All The Day Long

    Who are the weak? Who are the strong? I was meditating on this verse early one morning, thinking that even though my physical body has varying degrees of weakness, I am a strong person in a spiritual sense. And I want to be an encourager and a support to people who are struggling.  As I left for my exercise class, I was feeling confident about the strength I have because of Jesus. That exercise class. It wasn’t long until I was slammed with my weakness. I can’t even balance on one foot without hanging on to a chair! All those thoughts of weakness nearly overwhelmed me! After class, as I sat in my car I wondered, What just happened? How did I go from strong to weak in an hour?!! Lord, when I am overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. And He shows me His promises.   That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; Ephesians 3:16...

When you have a mother-daughter night at the coast with your youngest daughter, who has somehow reached the age of 21, and you suddenly realize that over the last thirty some years you have raised FIVE daughters to adulthood, (with the help of an amazing husband and a merciful, gracious,  heavenly Father),  it's time to stop and think about the way He leads.  Our oldest daughter turned 13 the year our youngest daughter was born.  That means for 20 years, we've had teenage daughters, AND I've been a 14-year-old girl's mom for five years!  There have been hard days and hard months and hard years.  And while I thank God for all those years, mostly I'm thankful for the present. Because having daughters isn't all tea parties and mall shopping and Instagram moments.  No. No, it isn't, There are hard days of sudden outbursts or sullen silences, of slamming doors and flying objects. Days when they would retreat to ...

I wrote this post several months ago, but let it sit in my drafts. It's something I don't like to think or talk about but I can't avoid it. It's where I live. So maybe if I just put it out here I can move on to blogging about other things!! My friend, Grace, came to visit several months after the accident, and as she was leaving, she said, "Now you call me when your hands stop hurting!"  I still haven't made that phone call.  With my spinal cord injury, there was considerable nerve damage and there are no pain meds that relieve nerve pain. I was on gabapentin for a couple years, but that didn't really seem to do much, so I quit taking it. My hands and feet hurt.  All. The. Time. It's always bad, sometimes its better/bad and sometimes it's worse/bad.  I have tried all kinds of supplements and treatments, nothing helps.  The only kind of pain management that works is Distraction, which is why it seems to be ...