ForgottenWoman

Personal Insight

We don’t have to live very long to experience life’s most humbling realities and the moments that bring them to light! The past several weeks have seemingly been filled with these moments for me – and this morning as I sit with heat applied here and there, battling the constant fatigue and weakness that comes with my body’s particular challenges; I’m humbled and challenged!

Maybe I’m alone in this, but just in case I’m not; I’m sharing with my readers so that someone else may be encouraged or at least not feel so alone. See, none of us is immune to difficulties, none of us is immune to the need to consistently renew our minds, none of us is so strong that we never sink into discouragement or more. It’s just a part of life – and hits us in various ways at different times along the way.

Me? I love to be present at all times for those I love. I want to be involved in whatever they are involved in – from my 41 year old son, to my youngest grandchild. In fact, I’d have to say that my most difficult days have always been the ones that set me aside, on the sidelines so to speak, unable to be where I want to be and doing what I want to be doing. Anyway, the past several weeks have been filled with days of not doing what I want, not being where I want to be and not sharing life with those I want to share it with – and yesterday, out of the blue, the discouragement leaning toward a hint of depression hit me. I was in public, in the store grabbing a few necessary things for home when I realized that tears were running down my face, I felt invisible yet incredibly visible to strangers looking on, weak, overwhelmed, unneeded, unwanted, and incapable… That’s how it hits!

Then, the internal lectures began! “Joy, you are a Biblical counselor! What do you tell people every single day when they are struggling?” “You tell them to renew their minds!!! Focus on gratitude. Get into Scripture. Remind yourself of truth that has nothing to do with how you feel!” CHOOSE to be victorious – not a victim of your circumstances or even your physical pain! I sat in my car for a few minutes running through the internal lecture – realizing that I’ve been doing those things every day for the past couple of weeks as I’ve teetered on the ‘edge’ so to speak and then accepting the fact that in all honesty, I’m still walking around probably because I’ve done those very things! So, what else should I be doing? Maybe be honest with someone – just one person that I believe will love me tomorrow after knowing that I’m struggling tonight.

So, that’s what I did. I sent a text and just bluntly described how I was feeling. And within minutes, there was a response. What did she say last night that I am running through my mind repeatedly today? She said, “You matter, you are loved and you are loved for WHO you are, not (just) what you do!” Boy, did I need to hear those words, to grab hold of them and believe them. Maybe you need to hear those same words today.

Who I am often determines what I do, but the who I am is much more important than the what I do – because sometimes my body just won’t cooperate and I can only pray that my loved ones know me well enough to know that if I could, I would and when I can, I will and in the meantime, I’m here praying for them and watching from my spot.

You know, Paul spoke of asking God to remove something that was a physical limitation – three times! And he said that though he asked at least three times, God didn’t remove it. Our physical limitations are sometimes great gifts, simply because they keep us humbly reliant on Almighty God, they keep us humbly admitting our limitations and our struggles, and they teach us empathy for others when we may feel strong and someone around us is going through their weak moments.

I Peter 5:7 “Casting all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you!”

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness… For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Colossians 3: 12-13 “Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.”

So, in our moments of weakness, there are things we need to do: renew our minds, tell someone we trust, cast our care on Him, allow Him to be our strength, and learn the compassion for others that these times teach us! Happy Saturday, friends.