Posted by
LibbyTalks on Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:07:00 PM
My first post was on who comes first Faith or family? And I answered my own question differently than I believe in my heart of hearts. I tried so hard to sound good, I wrote myself right out of the point I wanted to make. People who commented, brought me back to my senses, especially Rick mentioning the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was asked to put his son Isaac on the alter before God and give him as sacrifice and God ends up providing Abraham with a lamb and then proceeds to restore Isaac to Abraham and bless him for the rest of his life.
Things didn't work quite this way for me in my life. I had a true Abraham/Isaac experience. I had a baby with a very bad heart. When he was only a few days old he went into heart failure and had to have a heart catheterization immediately. I figuratively put him on the alter before God and prayed that He was in charge, my child was His, He came first and I would accept His decision. Well my son lived through the procedure which they didn't expect considering the complexity of his defects. But I didn't get to keep him long, only 10 and 1/2 months.
Then again one could say...in his condition...God gave him to me for almost one year and it was a miracle! That is how I choose to look at it. So even as a very young woman (23 years old) I believed God came first.
I haven't changed much. Just long enough to feel the need to caution people in the ministry and others with great zeal -- in their efforts to take care of those around them to put their family right after God and before their jobs!
Where do you put yourself? That is up to every individual to decide. I would only say this....be cautious not to be too far down the line. You may compromise your health and then who can you serve or help?