I Am Blessed

It has been a rough month... and it is only half over. I won't go into all the things that have hit me . It would take too long and range from the physical to the emotional to the spiritual and affected several relationships. You name it, I've dealt with it in the space of the last 6 weeks.

But there is a strange thing that has happened during all of it. The same words kept coming to my mind every time I was overwhelmed by stress, distress, anxiety, frustration, and annoyance.

I am blessed. I am highly favored. God has been so good and provided for me in every way possible.

 No, he didn't heal me of the horrible pain I've been dealing with or the emotional stresses that assailed me. Yet, the feeling of being so very blessed was there, in the middle of pain, in the middle of the stress.

I hate anxiety. I hate the shortness of breath, the tightness in my chest, the creeping fear that causes the hair on my arms to stand up. I hate the sensation that something is about to pounce, something dark and scary that I can't see. It is the most horrible feeling in the world. Fear that has no direction, no limit, and no discernable source. It is the "Something is coming" feeling of every horror movie you ever saw.

But I am so blessed. God, for some unimaginable reason, smiled on me at some point.

Oh, I wish I could tell you the stories that would shock you, the ones that would make you stare open mouthed at me. I don't dare. I try and forget those. But how could all that happen to someone and they still say they are blessed.

I don't know. I really don't. I ask myself how and it makes no sense. I just know that the reality hits me in the chest at the most horrible times in my life. When I'm out of control, when I'm prostrate from grief, pain, or fear, I know if I listen carefully, shut out the chaotic sounds of my life, I can hear the words.

I am so very blessed. God is still in control.

Set A Watch Over Your Children

http://www.tommynelson.com/school-day-prayers/

I really love this little chart I found on Pinterest!  I often pray with Sarah before she leaves the house for school, particularly on days when she seems to be having a bad morning. I'm sorry I didn't do that with my boys. I've learned a lot since then but I did pray for them. In hindsight, maybe not enough. I've made a point to pray with Sarah before she leaves for school.

Why pray for your children before they leave for school? School, particularly in the 21st century is a hard place for children and they need a lot of help to get through it. If you are too old to remember how hard it was for you, something is wrong.  It is also no longer a place where wholesome and ethical values are likely to be taught. Rather the reverse is more likely. In fact, it is a place that your child could die.

Certainly, today our children need a prayer covering more than any generation ever has before. The spiritual attack on them is designed to corrupt every area of their lives: mental, emotional, spiritual. They face stress, anger, low self-esteem, resentment, jealousy, hatred, malice, and even sexual attacks both physical and mental. Bullying is clearly spiritual in nature for both the bully and the person bullied. Every area of their life is under attack in a school environment, particularly if they are attempting to live as a Christian. They are a target.

It is your responsibility to protect your children from any attack on them from any source. So, if you aren't praying for your children before they walk out that door, remember you are sending them into the lion's den. You are leaving them defenseless against attacks from all areas of their life. The stress will affect performance. Sometimes, the stress kills them.

The above chart is a really good guide to what kind of things to pray about and really, you don't have to have an hour-long prayer to cover these things. Read it with your child, let them know why you're going to pray about these things for them and follow the KISS method. Keep it simple, silly. Every point can be prayed for in a few words before they go out the door. You can add any points that you think need to be added.

Also, let them know that you will be praying for them during the day. Later, when you have prayer time you can expand on it but the important thing at this point is to let your children know that you are sending them out with a prayer covering and that you will continue to pray for them while they are at school. I promise you, the benefits to your children are enormous. The faith of children is legendary and if you've raised them to believe in prayer, the comfort they get from knowing you've prayed for them is huge.

Here is the link to School Day Prayer  blog where you can print this chart off for yourself and read the blog post about it. The site has other great items you might be interested in.

Damaged Emotions

I started reading this book I found Monday was in my bookcase and I think I've read it before, a long time ago. I have underlined some things and marked pages. Healing for Damaged Emotions, by David A Seamands. In the preface, he says early in his ministry he began to notice there were two kinds of people he was unable to help as a minister.

"I saw one group being driven into futility and loss of confidence in God's power. While they desperately prayed, their prayers about personal problems didn't seem to be answered. They tried every Christian discipline, but with no results. As they played the same old cracked record of their defeats, the needle would get stuck in repetitive emotional patterns. While they kept up the outward observances of praying and paying and professing, they were going deeper into disillusionment and despair. 
I saw the other group moving toward phoniness. These people were repressing their inner feelings and denying to themselves that anything was seriously wrong, because "Christians can't have such problems." Instead of facing their problems, they covered them with a veneer of Scripture verses, theological terms, and unrealistic platitudes."  -- Healing for Damaged Emotions, David A. Seamands.

It was this that statement that made me decide to reread this book. He mentions in his first chapter that Christians often go to one of two extremes to address these folks. "Some Christians see anything that wiggles as the devil."  If you have a problem, you must be demon possessed. From my on experience, I've seen this over and over. If you're depressed, it is the devil. If you're overeating, it is the devil. If you're having panic attacks, it is the devil.

The other extreme was "Read your Bible. Pray. Have more faith.  If you were spiritually OK, you wouldn't have this hangup. You could never get depressed. You would never have any sexual compulsions or problems." 

In my experience as a Pentecostal, we're told we just need to shout more, sing more, speak in tongues more, and check our hems and hairlines. I believe all those things have their place in our faith, but not every problem is fixed or even addressed by any of those. Even Jesus noted that there are some problems which require more than the external actions of the believer and those ministering to them to correct.

When I suffered from clinical depression years ago, I experienced the second kind. I re-experienced it again when Jerry died. If you're one of those who deliver this kind of ministering, let me make one thing perfectly clear. You're nuts. That is not compassionate and it most certainly is not Biblical.

People suffering from damaged emotions can't be "fixed" by standard methods and they can't be fixed after one revival. They may feel better for a time, but the nature of these kinds of wounds is that they are deep and generally infected. It takes time and consistent attention to heal. I suspect that it takes a mixture of love, prayer, special encouragement, and counseling to stitch up the wounds and time to allow them to heal.

I'm going to continue reading this book. It isn't long and I'll let you know if I find it helpful.