tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25192475.post1065645474503641325..comments2024-03-18T19:34:36.812-07:00Comments on Morning Coffee: Labor DayUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25192475.post-9287561860329607662011-09-12T16:47:14.524-07:002011-09-12T16:47:14.524-07:00"I want to be well but it pleases God to leav..."I want to be well but it pleases God to leave me as I am. So the question for me is, How can I be of glory to God in the condition He has allowed me to live in? As long as it brings glory to Him, who am I to argue with His plans? I just wish I knew how to do this better. I give no glory to God when I'm miserable. But how do I live like this with the sincerity of one who is completely at His mercy and has surrendered?"<br /><br />Exactly! I think THE spiritual struggle towards God in this life of chronic illness is to do just that: give glory to God even when we are miserable. The sincerity is an act of the will and only happens by God's grace, I think.Alanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02169732072381476940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25192475.post-89787528492550374012011-09-10T13:56:12.299-07:002011-09-10T13:56:12.299-07:00Your blog reads like my body and mind feel. Having...Your blog reads like my body and mind feel. Having read your previous entry to this one I have to agree with you: people don't like chronic illness in others. I think they just don't know what to say so it's easier to pretend <i>all is well</i> and give heart-felt (but lame) <i>get-over-yourself</i> -type advice on the latest back-to-health trends. If depression isn't a part of the package, it soon becomes so. Pain that is chronic is a battle for the mind and it's sanity most days. <br /><br />It's a battle to be among the living; it's a battle not to feel sorry for one's self; it's an uphill battle to get well again; and sometimes it's a battle just to resign oneself to God's bigger plan and accept the obvious and go with it: that the condition is chronic and means a different <i>norm</i> for the sufferer. My <i>norm</i> is severely limited to debilitation most days and it generally comes on the heels of having just been given a few days of reprieve from pain. It's a cycle that is sure to repeat and there seems no getting off the roller coaster.<br /><br />I get tired of being <i>sick</i>; that is how most see me. <i>"She's sick again"</i>, my children say. And not just my children but my husband and my church friends. <br /><br />I wish I had the answers to how to respond; or for that matter, how to live with this. I'm no better with my own chronic illness after 5 years than I was when it all began. But I can certainly <i>feel</i> your heart when I read. I doubt that is much comfort to you but perhaps it's nice to know that there's one more cyber friend in this world who can completely identify with your inner struggle as well as your physical one. <br /><br />I want to be well but it pleases God to leave me as I am. So the question for me is, <i>How can I be of glory to God in the condition He has allowed me to live in?</i> As long as it brings glory to Him, who am I to argue with His plans? I just wish I knew how to do this better. I give no glory to God when I'm miserable. But how do I live like this with the sincerity of one who is completely at His mercy and has surrendered?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25192475.post-57204166111880921682011-09-05T16:09:42.122-07:002011-09-05T16:09:42.122-07:00Unfortunately it does not. I did take a hot epsom...Unfortunately it does not. I did take a hot epsom salt bath upon your recommendation, and it helped for a little while.Alanahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02169732072381476940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25192475.post-42414767451875901462011-09-05T12:33:46.133-07:002011-09-05T12:33:46.133-07:00Alana, does your apt complex have a jacuzzi? I...Alana, does your apt complex have a jacuzzi? I've been discovering that if I take a dip in the jacuzzi (or take a hot hot shower) after exercising, it really helps me not to end up with muscle cramps or be as stiff and sore after exercising. It's one of the keys in allowing me to do as much as I am right now. If I skip it, the muscles in my back seize up, and if I sit down to rest and cool off before I do it, when I get up I walk like a 90 year old woman!Rebeccahttp://www.xanga.com/living4God_no_regretsnoreply@blogger.com