Five Minute Friday: Good

Today I’m linking up once again with the Five Minute Friday crowd.  FMF provides a prompt word every Friday, then we write, for five minutes, no editing, no holds barred, just write whats on our heart.  Today is Wednesday and I know I am late but its not yet the next Friday so why not?  The rule is a prompt word is provided and we write….for five minutes, no editing, just real and raw.   Then post and go back and encourage the prior post.  The link is:  http://katemotaung.com/2015/04/02/five-minute-friday-good-and-a-brand-new-video/

Friday’s prompt word was “good”.  Ready, set, go.

Psalm 116:7 “Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you” (NIV)

Good….the dictionary defines good as “right, proper, fit, kind, honorable, worthy, satisfactory, virtuous, pious”.  But what I am struck by as I contemplate good is that many times it comes in the form of bad.  Things often happen in our lives that we consider bad, painful, difficult, challenging but when it is over we look back and can truly say:  God meant this for good!  Good does not have to be in the present moment, in fact, the present moment may be quite bad.  Miracles happen when the result of bad becomes good.  These past few weeks I have seemed to fight one battle after another; I became horribly sick with a virus that I simply could not shake, missed several days of work and landed in the ER.  Not long after I had a scheduled surgery which was quickly followed by complications landing me in the hospital for three days.  A recovery that was supposed to take two weeks is going to take much longer and for a while I was quite distraught.  Then God began speaking to my heart, encouraging me to look at the blessings within.  I have went, in a period of three weeks, from someone constantly on the go and doing for others to someone who has been forced into dependency upon my husband and family……and it is NOT easy, in fact, it is quite frustrating.  As God has been speaking to my heart I have found myself very slowly realizing that all the pain, all the frustration, all the tears has truly been meant for good.  Good is the way my husband has stepped up…..laundry, dishes, pets, dinner….everything without complaint.  Good is my sometimes selfish 12 year old who runs downstairs in the morning asking how I feel and what he can do for me.  Good is time on my hands……time to pray, converse with God, write, catch up on some long overdue rest.  Good is sitting in my recliner at 10am knowing my protector sleeps upstairs so he can go to work tonight, knowing our son is safely at school and knowing the goodness in my husband that I knew was there somewhere has been allowed to blossom.   I don’t know how long this will last, my recovery has been slow; but rather than look upon this seemingly bad situation as an obstacle God has opened my heart to an understanding that what seems bad at the time……is, as always being used for good….according to His purpose.  His good reigns upon me even in the midst of recovery and I find myself praising him for illness and even surgical complications that have put me right where He wants me………where I can receive His goodness!  Thank you Jesus.