Praying, Praising, & Persevering

Hi everyone! It's been two weeks since my last "life post" and I'm happy to have something to share with you all. I felt so inspired this past weekend, and inspiration is a great thing to possess when you are a writer. I am thankful to the Lord that I finally have some motivation today; I have missed blogging and I'm thrilled to be back in my beloved office chair doing what I enjoy most. I want to talk about struggle. Everyone struggles. Everyone has "giants" that they face; sometimes life hands you lemons and you have no clue what to do with them. Defeating these giants can be difficult, but today I'd like to share my strategy for conquering struggle. I have found these three things to be most helpful: praying, praising, and simply persevering. 

1) Praying- Cerebral palsy is a part of my life that I have adapted to pretty well over the years, but in the last year or so, my biggest recurrent struggle has become lower back pain that is localized to my tailbone area (the medical name for that is the sacroiliac joint.) The pain is intense, and I don't know if makes me sad as much as it makes me angry. I'm so young, I shouldn't hurt right? You'd think so, but that's just how life is and I have to accept that it's not going to be a bit easy. I'm not one to usually speak of my pain, because I was always taught not to whine; it does no good in the arena of helping things. The past few days have been rough, but I have been praying a lot and doing whatever I can to help it because that's all you can do. I'm hoping things get better soon. I am thankful for the pain in a way, because it reminds that I am human, and I still need God. Always. He has continuously made His presence known in my life. I have had moments of doubt in my lifetime, but I was so reminded of His being here this past week because I felt like He has answered so many prayers that I've prayed recently. I always wonder, if we really ask ourselves and answer honestly, how many of us actually take all of our problems to God? How many times to do we allow the devil to encourage our dwelling on the past and self pity? How many times do we let feelings and/or circumstances make us doubt the very power of Him and His love for us? I have realized that feelings can't be relied on, because feelings change constantly. God is someone who never changes, and He's proven that to me. Prayer and faith are two things that can do so much for your life. My favorite book of scripture in the Bible is Romans; my all time favorite verse is Romans 8:28, but I heard another verse the other day that I liked because I felt it represents strength: "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." (Romans 8:37) 

Praising: The second most efficient way to dissolve the giants in your life is by working to find positive things in your life to praise the Lord for; being thankful for He made you to be instead of being angry about what you might have missed the chance to be; I used to be guilty of having thoughts like that; to this day, I still get angry, mostly because of the pain and because of the fact that with every year I seem to feel pain from somewhere new. Choosing to be thankful for who you are can really put a positive spin on your outlook in more ways than you think. I AM thankful that  I woke up this morning. I'm thankful for my mom. I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful for my salvation. I'm thankful that I can walk. The list of blessings I DO have is endless, but the point I'm hoping to make is to focus on using what you have to be a blessing, an encouragement, and not a downer. Smile. Give hugs. Focus on others problems, and do what you can to help them through; take your mind off of yourself. 

Persevering: Lastly, you should always work to push through and to persevere. Luckily, my back pain only rears its ugly head sometimes. I have had to endure physical therapy because of it in the past, but I am doing everything I can do to try to help myself through it; for the most part, I've been doing great. I keep busy, constantly on the move. I clean, cook, do laundry, and I have welcomed bananas into my diet. You are allowed to have feelings, but you shouldn't let frustration keep you from the joys of life. Keep going! And all you need to remember is, God will be with you always. Life has tried knocking me down a few times, but I will continue getting back up. "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39)