After Consulting the People!

After consulting the people,

Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord

and to praise Him for the splendor of his holiness

as they went out at the head of the army, saying:

“Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”

2 Chronicles 20:21

1. GENETICS - I recently received my Ancestry DNA results -- I'm a mixture of  70 % English and Welsh; 27 % Irish and Scottish; and 3% Norwegian. I'm the product of the love of many! Thank you God, for the gift of love and life! 

2. MENTAL HEALTH = I've been feeling a little stressed lately. Feeling rejection from several quarters and some bad and some good things happening, many out of my control, has left me feeling overwhelmed. I recognized that and wasn't afraid to ask for help to understand what was going on. I've got several good, supportive people in my life right now who has coached me through this time (hope I wasn't too much of a whiner! 😁) and I thank God for them - some good doctors, (not every apple in the basket is rotten!) my husband, faithful friends, distant cousins, and a special niece. Thank you guys and gals! 

3. EYEBALLS = Thank you Lord, for eyes that can still see, despite the pigmentary glaucoma that some ancestor kindly passed on to me. I'm thankful that glasses were invented so I can see clearer and for my eye doctor (he takes good care of me), researchers, and  the medication that keeps my pressures down. Here I am, the Glaucoma Foundation's Poster Child!


4.  EARS = I'm thankful for ears that can still hear well enough with volume control without hearing aids! I discovered a voice recorder app on my phone and I used it to record some uplifting choruses to send to a friend. It took me several tries to sing it without recording wheezy breaths too, but eventually I managed. Now to figure out how to save her corresponding discovery of the same on my phone for my "encouragement file"! Nothing like happy songs to lift a depressed mood, right Karen?! 

5. LEGS & FEET = Having legs that swell when it gets warm every spring sucks. One of my favorite prayers was written by Reinhold Niebuhr called the Serenity Prayer and I hang onto it when I'm feeling particularly frustrated because I can't seem to get my immunity issues under control that goes along with it. It's not particularly pleasant to wear hot compression socks or hot bandages wrapped around my legs night and day. My husband has been taking me to the doctors now and he gets so angry when some doctors automatically assume that because I'm a BBW that I must be diabetic (blood test revealed I'm NOT, thank God!) and therefore that's why I keep getting all these infections. I've heard the rhetoric so long "if you'd just lose weight, then this would solve a lot of your problems." Don't you think if it was that easy, I would have done that long ago? Thank God, I have a friend, who understands. He sees the big picture and while I don't understand why he just doesn't heal me, perhaps I'm in a place where I continually need him. I think the apostle Paul went through something similar -- "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12: 9). Paul understood that, when he was weak, then he was made strong in the faith.