Reality

There are a lot of preachers out there who talk about, "Don't speak your negativity!"

I agree with that statement, just as Joyce Meyer says, "You can talk yourself into depression, but you talk yourself happy too." BUT I do not necessarily think that just because you choose to ignore a bad thing that is happening in your life makes it disappear. I think 'speaking it' is overused and abused sometimes. If I have an attitude problem, I'm going to pray about it, and tell myself, "You will do better with God's help," but then I'm actually going to put forth the effort and try better, and when I mess up, I'm going to make myself apologize.

If God granted our every request, and never let anything bad happen to us simply because we 'speak it', He would merely be a sugar daddy. We give Him love, and He gives us what ever we want. In case you didn't already know, Christianity doesn't work that way.

Simply ignoring a bad situation, and 'speaking' a good situation won't help either. Not only will the situation not change, but when it doesn't change or gets worse, your faith and hope in God will be shattered. You have to face reality and trust God to get you through it. Denying a problem only postpones when it will hit you, and by that time, it has become worse, and if you thought you couldn't cope with it before, you definitely will have trouble coping now. I figure if God sees fit to allow a bad diagnosis or problem into your life, He will use it to strengthen your relationship with Him, and bring Himself glory. Ignoring it is telling Him, "I don't think you're sovereign enough to use it, so I'm going to tell you MY way, the way I want, until you give it to me."

I've been struggling lately, because everything we thought we understood about my mom's health has been turned on it's head. So many things we have done to try to fix her health have either been pointless or complicated the situation. Over ten years of thinking we had a grasp on the situation, and boom; "Hello Multiple Sclerosis! So she wasn't having strokes? So she didn't need blood thinners? So she didn't need the second heart surgery? So she didn't need the neck surgery? So the physical therapy really wasn't working? Thanks for the heads up!" For years, I kept 'speaking' healing, praying over her, BEGGING God for the healing that I had been convinced that He promised. I had gotten so frustrated that I began wondering if He was even listening, until my mom said, "If God granted our every request, and never let anything bad happen, He would only be a sugar daddy," and I realized something. God uses ALL THINGS for His glory. No, He doesn't cause these things, but He does allow them, because somehow, in some way, my mom is apart of God's huge plan that is so much bigger than us. Look at Job. If he hadn't lost everything, even if his story didn't touch anyone in his own time, thousands of years later, he gives us an example of hope. I like to think that every time something bad hits me, and I just get back up, praise God, and continue to focus on Him, His plan and His kingdom, He is in Heaven saying, "That's my girl! She just hit a spiritual growth spurt, and look how tall she got!"

My mom is one of very few people I know who has not been healed from sickness. I know a lot of people who have others lay hands and pray over them and, bam, they're healed. Others who go through the surgeries or treatments and, tahdah, remission or total recovery. It's enough to make me jealous sometimes, but I know that there's a reason, and we just have to take this one day at a time