The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – an update on the 30 days of prayer for Silas

Let’s start with the ugly: Silas’s skin.  Yes, unfortunately, much of Silas’s skin is still ugly.  We have seen a little improvement over the past 30 days, but honestly not much.  L

The Bad:  It seems in Western Christianity we often feel that unanswered prayers (aka , prayers that were not answered the way we wanted/hoped) are BAD.  I certainly feel that way most of the time.  I prayed for complete healing on Silas’s skin during these 30 days.  Many, many people joined us in prayer.  I prayed, read Scriptures, fasted.  And yet, still God is saying ‘Not yet’.  This is hard.  It seems bad at the moment, but I am trying to remain hopeful and continue trusting God for His perfect timing.

The Good: Yes, there is some good!

1.       Silas is starting to take a lot of ownership over his skin. 

He is really trying (for the first time) to NOT scratch.  This is actually a huge improvement!  He has told me that he prays for God to help him not scratch.  Even just being able to WANT to not scratch is a step in the right direction.  At night, he often sleeps curled up on his side with his hands tucked in between his knees to help control himself. 

2.       We usually just do lotions once a day now. 

Lotions and moisturizing is a complicated thing.  Using too much can hinder the body from producing its own natural oils, but Silas’s skin has always been SO dry and awful that we felt we couldn’t get ahead of it.  We were doing a minimum of moisturizing once in the morning before kindergarten and once at night.  Now we generally just do nighttime.  It’s been nice during the summer that he is usually with us all day and we can keep an eye on him to prevent excessive itching during the day.  Hopefully, we will not have to starting doing twice a day again when he starts schools.

3.       People praying. 

So many people have prayed with us for Silas, and people praying is always good!  Also, it has been super encouraging to us as we often feel weary after struggling with this for so long. It’s has been a wonderful reminder about the family of God and wonderful community that we have!

4.       Some answers?!? 

Maybe, hopefully we might be finding some answers.  As we have been praying we always ask God for wisdom in how to help Silas.  We continue to feel that this is an INTERNAL problem – related to digestion/gut health.

 

Our next step is to try a diet called Whole30 (more details to come, or you can just google it) starting September 1.   We continue praying and believing in God’s great power and healing abilities.