Counted Blessings

I was tired, I was worn out, I was exhausted and I couldn't get refreshed. I couldn't understand why I have to go over a mountain that I don't know, and believe me it's a very rocky one. I have been claiming verses like... 

Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. ~Isaiah 43:18-19

But nothing seemed to quench my thirst. My thought is if God can water the desert He is fully capable of watering my soul. But my thirst was never satisfied. I woke up today and spent time in the word, went to class and again was spiritually on empty. This has been the pattern of my life since saturday and I couldn't understand why. So today I decided to figure out why I was so dry. 

I began my quest one of my favorite ways, by giving thanks and I realized something. I had forgotten. I had forgotten the blessings of lyme disease. I had forgotten how the Lord saw me through everyday of eight months on the couch, how He comforted me every moment, how He gave me joy because of who He is, how He taught me life isn't about where I am but what He has done. I had forgotten the blessings He has given me. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places of Christ. ~Ephesians 1:3 

I am a blessed child of God, we have things in our life that are mountains to us. We have no idea where we need to go, what path is the safest, or how to get there but Christ has the mountain memorized, He has walked the path and He leads us step by step. We serve a God who desires to give us every blessing in the heavenly realm, do you see blessings when they come? Do you remember the blessings the Lord gives you? Or do you forget? 

I forgot but I am praying I will never again forget how the Lord has blessed my life. An hour ago I was so dry and hungry spiritually I had no idea what to do, now the Lord has filled my hunger, He has filled my cup and I am satisfied. I was blessed by God by being reminded of the blessings God has given me. I know the Lord will see me through this new mountain just like He saw me through the mountain of lyme disease. God is faithful and He desires to bless our life.  

Have you counted your blessings today? 

Prayer Requests:
*That I will never again forget the blessings God has given me
*That Dr P will be able to keep his practice in Iowa
*That my check-up tomorrow will be successful
*That I will be still before the Lord even on the go

Being Still

A lot of time has passed since my last post and along with that a lot of healing has occurred. Everyday I am feeling stronger, walking faster, walking longer and have more energy. It has been such a joy to see the Lord bring healing into my life. Last week at laser treatment my nurse said when I started coming in April I was their worst patient and she didn't think I would get better, now I have moved up to their best patient. I am also their most improved! 

I am continuing to do laser treatment once a week to help with the health of my organs which I believe has made my healing process much easier on my body. I am also doing oral medicine and will be for a long time. Lastly, I am continuing to do water therapy to maintain my balance and movement, I have not been very faithful with this the last few weeks because it tires me out and I have been super busy with life and now classes I didn't want to push myself too hard.

I never realized how quickly I adapted to my illness, it was 'easy' for me to get used to staying home. I never felt up to doing anything so I spent most of my time the last eight months at my house. Because I was home so often I had a lot of free time and I spent my time reading my bible, praying, reading books, and spending time with girls. The transition was great, I was constantly encouraged from all my readings, I love to read and I had a long time with nothing to do but read. I was constantly 'walking' in the spirit (although sitting in the spirit is more like it) I was always encouraged and meditating on a verse. 

Only when I began moving again did I realize how hard it is to be still before God. When I was sick I was literally still before God, honestly I rarely moved! My roommates were usually busy with work or school so I had a lot of alone time. My biggest challenge getting back to normal life has been walking in the Spirit. After eight months I had forgotten how to be still before the Lord while on the go. It took me a couple of days to realize this, I was having a pretty rough couple of days when I realized I wasn't meditating on truth. 

Since my rough days I have been focusing more on God, I was used to reading multiple times throughout the day and had to go back to one time with my new schedule. I had to learn to walk in truth, just because I am moving doesn't mean I can leave the Lord at home. I actually never thought I would have to learn this lesson again but I guess after so long out of the day to day busyness you lose touch. 

My UNI classes started up on tuesday, I am taking ten credits and am very excited, I have wonderful teachers! My classes will be hard work but they will be fun and useful to my life. My schedule this fall is a very busy one and so I am praying that the Lord will help me not push myself. I have night classes and if I do too much during the day I am sick at night so it is a very fine balance I am learning to walk. 

Earlier in the week I threw up, I'm not sure if it was medicine or food, but thus far I have not been sick again. Please be praying that my medicine will continue to go down smoothly. It is very common when you throw up once that you continue throwing up so please join me in praying against that. 

Lastly, on tuesday I have my three month visit to Dr. P! I can't believe it has almost been three months! The worst is almost over! I am a blessed woman, and I am excited to see the Lord continue to move and bring healing to my life. 

Prayer Requests: 

*That Dr. P will be able to keep his practice in Iowa and turn to the Lord during this time
*That people will step up and fight the political battle of lyme disease
*That I will be able to keep my medicine down
*That I will pace myself; when to go, when to rest
*That I will continue to grow in being still before the Lord while on the go

The Goodness Of God

Since I have been back from Colorado I have not been bored! This last week has been plumb full of hang-outs, going away parties, the straw poll, cleaning, moving rooms, the Iowa State Fair and even a wedding! 

Katelyn, Stephen, Alex, Jenna, Laurie, and Kaitlin at the wedding reception

Stephen, Kaitlin, Alex, Jenna, Laurie at the wedding reception

Vance, Rachel, Matt, Jake, Katelyn, and I at the straw poll 

One thing that I never wanted to do was ride a motorized wheelchair, in High School I had to suck up my pride and ride in a wheelchair quite often so today I don't think twice about a wheelchair. However motorized was a different story. Well, I had the opportunity to kill more pride this weekend, my family and I went to the fair and since I can only walk about a block we decided to get a wheelchair. My mom went to pick it up and when she came back I realized she had gotten a motorized chair, at first I was like no way am I riding that around the fair. 

However praise the Lord for my sister, she was standing by me when she saw my feelings toward my chair for the day and she said how the motorized chair is actually a blessing. Where I may not like it, if I would have  regular wheelchair my family would get tired out from pushing me all day. My sister gave me a new perspective of that motorized wheelchair and I actually ended up having fun with it. It also made me think about if I ever want to just sit and wait for the Lord to push me around or if in faith I am using His strength to power my chair and accomplish what He asks of me. 

Me and my chair

Tera and I 

For thus says the Lord, "Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them." ~ Jeremiah 32:42 

People go through all sorts of disaster it could be emotional, physical loss, damaged home, pain, or many more. As you know my disaster right now is Lymes Disease, this was filtered through the goodness of God filter and it passed the test in my life. I have been sick for a long time, the past six years have been off and on, but mostly sickness. Many days all I could do was get out of bed and move to the couch. This last phase of pain I never would have expected and I never would have thought I could endure it. But at the end of this phase I see the goodness of God. I see how He has used Lyme Disease to mold me more like His Son, to grow my faith, to stretch me. 

In lifegroup some girls and I were talking about how sometimes our faith is like a bungee cord, when your falling your scared to death but once you've been caught you are having the time of your life. The thing is with the Lord He knows how much I can handle, He alone knows how much I can fall before I need to be caught. Let me tell you this time I fell a lot further than I thought I could handle, but God knows me better than I know myself. 

It is only when the disaster strikes that you can see the goodness of God up close and personal. Lyme Disease took me further off the cliff than I had ever known was possible in my life but if I wouldn't have fallen that far to be caught by God I wouldn't understand the beauty of the healing process I have today. If you are in your disaster, know that one day you will see the goodness of God, one day you will understand why you suffered the way you did. But you may only understand these things if you understand the grace of God. If you understand your need for a Savior, your need to be caught. 

I have been putting off posting this but I found out on our Ozark vacation that another large strike has gone up against Lyme patients and doctors. There is a testing center where doctors from all over the country send their patients blood to be tested, it is where almost all Lyme Disease tests are done. A couple weeks ago that blood testing center got written up for doing too many Lyme Disease Tests. 

The scary part about this testing center being written up is that now because it has been written up they have control of all the information the testing center has. Many people believe that the only reason the center was written up was so that they could see exactly who was sending in tests and how many they were sending in. Lyme Disease is very political, and this sure does not help. Please be keeping Lyme Disease doctors, their practices, their patients, even their testing centers in your prayers. 

Prayer Requests:
*That Dr P. will be able to keep his practice in Iowa and turn to the Lord in the process
*That men and women would step up and fight for this political disease
*That the Lord will continue to heal me and I will rejoice over every step

Beauty & Peace

The Lord is continuing to bring healing into my life, I can officially drive all by myself now! I no longer need a co-pilot! Another huge blessing is mornings are beginning to be easier for me, I will need more sleep than usual the next couple years but I have heard the first three months you need the most sleep and those months are almost over, just in time for school! 

A group of twenty-four friends and I headed to Colorado to visit our dear friend Mariah Mack who is working out there for the summer. We had a wonderful time, we all stayed in a vacation home (with a great hot tub and a gorgeous view!) Just looking at our time there I felt so blessed, there are not many people who have twenty-four friends to start with, let alone everyone gets along. The trip was so successful on many levels, it really developed our friendships and grew us closer together, I am blessed to have the friends the Lord has given me and I pray we have long relationships. 

Group picture of everyone

These three lovely ladies went for a walk and picked beautiful flowers for me, they also kept me company while the rest of the group climbed a mountain, I was thankful for the company! 

(Stephanie, Chasity, Ashley, and I)

The last day the gang went hiking to a waterfall, I went to rest at the lake and enjoyed the gorgeous view! Stephanie stayed with me and we enjoyed playing in the water :) 

What a beautiful world this Lord created, too bad we corrupted it! 

Can't wait for the beauty of Heaven! 

I loved going to Colorado being surrounded by men and women who love the Lord. While we were in Colorado Ashley accepted Christ! What wonderful news! Colorado was a time when it was really clear that we are different, that our friendships are not fake, that we really love each other. And we can love one another because of the example of love that God gave us. 

Upon returning home Chasity, my new roommate who accepted Christ in May shared the gospel with her sister Natasha and Natasha prayed with me to receive Christ into her life. I am so thankful for Chasity's faithfulness with the gospel and her heart for her sister and I can't wait for more time with Natasha and Chasity! 

This world may be corrupted but if we look and if we work we can see so many blessings and so many good things that the Lord is doing. May we never stop working and looking. 

"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially. Saying, 'peace, peace,' but there is no peace." ~Jeremiah 6:14  

When I first read this verse I thought of the medical community, there are men and women who are dedicated to help people physically. The problem is we need more than that, if people are ill and put their hope in the medical community I can guarantee that you will be let down. I have lived it and seen it way to often. You may have peace for a season but trouble will come again for you. The Lord offers us a peace that is never ending. I do not mean He makes our life easy, and only gives us blessings. 

The Lord has given me peace but I also have Lyme Disease, it is not easy to live through, I actually didn't think I would live through it. However the Lords grace is sufficient. He has given me peace in a state of chaos and He wants to give everyone that peace but people must choose the peace that only the Lord can bring. 

Do you have this peace? Have you ever thought about a peace that never ends? The Lord is a free gift, no strings attached. He died so that you may live, so that you may have peace. Have you accepted His gift? 

Prayer Requests: 

*That Dr P. will be able to keep his practice in Iowa and find the Lord in the process

*That the Lord will provide financially for me to be able to remain a student this year

*That Ashley and Natasha will continue to grow in the Lord 

*That you will consider the gift of God

Something New

We are all safe and sound back in Iowa. We had such a wonderful trip to remember, as we get older it is getting better and better! And its always been wonderful! Here are some pictures from the end of our trip. 

Aaron getting some air on his wakeboard

Another shot of Aaron

A first for us at our Ozark vacation, double skiing. Aaron and Kyle were great at it! It was so funny to see them chatting up a storm while they were skiing...they gave me a lot to watch! 

A video of Aaron and Kyle double skiing, check it out!

Mom and Tera during one of our skiing breaks 

Kevin met us to watch the gents ski

Aaron doing a backflip

The kiddos at Docknockers our favorite resturant at the Ozarks

And the adults at Docknockers

Dad and Mom on a boat cruse after dinner at Docknockers

A beautiful sunset on the water

So our vacation is over and we are back to 'normal' life although I am not sure there is a normal, especially during the summer! Tomorrow I am headed to Colorado with about twenty friends to visit a friend out there so I am not in town long! My parents are also headed to Minnesota on Wednesday, and Aaron is off to football camp, and Tera started her new job! What a busy family! 

Earlier in the week I drove the boat a couple times and on our way home on Saturday I drove the van! It was my first time driving in six months! I am so excited to be able to drive again! I need a co-pilot to make sure I know what I'm doing and where I am going but it is so fun to be able to drive! It is weird to drive but I am doing pretty well, sometimes I forget specific turns still but my memory is much better than it used to be! Every day I am getting better, and my memory is no exception. This healing process takes time but it is so beautiful to see the Lord work healing in my life. 

"And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."  ~Isaiah 58:11

I just love this verse, if we choose to lay down our life for the Lord, He will guide us, He will satisfy us, He will give us strength. There has not been one day in the last eight months where I had enough strength to get up that day, and by myself I didn't, but by the grace of God and met needs I was always given the strength I needed that day to endure. No more, no less. 

God is personal, He knows exactly what we need and when we need it. There is not one need I have that the Lord has not met, and if you look at your life you will see the same if you have chosen to follow Christ. 

Prayer Requests: 

*Safety traveling to Colorado

*That my body will handle the car ride and trip well 

*That I will continue to rejoice in all things

*That Dr P. will be able to keep his practice in Iowa and turn to the Lord during this time