I Wanna Be In The Light

Song of Solomon 2:15

Quick! Catch all the little foxes before they ruin the vineyard of your love, for the grave vines are all in blossom.

Song of Solomon 2:15

1 Peter 2:21-23

This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps. He never sinned, and He never deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when He was insulted. When He suffered, He did not threaten to get even. He left His case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.

1 Peter 2:21-23

Micah 6:8

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

1 John 1:7

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Lord, I need your help to live in the light today. Help me to be a light to those living in darkness. Lord, you know how cruddy I'm feeling. Thank you that I was able to get antibiotics for my sinus infection yesterday. Please help them to work quickly to clear this mess up. Please don't let me get anyone else sick.

Thank you for helping my arm to continue to heal from the dog bite. Please help the lump under it to eventually go away and the numbness as well.

Lord, I need to get some work done today. Please help me to be able to focus on the task so that I can give my best even though I'm not feeling my best. I pray that YOU would direct my steps today. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Don't Copy the Behavior and Customs of this World

This week's memory verses:
Psalm 27:8
My heart has heard You say, "Come and talk with Me," and my heart responds, "Lord, I am coming."
Psalm 27:8

Psalm 77:1
I cry out to God without holding back.
Psalm 77:1

Romans 12

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romand 12:1-2

Since the dog bite, it seems that everyone has an opinion about what I should do. People are telling me that I should ask the dog's owners to help with my medical bills and that their homeowners insurance should cover this. Christian friends who I love and respect are encouraging me to "lawyer up". I just haven't felt right about any of this. It might be mostly because I feel responsible for what happened. But I also think that you put this check in my spirit, Lord. These verses seem to confirm that.

I have given myself to you as a living sacrifice. I'm thinking that you have taken me up on that quite literally.

To "lawyer up" and insist that the owners help pay my medical bills would be following the behavior and customs of this world. I worry about what that would speak to these people. I want to speak Christ's love and forgiveness to them. Besides, you have already provided the money to pay for this and you will provide for all the rest of our needs.

I see this as a potential opportunity to share the gospel with a family who seems to need the good news. Lord, please continue to use me as you see fit to share the your love and forgiveness to a lost and dying world. Lord, I would love to get to share the gospel with the people who own the dog that bit me. Please show me how to proceed from here.
Amen

Oh, yes! By way of update:
I had to go back to the ER yesterday for another IV antibiotic. But the good news is that the swelling is going down and the nurse said that it looks like it is doing better. Praise God! I'm getting to leave the dressings off so that it can start to scab up. Yay! I just have to keep my dog from trying to "clean" it for me. Hehe! 

Got Bitten by a Dog

WARNING: If you are squeamish, don't look at these pictures.

I was bitten by a neighbor's dog this past Saturday while walking home from my run. This particular dog is quite aggressive and I usually give her a wide berth even though she is in a fenced yard. The fence is not adequate for her and she has gotten out of it before.

The kids who live there had made her go into their house when they saw me walking by. But they didn't close the door. I stooped down and moved one of the fence slats back into place and was about to fix another when the dog attacked me. I didn't even see her coming.

I believe that I was in shock at first. The kids helped me get back up and then walked me home which wasn't far. By the time I got home I was sobbing and bleeding a lot and said, "I need to go to the hospital." Praise God that my husband was home. He dropped what he was doing, grabbed a paper towel and an old bath towel for me and then hustled me off to the closest ER.

They got me in pretty quickly and got me cleaned up. They took X-rays to make sure there were no breaks or fractures in my bones. All clear there. We were having trouble getting in touch with the dog's owner. So the hospital filed a report with Animal Services.

As you can see in the pictures, they only put one stitch in each of the deepest wounds. They didn't want to put more because of the risk of infection. I got a tetanus shot and was sent home with a script for antibiotics.

Last night the dog's owner dropped off these lovely flowers. She keeps on apologizing even though I keep telling her that it wasn't her fault.

She had told me on the phone yesterday that the dog had puppies inside the house that she was protecting. I didn't blame the dog at all and even less so after hearing that. I had suspected that she had pups. The owner also told me that they are building a privacy fence for the back yard and will keep that dog in the back from now on. The dog is going to have to be in isolation for 10 days, I'm guessing her pups which are still nursing will have to go with her.

When I got up this morning, my arm hurt just to move my fingers. My hand was/is swollen and red which hadn't been the case before. So when I called to set up an appointment to get the stitches removed with my regular doctor, I talked to a nurse who told me to go back to the ER.

My sweet, long suffering husband got permission to leave work and take me back to the ER. When we were ushered back the same male nurse who had cleaned me up on Saturday said, "Oh, you're BACK?" Then the same doctor, who incidentally looked like Ariana Grande, treated me. 

She confirmed that my arm is infected and took the stitches back out. She said that at this point they were just a bacteria magnet. Then she squeezed as much of the infection out of the wounds as she could. I told her that if I were a person who cussed, I would have been cussing at that moment. She had the nurse give me a pain pill when she was done. Next they took blood work and then after getting the results from that, got me set up with IV antibiotics. 

They told me that I need to come back again tomorrow to have more IV antibiotics. Each time I have to go back to the ER it's another $250. Uuuugh! We have the money, praise God, thanks to our tax return. But my husband had planned to use it for other purposes.

Now, my struggle is that I'm angry at myself for being so foolish and messing with that fence when I should have just kept on walking. I'm trying to tell myself things like, "Maybe I saved a child from getting attacked." But I'm still quite frustrated with myself even though I know:

Can anything happen without the Lord's permission?
Lamentations 3:37

Yesterday I was thinking that maybe God allowed me to get bitten by that dog so that I can develop a friendship with the owner and maybe even share the gospel with her. That would certainly help me to feel less aggravated with myself over this. In fact that would make it all worth it! I am praying that the Lord would open those doors as he sees fit. I would love for any of you who feel led to join me in prayer for this!