed at 9am, I realized something.  There's no pain unless I try to swallow.  

So yes, I have to go to the doctor at 11:30.  Yes, I might even have to have surgery.  

But I'm looking upward, because the God we serve is SOOOO amazing....and after this administration, and after this blessing, I feel so loved, not only by the elders who took time out of their Sunday afternoon to do the work which God has given them for me, but also by our majestic and powerful God, the greatest Physician, Who always knows what's best for me.

I keep listening to this song on repeat.  :)

Look upward, my friends.  God is good.