Spiritual Warfare

I always take it as a good sign that I am doing something very much in God's will when Satan is working overtime to stop me.  Tuesday was one of those days.

As I mentioned before, I gave my testimony on Thursday at my MOPS meeting, and I was very nervous about it but felt God was calling me to do it.

Monday night I woke up in the night to hear my dog Nash throwing up.  I didn't want Don to step in it when he got up, so I got up in the middle of the night and cleaned it up.  Meanwhile, I was having some pretty severe stomach cramps, but I went back to bed and finally, back to sleep.  The next morning I got up and checked my e-mail.  Suddenly my computer screen went white.  I couldn't do anything with it.  I'd had computer problems before so knew a few tricks for resolving them, but nothing worked. 

Meanwhile, I went to get Cooper up.  His pajamas were very wet from a leaky diaper, and his lips had a definite bluish tint, which I had never seen before.  I changed him, and an hour or so later his lips were still blue, so I called his pediatrician.  They sounded worried and told me to bring him in, so I did a couple of hours later.  By the time we got there, his lips weren't blue anymore, but his face was red and splotchy.  I told the pediatrician about his pajamas being wet when I got him up, and our house had been a bit chilly as well, so she said that was possibly the cause of his blue lips, but that blue lips could also indicate a heart problem, so we needed to have him checked out by a cardiologist right away. 

This was, obviously, VERY upsetting to me.  Also, the only appointment they could get for me was the next morning, which would likely cause me to miss my Bible study, our last regular class of the year.  That made me really sad, but of course, Cooper's health was more important.  I called Don at work, and he agreed to take the morning off to go with me.

Then I called Toshiba, the manufacturer of my computer.  I had bought the computer in mid-January, 3-1/2 months earlier, understanding that it had a 1-year warranty, but when I called them, they said my "tech support" warranty was only 3 months, so they wouldn't even work with me over the phone unless I paid them $50.  My only other option was to ship it to them ($25 for postage) and have them repair it and send it back to me.  When I went to print the shipping label (on Don's computer), they required a credit card number before the label would print.  I didn't understand why they needed a credit card number when the computer was under warranty, and I wasn't about to give them one, especially in light of the experience I'd already had with them that day.  I tried a few more times that day to fix it myself, but nothing worked.  This, too, was upsetting me, so I finally decided just to let it go for now, and put my computer away until after Cooper's doctor visit and my testimony was behind me.

The next morning we took Cooper in to the cardiologist.  He checked out fine.  The appointment was at 8:30 a.m., and we were out by 9:00, so I made it to my 10:00 Bible study.

Meanwhile, my stomach was feeling better, and Nash's seemed to be too.

And my testimony went very well, I think.  God was definitely there, as two other women and I shared our stories.  I felt His power keeping me calm throughout the evening, and the whole experience was a blessing for me, and a lot of other people as well, I believe.

So the next day I got out my computer again and, guess what??  It worked perfectly!

Other than it costing us a lot of money to take Cooper to the cardiologist, everything turned out just fine.

So take THAT, Satan!