Protector...

My day started early with a little five year old girl crawling into bed as she grimaced and clinched her tummy.

ANOTHER stomach virus. I believe this makes her fifth since November...

Needless to say, "spring break" started early for us since the time we normally would be driving to school was spent by me holding my daughter's hair back for her as she threw up in a trashcan on the floor...along with about 4 other times throughout the "school day." I found myself a bit discouraged thinking how she was, again, sick. But as I was praying for her during my quiet time, the Lord whispered in my ear, "Do you really think this has caught me by surprise and that I'm not taking care of her?" Without hesitation, I responded, "Thank you, Lord, for protecting my daughter."

You see, I realized something...I pray daily for God to protect my Lucy as she goes to school-to protect her innocence as I know she is exposed to things I don't want my five year old exposed to. I pray for God to close her ears to things I don't want her to hear and to close her eyes to things I don't want her to see, and I pray for Him to somehow, in the midst of a very secular world, still draw her to Himself and allow her to live up to her name of being a light-bringer. Yesterday, I was praying that extra hard as Lucy had shared something with me a classmate had told her. My heart broke that not only had my daughter been exposed to this conversation, but it also broke to think that this other child had been, too. I found myself praying extra hard for Lucy's protection throughout the day, and then it suddenly struck me-perhaps all of these days Lucy has been home sick have been days that she has missed being exposed to something she shouldn't be exposed to. Don't get me wrong-I absolutely hate when my children are sick-it just breaks my heart. But God reminded me that He is ALWAYS in control and He is always working. And even though she hasn't felt 100% today, we still enjoyed a full day together filled with lots of snuggles:) she started the day off crawling in bed with me, and she ended the day crawling on the couch with me...yes, I realize she was manipulating her momma because she really just wanted to watch TV, but I still got extra snuggles out of it, so I'm okay with the motive;-)