Thank God for eczema

2Co 12:7-10 (ESV)  So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

Arianna loves to say her nighttime prayers. As an almost-five-year-old, she often misspeaks. We're trying to teach her the difference between thanking God for something and asking him for something. We thank God for our blessings, we ask God to heal the sick.

Every night we typically pray for the same things. Thank God for our home, Daddy's job, our family, our church family, please help the sick people. Tonight, when Arianna got to praying for the sick people, she didn't get out of the thanking "mode". The first thing she said was, "Thank God for my eczema."

I know what she meant, but I couldn't help but think about how awesome her eczema is. Yes, eczema is a nightmare. Especially hers. She itches everywhere. She has large red rough patches all over her body, from her scalp to her toes. She tries not to scratch. She rubs, she tells us and we apply products from steroid anti-itch creams to natural, organic, homeopathics. We had to stop the steroid creams because they are thinning her skin too much. When she can't stand it anymore, she scratches. She scratches hard. She scratches until she bleeds, and then some more. Her feet are a mess. We're pretty sure she'll have scarring in certain areas she's scratched too hard.

However, eczema is teaching her (and us) a lesson. Several lessons. It's teaching her how to overcome hardships. Teaching her how to be patient. How to overcome physical limitations. It's teaching her that her beauty is not in her red, rough, scratched up and bleeding skin. It's in her smile, in her patience with her brother(s), in her little voice singing "God's not dead, he's surely alive" in the back seat of our minivan at the top of her lungs, in the way she comes to me when I'm in pain in bed and tells me that she prayed that I'll feel better. It's teaching us that some things just happen, there's no rhyme or reason, and there's no point blaming vaccines or formula use or overuse of baby bath and baby lotions with chemicals, but to focus on moving forward rather than looking at the past.

So, thank God for eczema! It is teaching our family lessons we would never have learned without it, and all of us will come out on the other side with stronger faith and stronger relationships with each other.

My heart, my mind

My body, my soul

I give to You, take control

I give my body, a living sacrifice

Lord, take control, take control