Do you feel the weight of your worries, struggles, and burdens are barely keeping you afloat? Like it takes all your energy just to get your nose and mouth above the water to breathe before it takes you under.
Find your Life Preserver
My husband is 3 years into his cancer journey being a young father of three. Watching his health take a toll on his body and spirits, is heartbreaking. We are blessed with a very awesome support system and so blessed with such a gracious God to fight for us.
Ministries from a dear friend taught me so much about listening to God. I never understood how to do that before. I am so blessed to have her teach me that. Without it, I could never minister to our kids or my husband to help get us all through this tough time. That has been truly a saving Grace in itself.
His symptoms and struggles have gone up and down. We have had great days and we have had terribly scary days! So many doctors, specialists, surgeries, treatments, tests, appointments and therapies, both by Medicine and a holistic approach, have kept our lives so encased in that. But by the strength that we get from Jesus, each other, and all our prayer warriors, we are able to continue the fight.
There are bad days where I just want to break down. I always say something like this, “I’m so tired of this fight, we want to put our dukes down, throw off the gloves and be able to rest in peace, regain some hope and joy.”
The most recent scary events of his symptoms were regarding a chemo they wanted to try. Because he has gone through so much trauma to his body from surgeries and radiation, they wanted to try a more systematic approach and see if the tumor responded to chemo. We spent Easter weekend in the hospital while our children and relatives celebrated Easter. We were fighting for what we feared was for Ryan‘s life. It was pretty horrible watching him suffer like that, both of us feeling so much fear because we had no idea what was happening. Thankfully, after several tests and imaging, they took him off that medicine right away. He has now been switched to a hopefully more effective Chemo that is far more tolerable to his body. It also showed genetic markers which could destroy the cells, from a biopsy test they ran.
I once read somewhere that “Cancer becomes the new Norm” for living our life. Well, that wasn’t my script for what I thought my life would be. And there is also the term “Living with Cancer”.
I don’t like to accept those instilled in my mind. That’s my choice to disregard those. Because for me and my strength, I need to keep the gifts from God front and center in this. Faith, Hope, Joy, Grace, and Love.
I think it’s so important when struggling through tough times in life to have a strong positive support system and to keep a distance from the negativity that causes stress or doubt.
Do whatever it is for you that helps you recharge and come back to yourself. Maybe a serene place where it’s calm and peaceful, for quiet meditation or Prayer. A Safe place for just you. A huddle of your favorite uplifting friends, or just a bubble bath. I know it’s hard to take time to yourself. But schedule it. I had to. I told my family when and what I was going to do for me for 30-60min.
We all cope differently. For instance, my husband and I are different in that aspect. And that’s Ok. It took some time to realize that, but now we understand how we have our different ways to recharge. These things are crucial for your health and your Spirits.
The enemy loves to whisper lies to me. I love to yell at him to “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, you can Not have my family. Jesus is the King of this home, and he has already defeated you.”
I will leave you with sharing my favorite verse since all this started;
Be strong, Be courageous, Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
Be blessed
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