My Ice Bucket Challenge

Oh What A Friend

-One afternoon, when I was resting in bed, I was
listening to the song, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus". (I love old hymns)
I started thinking how having Jesus for a friend is very much like having a
really good human friend Only better.

My really close friends love me. At least, I think so. Still, their love
they have for me is, I know, nothing compared to the love that Jesus has for
me. My finite brain cannot grasp the depth or extent of that love. All I
know is, "Jesus loves me this I know, For the Bible tells me so".

Really good friends know me.  They know what I like and what I don't like.
They know how I think. Who, then, knows me better than a good human friend?
Nobody but my Heavenly Friend, Jesus. The one difference is that, if I want
to, I can hide things from my human friends but there is no point trying to
hide anything from Jesus as He knows it all anyway.

Good human friends are faithful. Not just when I am polished up and behaving
nicely but also when I am feeling frustrated and out-of-sorts. I used to
think that, by the time I am healed, I won't have any friends left .
But, my really good friends are probably going to stick around.
Unless, of course, out of my frustrations, I do or say something that sends
them away. But I know, thankfully, that I can never get Jesus to leave. In
fact, when I am pretty much having a meltdown, is often when I feel His
presence the most.

Human friends are such a comfort when you are hurting. Even if they don't
know what to say to make me feel better, just knowing that they are there
to share my sorrow is often enough to make me feel better. How much more
is it special it is to have Jesus comfort me. Whether it is a word, either
through the Bible or the Holy Spirit, or a strong sense of His presence when
I am upset.

I really do value the companionship of close human friends. Whether it is
just talking to me, whether it is reading to me or whether it is taking me
on outings, including to church. They certainly help to pass the time for
me. But there are times when it is impossible for humans to be around. But
Jesus is with me 24/7. Did He not say that He will never leave or forsake
us? When I feel like I need somebody to talk to but nobody is around, there
is always Jesus. And the neat thing is that I don't have to be able to speak
because He can read my mind!

Sometimes we all need advice about something. Human friends can often give
good advice as they frequently can see things from a totally different
perspective. Or, sometimes, the Holy Spirit will give advice through them.
The best advice-giver, though, is Jesus. If we ask for advice, He will give
it, either through the Bible or through the Holy Spirit or, maybe, through
another person.


Finally, a really good friend will rebuke you when you need it. I am no different from anybody else and, from time to time need to be rebuked. Proverbs does say that open rebuke is better than secret love. I truly appreciate the people who will risk making me upset in order to correct me. How much more is Jesus willing to rebuke His children, Christians, for our own good. I have had Jesus rebuke me-just like other Christians.

So, yes, I do very much value good human friends but, most of all, I am awed and overwhelmed to have Jeans as my best friend. 

A Few Positives

      -Right now, because of feeling so tired, frustrated
and discouraged, I have DECIDED that I need to focus more on the
positive aspects of my life and less on the negative ones. True, there are
plenty of negatives in my life but there are also positives-if I stop
feeling sorry for myself and start looking for them.

The most important positive in mine or anyone else's life is a relationship
with God. It is incredible! As many years as I have been a Christian, I am
still in awe that there really is a God and, no matter bad circumstances get or
how out-of-control my emotions get, He is still with me.

Another positive in my life has to be my church. It is so good to be in a
church that teaches the Bible and gives us what we need to hear without
pussyfooting around. I find it so refreshing to be in an atmosphere where
the Holy Spirit can move freely.

One of the major positives in my life are friends. Over the years, I have not had
a lot of close friends but the ones that I have now or have had in the past
are wonderful. They put themselves out for me in ways that are astounding.
It has always been more important to me to have a few close friends than a
lot of casual acquaintances. I can't repay them for all they do for me but I
can't help thinking that God will eventually reward them somehow.

Family. That is a positive for anyone. My own kids were so young when I had
the stroke that I could easily understand if they didn't give any time to
somebody they don't really know. Like any mother, of course I would like to
see more of them but it does brighten my day to get an e-mail from either of
them or have a skype visit with my daughter. I have also reconnected with
cousins and it is fun to exchange e-mails and reminisce about old times. And
then there are my precious little grandkids. Both my real one and my two
"adopted" ones. They are definite rays of sunshine in my life.

I can't forget the nurses when think of positives in my life. Not just the
present ones but all the ones I have had in the past. Not only have I had
excellent care all these years but I consider them as friends. All the times
we have laughed and joked and just been silly together often has brightened
up my day. Theirs too, I am sure. I know that they have a hard, often
thankless job.

It always brightens up my day anytime I can out of this place. I get out a
lot more than other people in here. I can't even imagine being stuck in here
24/7. Getting to church is really, really important to me so I am grateful
to all the people over the years who have made sure I am there almost every
Sunday and Wednesday. But I enjoy other outings as well. Pretty much
anything that gets me away from Long Term Care for awhile.

Persistence

-This past Wednesday afternoon, while I was resting in
bed, I was idly wondering what I would write for my next blog. The word"persistence" dropped into my mind. Of course, I know what "persistence"
means. Still, I looked it up in the dictionary that I have in the Bible
program on my computer. It is an 1828 Webster's version. I like this old
dictionary because it uses a lot of scripture as examples of how various
words are used. Anyway, their definition for persistence is "the steady
pursuit of what is  undertaken". What I found interesting, though, is that
there is often an element of obstinacy to it. That could be applicable to
me as I  can be a tad obstinate at times.

Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time has had to show a
certain amount of persistence. As soon as a person repents and becomes a
Christian,any number of things will happen to try to make him /her give up on God
and persistence is needed so they won't cave in. No matter how long somebody
has been a Christian, it seems that persistence needs to be an integral part
of their life.

The Christians that I really admire are the ones who became Christians as a
child and have never turned their back on God. Can you imagine the
persistence they would have had to had to combat the peer pressure,
especially as teens, to turn their back on God and "do what everyone else is
doing"?

Receiving any of the promises of God usually requires persistence. Once in
awhile, God will perform a miracle right out of the blue but that is not how
it usually works. Once a person receives a promise from God, there usually
needs to be a time of persistence before that promise is fulfilled.

ALL Christians need to be persistent in reading the Bible. It is only by reading the Bible that we will know all the things that God has promised. Once we know that what we are seeking is a promise from God, we can read and meditate on scriptures that pertain to that promise. For example, I have been seeking healing for years so I have been reading and studying healing scriptures for years also. However, I know that it is important to read the rest of the Bible as well. You never know when you will need to know it. That is why I like to follow a Bible reading plan. It forces me to read parts of the Bible that, on my own, I would avoid.

ALL Christians need to be persistent in prayer. If you want something from God, then ask Him and keep asking until you receive it. Provided, of course, it is something that God has promised. That is why it is so important to know what the Bible says. That way, when you pray, you can remind God of what He said in the Bible. I know that I, in prayer, constantly remind Him of healing Bible verses.

For me, I believe that I need persistence in attending church. For this reason. I believe that God may give the pastor of my local church a revelation that I specifically need to hear. But He not likely to give it somebody on tv who doesn't even know me. 

Hands

      To be honest, having hands that work was  just something that
I took for granted. Even babies freely move their hands. But now that all
movement in my hands is gone, I can't help wondering from time to time how
much better my life would be if I could just move my upper half. Nothing
else. Not even speech.

One thing that I have always wanted to do is to be able to raise my hands to
the Lord during the praise and worship at church. For now, though, all I can
do is sit like a lump. Sometimes, I look around at the other people but I
don't always see a lot of people raising their hands. I admit that I can't
really understand when it would be so easy for them.

Communication would be so much easier with hands and arms that work. All I
would have to do is write down what I wanted to say and others could read
it. I might even be able to have some conversations, both with the nurses
and people at church.

Using my computer would be so much easier as well. I would be able to use my
computer the same way as everybody else. Which means that I could do
everything much quicker. And it would be a lot less frustrating for me if my
hands worked. When there is a power failure and my computer shuts itself
off, once the power comes back on, I could just turn the computer without
yelling for a nurse to come and turn it on.

If I had use of my hands, I would be able to learn how to use all the gadgets that I see on TV but don't even know what they are. I can't, at present, use them anyway so I don't pay much attention to them. I would be the first one to admit that I am old-fashioned and I totally dislike all this technology. However, I am also smart enough to understand that, in this modern world, I am, sooner or later, going to have to get used to it. So, I say, lets do it and get it over with.

One thing that I would really like to be able to do is feed myself. At first, I found it so humiliating to be fed like a baby. I am used to it now but I would still like to feed myself. I know that there would still be things I can't eat but, at least, I could eat at my own speed.

Another thing that I found really humiliating at first was having somebody else doing all my personal care. Even if I had the use of my hands, I would still have to depend on other people for a lot of it but, at least, I could do things like washing my hands and face, brushing my own teeth, etc.

The afternoons, when I have to rest in bed would certainly be less tedious as I could read. I love to read and I could easily, quickly and happily spend the afternoons reading.

I do spend quite a bit of time dreaming about what my life would be like if I could talk or use my hands or, better still, all me worked. If nothing else, it help to pass the time. But I do think that my dreaming has a couple of benefits for me. First, dreaming like that keeps me from having a lot of negative, depressing thoughts. Secondly, dreaming about the better days yet to come helps to keep my hope up. And I know that, without hope, I would have completely lost it by now.