Jiming Lindal
"I'm Jiming Lindal, a child of God, a Christian who loves God, loves life and pursues the truth, a screenwriter and writer."
Our lovely child has special needs. Among other things, she suffers from severe migraines. She stopped attending school in fourth grade because she had migraines almost every day, and she received homeschooling just an hour a day from a teacher in our school district. I've always worried about her health and whether she could ever survive school, and I carried these worries around for years, leading to anxiety.
By God's grace, her migraines have been managed in recent years, and she can go to school every day. However, she still experiences migraines occasionally.
Three months ago, she suffered the worst migraine of her life. As in the past, she was in her dark room with closed curtains. But this time, she became nauseated that she began to taste blood and couldn't even walk because the slightest move would worsen her migraines. I panicked and sent messages to my friends, asking them to pray for her. One friend told me to have faith; God was in control, and another asked if I had contacted the doctor's office.
Because it was after hours, I called the answering service, and a nurse instructed me that if my child didn’t improve, we needed to take her to the ER. Even though she was in agony, my child refused to go to the ER. I called again and asked to talk to a doctor. The doctor called back and instructed us to give her a high dosage (600 mg) of ibuprofen.
For some reason (looking back, I believe it’s the leading of the Holy Spirit), as I hung up the phone, my eyes moved to the Christian song list I had compiled on my computer, and they stopped at the song “Give Thanks.” I clicked on its YouTube link.
The video played with a beautiful melody and lyrics:
“Give thanks with a grateful heart…because He’s given Jesus Christ, His son…let the weak say, ‘I am strong’…”
As I listened to the song, a sense of peace and calm washed over me, which I had never experienced before. I played the music repeatedly, learning to thank God despite the situation.
After my child took medicine, within an hour and a half, her pain scale went from 9 to 3, and she wanted to take the dog for a walk! Before, she had no energy to talk, and now she was all happy and chatting. She didn’t need to go to the ER!
I believe to this day, I witnessed a miracle. I had gone from wondering if my child was going to survive the worst migraine of her life to watching her play with her dog and being her usual happy self in such a short amount of time.
More importantly, I learned to thank the Lord during my child’s suffering and experienced the peace that only came from Him. I learned that, like Christ suffering on the cross, our suffering also has meaning -- we learn to rely on God in these situations, and He strengthens us for those times when we need His help. We must have faith that God has a purpose in making us endure life's heartaches.
Now when I start to worry about my child, I will recall this experience and recite this verse in my heart:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)