“You will need to be on bed rest,” the doctor said.

Actually, the news was better than I thought it would be. I was anticipating  several months of bed rest in the hospital— so several months of bed rest at home because of complications while expecting child number three actually sounded like a piece of cake in comparison to a hospital room. Not fun by any means, but better.

Bed. Rest.

How does one manage life with a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old, and an upcoming house move, with this kind of mandate?

The answer: One does not do it by herself.

She allows others to step in and do what she cannot do.

During those months on bed rest, I had to allow others to come into my messy closets and my messy life. You can learn a lot by looking into a person’s closet. They had to pack. Unpack. Move. Feed. Drive. Some ladies came in and set up my kitchen in the house we moved into. The dishes are still in the same place. (I don’t know how, but they just seemed to know where to put them.)

Sometimes, the “doing of good” is done to you. And you have no way to repay that kind of good.

You know, I like that kind of doing good. It feels good to be the one doing it. And it is a blessing to the one who receives it.

Their job to do good was helping out someone else in a small way.

My job to do good at that time was to fulfill the doctor’s orders to rest, and receive the good that was being done unto me. I remember thinking, “God must want my eyes focused on Him above, not straight ahead, because that is literally where I’ll be staring for a long time: at the ceiling.”

Sometimes doing good means accepting that you need the good to be done unto you. In a culture that celebrates self-made successes and independence, this is not an easy lesson for many of us. But it is an important one. We will find ourselves on both sides at various times in our lives: the doing of good and the receiving of it.

And, the reward of the bed rest? It came several months later, with the gift of a healthy child.

***

Sharing with The High Calling: Create Good linkup. 

TheHighCalling.org Christian Blog Network