Saturday, October 13, 2012

two options



"Nehemiah said, 
'Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, 
and send some to those who have nothing prepared. 
This day is holy to our Lord. 
Do not grieve, 
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'"
-Nehemiah 8:10

Man, it's already the middle of October.
Fall is here:
leaves are yellowing and falling to the ground,
the air has a crisp mountain breeze,
and the sun is deep in color.
I LOVE this time of year.

Things 'round the Martin house have been pretty crazy these past few weeks.
Dad got another PET scan and, well...
the results weren't very good.
The doctors gave him two options:

1. Do chemo again (which was highly unrecommended) 
2. Get help from hospice

Option two was chosen, and thus began the stream of nurses in and out of our house.
It was a rough week or so trying to get pain meds figured out.
Extreme waves of pain, nausea, panic attacks, and drowsiness filled each day.
Kinda felt like a whirlwind. A fog. Something you just try to get past.

Things have settled down a bit, now.
Not as many nurses,
and pain is mostly under control.

Like my dad, I realized I had two options.
I could:

1. Grieve (which is highly unrecommended) 
2. Be joyful 

I felt Satan constantly giving me reasons to grieve.
To be sad.
To feel hopeless.

Thankfully, God reminded me that with His JOY I have strength.
And let me tell you...that joy is much better than giving into grief.

It hasn't been a walk in the park, but man, it sure feels better to rely on His strength and be filled with HIS joy than with anything else.  That is really what gets you through.  It can, will, and does get you through even the darkest of times.

Hope God shows you how to pick option 2 this week.

Been working at a school a lot this semester.  Busy is right!

Found my new favorite spot to run:

Remember that bread I was baking?  Yeah, it turned out AMAZING! 

5 comments:

  1. You are such an inspiration with your encouraging words and truth of life!

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  2. YES, His joy IS your strength. Keep standing on those promises because He can never fail.

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  3. Healthy grief is not giving into satan... at some point, you will have to choose healthy grief, because not doing so will lead to unhealthiness later :/ Regardless, the joy of the Lord will always be your strength.

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    1. Yes, I agree with you. Like it says in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for everything and I totally agree that there is a time to grieve. I guess what I was trying to say was, there is a point where (after you grieve) you can just wallow in that and feel sorry for yourself. Instead of staying in that state of grief, we can choose to find joy in the LORD. That's just the point that I came to this week.

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  4. Great read Brooke, Im going through something a bit similar with the two choices, funny how it puts things into perspective. You know if you ever need an extra ear I'm here for you girl! You're strength through this all has been inspiring.

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