Thank you Father for a good week, for direction, for guidance, and for brothers and sisters in Christ who continue to hold us up in prayer. Thank you all for continuing to pray and support us as you do.

I was unable to add to my blog today, as it was moved to a new server and now it doesn’t work. Hopefully it will be up early in the week and I’ll post this message there. But for today I will post this directly on our Facebook page.

Theresa had an appointment with the surgeon Thursday. After discussion with him, we decided to go forward with a lumpectomy and lymph node dissection, which she will undergo on Wednesday. Theresa is getting a little anxious about it as the lymph node dissection will leave her axilla pretty uncomfortable for a while. But we agree with the surgeon and oncologist that this is the right decision to deal with the localized disease, as the PET scan suggests maybe some slight activity still there. The tissue removed will be evaluated for cancer cells, and if there is some residual then radiation may be in order, though I am uncertain of the added value at this time. I guess we cross that bridge when we get to it. Please hold her up in prayer on Wednesday. Thank you in advance.

Theresa has been a trooper. She decided to move forward with the surgery as soon as possible because summer is coming to an end soon and the kid’s activities are beginning. She wants to get 2-3 weeks of recovery in before the onslaught. We made multiple meals Saturday and went shopping this week, so our freezer and fridge are full, making easy meals for the next 3 weeks or so. She still wears out easy, has profound nausea at times (which prochlorperazine takes care of most of the time, though ondansetron is a back up when it doesn’t work). She had to get her Herceptin infusion moved up to Monday, if it is delivered, since she won’t be in any condition on Thursday to get it. So I suspect with the added fatigue and nausea from the Herceptin and having the surgery, she is going to have a very difficult couple of weeks. She will need your prayers for endurance and peace.

As I have written before, we are thankful that we are even in the position to make these decisions. We are blessed, and we know the power of prayer from God’s Saints.

I would encourage you to read Psalms 34, and be reminded of God’s constant help, His guarantee of care. “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth”, because: “I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears”…”O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”…”But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing”…”The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry”…”the LORD redeems the soul of His servants; and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned”.

This week I thought about “O taste and see that the LORD is good”, tasting Him, delighting in Him. We need to enjoy Him, for “experiencing God is pleasant and enriching to the soul” Sam Storms writes. Sam discusses what it means to delight in God, while also looking at Psalms 37. He says that delight is our duty, but also a feeling that God has to awaken in us as He draws us to Him. Sam gives ways through which we delight ourselves in God. We need to “Know him. Learn of him, Study him. Explore his ways. Investigate his will. Become a student of the personality and character of God and he will most surely captivate your mind”. We also must delight in his beauty, “…his handiwork, the splendor of his power, the majesty of his mercy, and the list could go on quite literally, infinitely”. He states we must cultivate this. “trust God to be sufficiently beautiful that all idols become ugly in comparison”…”trust God to be sufficiently enjoyable that all else pales in comparison”…”trust God when he says obedience will bless and enrich”… and “trust God’s commandments to be sufficiently good that the ways of the world are exposed as noxious and fatal.” “Make your joy in Jesus central in all you do and say and think, for in your gladness in him is his glory in you most vividly seen”.

We have tasted and known the LORD to be good. His goodness is ever so evident as we walk this path He has provided for us to endure in. Thank you all for reading and for walking with us in this.