God is the oxygen for healthy families

By Cindy Jury

One year, our pastor asked another mother and I to share on how God had helped us as mothers. My first thought was “Why did he ask me? I’m a mess!”

But it really did make me think. One of my first thoughts was how I felt when my husband and I first found out we were pregnant. I remember thinking, “Why doesn’t traffic stop at each pregnancy, why isn’t everybody freaking out every moment when a baby is born? This is such a miracle.”
Then I thought of the time when our four-week-old son had to have surgery. It was a teaching hospital, and four surgeons were wheeling our tiny little baby away. Someone forgot to take the brake off, and these four surgeons could not get the bed to move. They ended up running over somebody’s foot. I thought, “These people are cutting my baby’s stomach open”?

Our son had a condition called pyloric stenosis. It is a condition that causes an obstruction of the stomach outlet, which then causes the child to projectile vomit. Our son would literally project his undigested milk across the room.
At first, the doctors kept saying it was normal. I was worried about taking him out to a coffee shop as a normal outing. Someone across the room might receive some unordered cream in their coffee.

In the end, Ian was completely healed through surgery, and unsuspecting coffee drinkers are now also safe.
Or how about the time our daughter was born five weeks premature? She had more wires coming out of her than my husband’s sound system. I kept looking for a remote control.

One day I came in and she had a huge bruise on her forehead. I thought someone had dropped her. It turns out that they were just looking for a new vein in her forehead for her IV. She wouldn’t let them. Well, she is now 6 years old and still feisty with an attitude.

Then there are the little things, like when you get married and “someone” squeezes the toothpaste wrong. With Emma, it was Easter Sunday after church. She was in her room taking a nap, or so I thought. I was trying to rest and was reliving how cute she looked in her Easter dress and bonnet, when Emma came in my room unexpectedly. She brought me a live Easter bunny.

How did she do that, you ask? Well, she had been potty training, took off her full diaper and smeared what looked like chocolate all over her. Have any of you parents out there had similar experiences?
Not to be outdone, Ian has torn holes in wallpaper, covered himself in white diaper rash ointment, pulled fireplace mantles down upon himself and eaten dishwashing soap, to name a few.

I feel that God has helped me in many ways, don’t you? First of all, God is my oxygen. I liken it to the instructions you receive on an aircraft: “In the case of an emergency, when the oxygen masks drop, if you have a small child with you, assist yourself first.” What they mean is, if you try to give your child the oxygen first, you may have difficulties and neither of you will have oxygen and you will both pass out. Whereas if you receive your oxygen first, you will then have the strength left to help your child.

Same with life. We need to be healthy first to help our children. To me, that means most importantly a spiritual life-relationship with our loving God, who also has a great sense of humor. It also means time for my awesome husband who is also a great father to the children, time for myself, family, etc.

Secondly, God’s joy is unconditional. Now, I have to admit, I don’t always feel it at the time, but God has shown me that he really can make something great out of, well, “Easter chocolate.”

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