Monday, December 19, 2011

December 19-Jerome & Susan

This was an emotional one for me. Jerome and Susan were our next door neighbors before we moved. I've been thinking and praying about them for awhile now. On Dec 1st their son suffered from a rare condition where a blood vessel ruptured near his spinal area resulting in internal bleeding and paralysis below his waist. He is 9 years old.

Their family has a website updating family and friends on their sons condition. Its interesting how people react to tragedy. Some turn away from God and others turn to Him. This family's faith is strong and inspiring. I would like to include an excerpt from Jerome's journal.

"Watching over J has inspired these journal updates and my daily rants. Today I was unable to be with J during most of the day due to work, thus leaving Susan to bear the bulk of his care on her own. Not that work takes precedence over J, but if there is one day that I shouldn’t miss it would be today for our unannounced regulatory inspection that would determine if our blood bank meets the standards to remain open or shut down.While I was confident we were good enough to pass we were not perfect. The inspector noted some deficiencies and he felt there were a few areas we could improve upon.

I again saw some parallel with what we are going thru with J. We feel we are like most decent parents who instinctively come to the aid of their child in need. However, we are far from perfect and have short-comings or personal deficiencies as parents and people.Sometimes it takes an unannounced inspection or event to help us realize we have room to improve. J’s predicament has caused us to personally reflect on our shortcomings one of which is not always putting God first. Sometimes we focus on selfish earthly things.

Like the inspection today, our situation is an opportunity to improve ourselves and apply corrective actions.God is good all the time. While our current situation is saddening, it is not without good purpose. Tragedies, calamities and spinal aneurysms happen as God’s will. These things don’t happen as punishment but I think they happen when we sometimes stray from the flock and they serve the purpose of bringing us back and closer to Him, as this situation has done. Perhaps in the big picture God is using J to bring us all closer to Him.

There are so many people praying for J. Obviously we’re elated that J is being lifted in prayer, additionally it’s great to know that so many are talking to God…I’m sure that God is elated with this."em>

Is this not inspiring? I really struggled. What more could I say? In my note I shared an excerpt from a talk given by Pres. Uchtfdorf titled, "Happily Ever After" and my testimony with a couple scriptures I felt inspired to mark in the Book of Mormon I gave them. We also included a couple gifts for J and a freezer meal for whenever they needed it. Please keep this family in your prayers.

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