My thoughts for the week:-
I was listening to Joyce Meyer and she was talking about how easy it is for us to tell others when they are going through tough times to just “Trust God”, or “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” etc.
What happens when we have to eat the words we so freely and easily spit out?
The practice of mindfulness, meditation and the like, is to be able to use the skills learned, when all in our life is anything but comfortable.
It also got me thinking how easy it is to say the words “In sickness and in health”. For most people standing there at the Alter, they are in their prime. Looking their best, full of life, fun, hopes and dreams of a life filled with the laughter of kids, a dog, house and white picket fence (unreal expectations!) a life, and future, so bright “you gotta wear shades”!. The word sickness seems to roll off the tongue like the delicate drops of water that gracefully glide off a ducks back.
If you are one of the lucky ones, months turn into years. Years turn into decades. And then that “sickness and in health” comes to bite you on the ass. Sickness is not glamourous and fun in any form and it is at that precise moment, you realise the depth of the words “sickness and in health”. Health is easy. Sickness, not so much!
This is when you have to find calm in life’s storms. Freedom whilst still in shackles. Stillness and peace in the face of fear and turmoil.
Joyce reminded me that, trials make us better or bitter! and that joy is not around us, it is in us.
My decade + long battle with mental illness has formed and shaped the person I am today.
I wrote my book in all its rawness to reach out to others in a way I could only have done as a result of going through my own “hell” with the black dog and his constant taunts.
We cannot truly appreciate the smooth road unless we have experienced the rough road.
Mindfulness has taught me so much. To appreciate the small things in life.
We all have a story. A story that is so unique it’s worthless if we don’t use it to strengthen, help and encourage others.
Let’s become a people more driven to build each other up, instead of tearing each other down.
Have a wonderful week