If you aren’t prone to illness, thank the Lord for His favor on this aspect of your life. Being sick is no joke, and neither is healing. Both are painful, both are aggravating, and both will stretch your endurance and patience to the utmost limits. I’ve been reminded of this as I continue to heal from an ear infection that knocked me out late last week.
I see why children scream constantly with these. It’s enough to drive you to insanity. Ear infections aren’t for sissies. I didn’t realize that so many people have ear issues. I now have sympathy and salute their strength to deal with this!
Then again, I also feel sorry for people that aren’t prone to illness or injury. Not that I wish people to get hurt. I, like everybody else, would eradicate pain of all kinds from life if I could. But there are lessons from illness and injury that you don’t learn in the bloom of health:
Endurance. You learn how tough you are when you have to press on through healing pain (because healing does hurt – oh yes, I said that already). When you have no choice but to keep on keeping on, you find out the current state of your faith, hope, love, and belief really fast.
Mental fortitude. Something about physical pain shines a light on your mental and spiritual state. I’ve often heard it said that the outside is a reflection of the inside, and getting sick usually reveals mindsets and beliefs that are sabotaging the mind just as much as that infection or injury is sabotaging your body.
Efficiency. When your energy is limited, you learn what’s most vital to keeping day to day life running smoothly, and you look for better, faster ways to do things. Being forced to slow down helps you to see exactly what’s necessary, and what are extra or unnecessary steps that no longer are effective.
Patience. You learn how much hope you have for your life, and how well you’re able to wait on the Lord’s timing to bring about not only your current healing, but other things that are in your heart. You also learn how patient you are with others, how willing you are to forgive and see the best in people, and where there are issues that need to be considered and dealt with in relationships (because illness also exposes how patient other people are with you). And if you’ve prayed for patience like I recently did, you learn to NEVER send up that prayer again!
Hope. I think the biggest challenge we face when we’re sick is deciding to get our mind right, no matter how our body feels. It’s easy to get discouraged and cranky when you don’t feel well, but hope is a decision we actively make to keep a good attitude. Physical healing can only fully come when the mind is right. If you decide to keep a good attitude and do what’s in front of you to the best of your ability, then you’re body will catch up and bring about a healing more full, complete, and strengthening than anything else can. And that is a true miracle.
If you’re sick or injured, I pray you find healing and health on the other side of this challenge. If you aren’t, I pray for continued favor on your health, and ask that you do consider the sick and hurt (in mind and body) in your own prayers.
As they say at Walgreens, be well. Have a Happy Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend. I’m started revisions on The Earthside Trilogy, and I’m preparing excerpts for my next blog entry. Stay tuned to see how that project is shaping up.
Bye!
I see why children scream constantly with these. It’s enough to drive you to insanity. Ear infections aren’t for sissies. I didn’t realize that so many people have ear issues. I now have sympathy and salute their strength to deal with this!
Then again, I also feel sorry for people that aren’t prone to illness or injury. Not that I wish people to get hurt. I, like everybody else, would eradicate pain of all kinds from life if I could. But there are lessons from illness and injury that you don’t learn in the bloom of health:
Endurance. You learn how tough you are when you have to press on through healing pain (because healing does hurt – oh yes, I said that already). When you have no choice but to keep on keeping on, you find out the current state of your faith, hope, love, and belief really fast.
Mental fortitude. Something about physical pain shines a light on your mental and spiritual state. I’ve often heard it said that the outside is a reflection of the inside, and getting sick usually reveals mindsets and beliefs that are sabotaging the mind just as much as that infection or injury is sabotaging your body.
Efficiency. When your energy is limited, you learn what’s most vital to keeping day to day life running smoothly, and you look for better, faster ways to do things. Being forced to slow down helps you to see exactly what’s necessary, and what are extra or unnecessary steps that no longer are effective.
Patience. You learn how much hope you have for your life, and how well you’re able to wait on the Lord’s timing to bring about not only your current healing, but other things that are in your heart. You also learn how patient you are with others, how willing you are to forgive and see the best in people, and where there are issues that need to be considered and dealt with in relationships (because illness also exposes how patient other people are with you). And if you’ve prayed for patience like I recently did, you learn to NEVER send up that prayer again!
Hope. I think the biggest challenge we face when we’re sick is deciding to get our mind right, no matter how our body feels. It’s easy to get discouraged and cranky when you don’t feel well, but hope is a decision we actively make to keep a good attitude. Physical healing can only fully come when the mind is right. If you decide to keep a good attitude and do what’s in front of you to the best of your ability, then you’re body will catch up and bring about a healing more full, complete, and strengthening than anything else can. And that is a true miracle.
If you’re sick or injured, I pray you find healing and health on the other side of this challenge. If you aren’t, I pray for continued favor on your health, and ask that you do consider the sick and hurt (in mind and body) in your own prayers.
As they say at Walgreens, be well. Have a Happy Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend. I’m started revisions on The Earthside Trilogy, and I’m preparing excerpts for my next blog entry. Stay tuned to see how that project is shaping up.
Bye!
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