It's so easy to get caught up in life especially when it's busy. You know that "AHHHH..... I have so much to do and so much on my mind and I don't know where to start." feeling?

I have to really work hard at keeping perspective. It does not come easy to me. Learning not to sweat the small stuff, keeping eternal things in the forefront, living a life of thankfulness and resting in the Lord for every detail in our lives is what I strive and long for.    

Perspective was given to me this morning. All of those things on my giant list and the pressures that I woke up thinking about disappeared when I read that a little girl we have loved and prayed for for many years just got cancer for the 3rd time. 

This is not my first post about Kate and some people may not understand why I feel such love for them when I don't even know them.  Micah and Kate had cancer the first time and relapsed in close proximity. I have only emailed with her maybe two times and she probably has no idea who I am anymore. But through her writing on her Caringbridge page she encouraged and pushed me on with her words many times. Her honesty and transparency is a beautiful thing. The way she trusts in the Lord is a blessing to me. We are sisters in Christ and I 'get' where they have been. Those two things bind together. 

This post was in my email this morning...

"Never in my life did I think I would write these words for the third time. Our Kate has relapsed yet again with brain cancer. Utterly horrific. 

I don't have the need or desire to say much tonight. She is going for a CT scan at some point tonight, and a lumbar puncture tomorrow at 12:30pm to check for cancer in her spinal fluid. 

We meet with a neurosurgeon early in the morning. They would like to operate soon. Devastating. We do not know if removing the tumor would help relieve the seizures or not. 

The prayers, well they won't even come tonight. But God is well aware of the silent pleas of the broken hearted. We knows He hears. We pray He would be abundantly merciful to our precious little girl, as her heart and life are so very delicate."

(HERE is a link to her site if you would like to read.)    

There really are no words that feel adequate to explain the sorrow they must feel. 'The 3rd time' sends fear prickles down my spine.  I know that the Lord is sovereign. His plan is perfect. Kate and her family are exactly where He wants them for His purpose. The Lord is merciful and gracious. He gives abundant strength. I know that those truths will be a comfort for them.  But the pain is still excruciating. I know that it's the kind of pain that makes your heart hurt physically. The road of suffering they were just put on can be overwhelming, no matter how much you trust.  

It is also a reminder to all of us that life can change in an instant and not to take for granted the every day life that we tend to rush through. I always think because our lives have changed in an instant more than once that we will never forget to be thankful for the small things. I do forget.

Taking your kids to school, teaching them school, making lunches, cleaning bathrooms, kissing your husband goodbye and feeling him close, sorting all those socks, visiting grand parents, cooking supper for your family, listening to the happy or not so happy chaos of 5 kids running around and tucking them all into their beds each night are things we should not look past. 

On every 'today', we should thank the Lord for the precious gift of the mundane and pray for those who are acutely experiencing the brokenness of this world.