It has been about 2 years since writing a new blog. If you look back you can see I was going through some health issues. Not an excuse. But I did feel I needed to take a break and get a fresh look on things. If you recall the title of my blog is FAITH, HOPE, LOVE. I still live that and believe in those words and my Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. His Words are truth, love, and all powerful.
So this isn’t an actual blog post. Just a re-introduction to myself. I still battle illness, but that illness does not define who I am. My husband has recently retired. We both are very happy about that and love spending more time together. Our son and daughter in law are doing so well. They now have 2 precious children. A little boy who is 2, and a baby girl age 6 months. We are thrilled and love being Grandpa and Grandma. We are blessed with FaceTime. Since they live a great distance from us, we can still see them anytime.
I am gathering ideas for my blog posts. I pray ahead of time that whoever reads the posts, they are blessed, and they are drawn more to Jesus. After all, I believe this all comes from Him. I pray many are touched deeply by the love of Jesus.
Keep a lookout for the actual blogpost. I expect within a week. Soon.
Breast cancer, you may be thinking why is she talking about this?! I will tell you why.
Many women suffer from breast cancer every year. Some women haven’t been diagnosed in time. They lose their battle. For me, I was being monitored very closely, every 3 months with exams and films. This was because of my family history and my health history, already having leukemia. If it weren’t for this, it may have been too late for me. You see my cancer was not detectable on physical exam. It was too deep. The cancer was already invasive, meaning it spread beyond the original site. Therefore it was also aggressive. It was on the mammogram films that they could detect an issue.
Because of early detection, I was spared the devastation of “hard” chemo. I had surgery to remove both breasts, and that was it. No radiation needed. I was tried on some oral medication but I could not tolerate the side effects.
Why am I telling you such personal information? Because I care. I know young women that were not yet the age for mammograms, they developed breast cancer. Found from doing self exams. And I know “older” women that do not bother. They are playing with fire.
Cancer is a devastating disease. It is not pleasant. It is hard for all involved. It is painful physically and emotionally. Please, please take this seriously. It takes 2 minutes to do a self breast exam.
Now for men! This cancer shows no partiality. Men get breast cancer also. And it can metastasize to other areas of the body. And yes a mammo can be done on a male. It takes no time at all to check yourself. Include under the arm.
Breast cancer is totally treatable. But the key is early detection.
Many of you are probably thinking what does this have to do with God, or faith and hope. Plenty!
God has created us, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. You may say then why do we get deadly diseases? Because we live in a polluted, broken, imperfect world. And it happens.
Remember, God is always in control. Sometimes it is our own doing that blocks the will of God. Either way, why test the power of God? Why ignore the simple things we can do to keep our health in check?
I still have cancer. I still have spinal cord damage.I still have many health issues because of that spinal cord damage. Do I fret and blame God? Absolutely not! It is the mighty hand of God that has protected me and given me life. I pray I always walk in the gratitude and thankfulness to our Lord Jesus for His love and hand on my life.
I encourage you faithful readers, take care of this vessel of flesh He has given you. Do the simple steps that may save your life. I care about you. And mostly our Lord God cares about you.
“The Lord said: I will certainly set you free and care for you. I will certainly intercede for you in a time of trouble, in your time of distress, with the enemy.”
Jeremiah 15:11 HCSB
“For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
This past year had its ups and downs. I truly believe we all could say this. Mine started one year ago today. I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have surgery to remove both breasts. The fact that I have chronic leukemia complicated things. I already take Chemo for the leukemia, that limited the choices for the medication for the breast cancer. We had a couple options of oral medication I could take for the breast cancer. However, I could not tolerate any of those medication‘s. But still my chance of reoccurrence is fairly low. We will take that as a victory.Today is the one-year anniversary of the surgery, therefore making it one year in remission.
All of this sounds overwhelming. But for myself and for my husband we were not overwhelmed. We always felt the Lord had me in his hands and He would take care of me. And He did take care of me. And He continues to take care of me every moment of every day.
There are so many of you right now living in fear over Covid. And whether or not to take the vaccine.
This has to be an individual‘s choice. What is right for me may not be right for you. It is difficult for many right now that do not want to lose their jobs because of no vaccine.I don’t agree that one should be put into that situation of having to choose between a vaccine and your job. I cannot imagine having to make a choice like this.
There’s so much going on in our country right now and in the world right now that is making our lives difficult. As I pray and ask the Lord for wisdom and understanding, I also pray that He somehow turns our country back to a God-fearing country. Home of the free and the brave .
I pray this for all of the countries in this world we live in. That our Lord Jesus guides our leaders. Even if they do not acknowledge Him as Lord, He can still influence them. How? Because He is God Almighty.
We, as the body of Christ need to be on our knees praying. We need to be interceding for our country and others. We need to pray that once again we have God-fearing leaders who love Jesus Christ and choose to follow Him. This is how we can see a positive change happen in this dark world. We all know that when Jesus returns He will light up this whole earth. He will reign over all.
My faithful readers, I pray you can grab ahold of the hope and joy we have in Him. We don’t have to live in fear. But instead in victory. For me, everyday is a victory. I hang on to that. God is with us!
