What Promises?

Taken from J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver

What promises anchor your faith? Can you say that not one of them has failed? You can if your anchor is Jesus. He and His promises have been there all along. Consistent, faithful, tested and true.

I cannot imagine going through life without my faith. I often quiz my mother, who grew up without faith. "How did you do this? How did you handle that?" Whatever I may have been feeling or thinking about became a question for my mother...
She always said 'You just didn't think about it."
Considering I think too much about things...that would likely not have worked. I would have so been into drugs or something to totally numb myself against life. 
No promise? Just a broken, hurt life and then nothingness? 

God has blessed me so much. I see more blessings with my illness than I ever saw before. I don't see a whole lot of blessing in being SICK per se...but knowing more about God is really something I wanted to do for such a long time. 
I always felt guilty in nursing school....memorizing whole passages of this medical book so that I understood brokenness to the nth degree. But I never sat and did the same with the most important bunch of WORDS ever written? We are foolish in what we pick as important. Swayed by simple, every day things. Laundry, illness...when God is the most important, wonderful, amazing thing that could ever be. Praise Him!

Coping with Chronic Illness (forgot author--from TRL library)

*When it flares up it is debilitating. I depend on pain medcation to make it through....it is difficult to walk, do basic tasks such as showering and dressing; and to stand long enough to prepare something to eat. Some days I'm nearly "normal". People have a hard time understanding that I don't know from day to day what I will be able to do or how I will feel. 

*I've been living like this for a long time now, and people who couldn't or wouldn't understand went by the wayside long ago.

Just one of many stories. No matter how illness is explained, it is impossible to understand without being there. I never knew how hard chronic illness could be. Except maybe someone who had kidney issues really bad...and I could see vast physical effects from it. I feel bad now. I apologized to a lot of people.  You just have to have faith in God and keep hanging in there. Like everyone else. After all...we all have the Chronic Disease of Destruction.