Good morning, et cetera, dear Reader!
Before anyone gets freaked out that "maybe this is about me!" let me quell those concerns by now telling you why I named this blog that way.
Four days ago now, I fell asleep on the couch in the wrong position and my right shoulder has been giving me Hell ever since; now, I've been relying on the 800mg Ibuprofen that my doctor prescribed for the arthritic pain I've now got in the right ankle and, even as we 'speak' (as it were) am using hydrotherapy as well (hot showers, warm, wet compresses that I nuke for 30 seconds, over and over and over). Today, on day four of this, the pain woke me up around two-thirty AM, about an hour ago, so I am resolved to finally get help from our local ER but am at least choosing to do so during sane, daylight hours. I can endure, yes; but, I don't have to; at this point, it's time to get specific help for this issue.
Could I have done this days ago? Yep, and that is why this one is entitled "Endurance, or Stupidity?" 😂
Physical pain aside, since we are commanded to 'give thanks in all things for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus' I can start counting blessings, a great way to reorient the mind from "owie, I hurt" to "wait, remember when God did THAT?" and so on. So, for one: hey, I'm on the right side of the grave today! yay! Further, I have clean, hot water on demand in seemingly unlimited supply! I have my loved ones, human and otherwise; we live in a beautiful, peaceful home; coffee exists (thank You, God!) and see? I am starting to feel better already (but I'm still going to get this shoulder looked at later on and will make a doctor's appointment for follow-up as well).
So, dear Reader, try it yourself? Look around you, look at your life, and just really start to, with intention and deliberate focus, count the myriad of blessings that you, too, have in your life in this moment. I promise, the more you notice/see, the more they continue to become apparent! It's truly cool how that works; this kind of deliberate thinking is (at least in part) what it means to "take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ" and further "if there be anything of good report, think on these things" type of situation.
Like most good habits, monitoring and choosing our thoughts doesn't become a habit instantaneously; it takes work, effort, over and over and over, ad infinitum, but the discipline is what we're told to do because (at least, in part) the discipline is so very productive, fruitful, and just plain good for us.
Now that the shoulder is muttering under its breath rather than screaming for attention, there's a chance that reading today's Proverb might do me some good, so here it is (text) and audio here.
me today, with this shoulder; I don't think this kind of 'winning' is supposed to be the goal.
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