cancer

  • Word of the Year Update: Not What I Had in Mind!

    ByLauren Christian, Grace & Truth Link Up, trusting God
    32 Comments

    Word of the YearEarlier this year I wrote about my one word focus for 2022.  Rest.  As in, rest in the Lord.  It seemed to go hand in hand with the word I still struggle with from last year:  Trust.  Plus with my husband undergoing cancer treatments, I need God’s all-encompassing peace more than ever before.

     

    I bought a Faithful Life Planner.  I haven’t historically used a planner, but I love it (not an affiliate, btw).  And I have filled it with scriptures and prayers about resting and trusting.  I’m also planning my days during my time with Him and find it helps me keep Him at the forefront as I check off my to-do’s.

     

    That’s what I had in mind when I chose the word Rest.  Definitely not what I have now – 2 bulging discs at L4 and L5 that sit on top of my sciatic nerve!  So guess what?  I can’t do anything.  Heavy pain meds flow through my blood stream.  I have been sitting or sleeping on a recliner for days, and I had a sedated injection.

     

    So Not What I Had in Mind!

     

    Before getting my prescription pain meds I had bouts of sobbing and wailing and begging my husband to take me to the ER.  I wish I was exaggerating.  It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life.  And I have endured many surgeries.  You can’t touch nerve pain.  No rubbing or changing of position helped.  So I am afraid to get off of the pain meds just yet.  I can’t go back to that.  Therefore, I have slept a lot.  Rested, if you will.

     

    Not what I had in mind, God.  Especially right now.  It is killing me that my husband is having to wait on me and our special needs daughter between his radiation and chemo appointments.  How is this fair at all?  I need to be taking care of Chuck.  Not the other way around.

     

    God gave me the word “rest”.  But He didn’t ask me how I wanted to learn about it.  So I’m back to trust. 

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    Trusting that the kids and the house will be taken care of.  That Chuck’s treatments are killing the cancer cells in his body.  Trusting the doctors making the decisions for Chuck and me.  And trusting that God can heal us both – medically or supernaturally.

     

    So if you need me, I’ll be in my recliner.  Reading, watching TV, praying, resting.

     

    “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
    Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
     “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    So are My ways higher than your ways
    And My thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9 NASB

     

    And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

     

    After this whiny post, you will not be surprised that Theresa Boedeker’s How to Stop Focusing on What’s Wrong With You struck me right between the eyes.  She says…

    “Because when we are complaining, we are not praising.

    When we are whining, we can’t be grateful.

    When we are wanting, we are not satisfied.

    And when we are criticizing, we can’t be thankful.”

     

    I can’t stop thinking about the entire article and the adjustments I need to make personally to my attitude.  Please read it.  It may be just the gentle encouragement you need too!

     

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  • Praying God’s Word Wednesday #35

    ByLauren Bible reading, Christian, prayer, suffering
    8 Comments

    I promise I will write about things other than my husband’s cancer again, but it is top of mind these days.  It’s what I’m praying about the most, so I may as well be forthcoming with that this week as we pray God’s Word.

     

    My mom and mother-in-law both sent us a copy of Max Lucado’s God Will Use This for Good:  Surviving the Mess of Life.  You might say, “Great minds think alike”, but I know that God often speaks to me in “twos”.  The most logical explanation for this is that I don’t listen well the first time, so He has to repeat it to drive home His point.  My twin sister recently said she thought it was because I am a twin that I learn best in “twos”.  Either way, God is so kind to make sure He gets my attention.

     

    Since this book came in “twos” I made it a top priority to read.  My husband read it as well and has now decided to find someone in his chemo sessions to pass them on to.  In this booklet is this verse:

     

    I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.  Jeremiah 33:6

     

    Through Jeremiah, the Lord gave beautiful promises of restoration for Israel and Judah.  But because my husband accepted God’s gift of grace through the saving work of Jesus, he can claim this promise too.  So I’m claiming it for him, and I hope you will indulge me as I pray for Chuck today.

     

     

    Is there someone is your life (or yourself) who needs healing physically, spiritually, mentally or emotionally?  There are so many layers of application here.  Try praying this scripture over them.  

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    Praying for you in this.  And don’t forget to share on social media or with a friend who could benefit.  It would mean so much to me.  And if you don’t want to miss a Praying God’s Word Wednesday, subscribe over on the right hand side of this page.

    Lauren