His Blessing Promised on My Head

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My sweet neighbor got me these precious Bible Truth cards and this one I pulled out this morning had me crying.  Who Am I that The God of the universe wants to remind me that HE IS IN CONTROL AND I NEED NOT FEAR.  He made my flesh and holds it together…is anything too hard for Him?   I hope if you are struggling… you will read this and remember that NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR HIM!  I need this Truth everyday as I head into the radiation treatment table….

Thank you so much for all of the prayers, text messages and calls just letting me know that you are all praying for me as walk into the mask.  Finished day two and called those angels in with me and was blessed to have the opportunity to listen to some of my favorite worship music songs from one of my sweet soccer players who made me a CD to listen to while getting treatment.

When I got on the table and told them I had a CD to listen to the tech asked if it was top 40, and course he doesn’t know me yet.  But, I told them, no it was worship music made by one of my players.  They asked me how loud I wanted it to be and I said turn it way up.  They told me they may not hear me if I need something so I would have to move my hands to signal them.  What they may or may not realize, I cannot move my mouth or make any noise if I wanted to anyway – but it was good to know they would look for hand gestures lol.  So there I was laying on the table with my warrior t-shirt and my hot pink blanket, from another one of my players hoping the two song maximum was going to be all they would zap me for.  Well, four songs later – 7 zaps we were done.  Each zap lasts about 30-40 seconds.  I try to count sometimes and then I think it almost makes me breathe harder so it’s best for me to just sing the songs in my head and forget the laser show going on above me.

I will have 29 more treatments.  Please pray that with each treatment my heart remains calm and my breathing is steady.  The last thing I want to do is panic because you can’t get out of that thing fast….Pray also that I have the opportunity to encourage the other patients around me and the tech people working.  So many hurting people around me and I want to be the light I have been called to be.

As I was reading in Psalms 139 this morning of course the Lord spoke right to my heart and I wanted to share what he showed me:

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
    and know everything about me.

(To know that you are known by the God of the Universe….with all the millions of people he sees me and knows me.)

2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel
    and when I rest at home.
    You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me.
    You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand!

(He knows where I am and where I am going…he knows my doubts, struggles, my deepest desires – nothing is hidden from him. Nothing I do surprises him.  No struggle I go through or where I am right now with cancer surprises him – David says it’s too wonderful for our wee little minds to comprehend)

 

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.

(No matter where we try and go and hide or how desperate or hurting we may be, we CANNOT escape the presence of the Lord.  He is there waiting and ready for us to reach out our hand and to desire for him to lead us and guide us in our hardest moments.  He promises his hand to guide us and strength to support us…. we simply need to just ASK.)

These promises in Psalms meant a lot to me this morning especially after reading the card I shared up top……and as I read vs 5 this morning I wept.  I wept because the Lord has promised HIS HAND OF BLESSING ON MY HEAD.  To know that this morning the God of the universe knew that I needed to be reminded that he has my head in his hands and that he has promised to bless me was such a sweet moment of HOPE in the middle of my battle was just what I needed to battle day 2 of treatment.

I have been so blessed by so many people the last few days… my sweet friend Nikki is dropping me off, picking me up…she’s like an Uber/taxi for me.  My sweet friend Elizabeth and her daughters came and found me yesterday getting a Bible engraved a the bookstore so they could bless me and hug me after my first treatment. Please lift up her mom who is also undergoing treatment.  Their family has meant the world to me for along time and I love them all!  I got 5 cards from a family in Tulsa I don’t know – just praying scripture over me.  I’m telling you what…God desires for me to know that He hasn’t left me or abandoned me and he is using his people to just be His hands and feet to me.  Just so blessed.

Please continue to pray:

  • For Complete peace and God’s grace in the treatment
  • That the radiation and chemo is being effective to treat the cancer
  • For my strength and energy to remain high – I have lots i want to get to!
  • I’m having a different sensation in my throat/upper neck – doesn’t hurt, doesn’t last long I really can’t even explain it..but I just want to rest in it when it happens….blood pressure/heart rate is good 
  • Our older three leave tomorrow from their mission trip in Denver  -safe travels home and a God honoring last day there.  They’ve had a blessed time and seen God do some amazing things…so I am thankful
Today's Blessing
Cards from Tulsa Family
Friends
Elizabeth Dillard, Me and Nikki Funk

Treatment Decision – Moving Forward

Florida Sunset

“Be Strong and Take Heart, all you who Hope in the Lord.”  Psalms 31:24

Look at this cool picture from my friend Billy Cannon.  If God can hold this little bubble in turbulent waters and allow such a beautiful moment to come out of it, how much more can he do that for you and me?

When I think back over all that has happened in the last week…I think wow, has it only been a week?  It’s hard to believe that it’s been a few weeks since my seizure and diagnosis and pretty much time has gone, sometimes fast, sometimes slow…but it goes on.

In my last couple blogs I explained a bit on some options for treatment for me.  I’ve struggled really finding peace in a way to go.  I’m not great at making decisions by myself, I have always been a firm believer of surrounding myself with people who have the same heart and direction and asking them to council me.  Whether it’s soccer decisions, parenting decisions, decorating, whatever… I’ve always trusted those around me to help me.  This decision has been no different for me.

We have been very blessed with connections to so many doctors, facilities and just wise people to give us their opinions.  The doctors have been gracious to talk to Scott anytime, calling us from their vacation or where they are speaking to help us out.  We have heard from Duke, MD Anderson, AR Baptist and UAMS.  Pretty sure we could be on the phone with people from other places or these places all the time.  But, we knew we needed to make a decision and get going on fighting this battle.

We had pretty much been told by several doctors that I needed to get going on Radiation and Chemo at least 4 weeks after my seizure.  We had considered surgery to remove the tumors and again you have many brilliant minds with differing thoughts on the process.  In the end Scott and I felt like the risk of surgery wasn’t worth it at this point.  So we have decided to begin the chemo/radiation treatment….today.  Geez….TODAY!

I know I posted back about the Mask I have to wear and I am still less than thrilled at the idea of wearing it.  Today I will go and they will do the 30 minute run through (basically to make sure they have everything set with the machine before they zap me with radiation.)   When I am done with that they want to do my first treatment.  So I will be laying there longer than normal.  Please pray for peace for me during this process.  Ask the Lord to give me clarity on the verses he wants me to repeat and to remember them while I’m laying there.  Pray that I can be a light to the technicians and other patients and that this step will begin the process of killing the tumors and little arms trying to infiltrate my brain.

Today I am holding on to the promises and Truths of this passage in Romans.  It is one of my favorites.  Paul was writing reminding us that if we are in Christ than NOTHING  we encounter will be able to defeat us because of what Jesus already accomplished for us on the cross.

Romans 8:31-39

More Than Conquerors

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

God is greater than any battle we will face.  IF God is for us….which he has promised that he is and has shown up big time by sending Jesus in our place….then no one/nothing CAN be against us and stand.  God desires to bless us and give us ALL THINGS.  I’m not saying God desires to give me millions of dollars, but desires to give me the BEST of ALL THINGS that I need.  He knows what I need more than I could ever know.

33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Jesus himself is praying for me.  I think about Jesus being in the garden with sweats of blood coming down because he knew the cross was just around the corner.  He knew where to go for strength and he spent time alone with his Father throughout his time on earth communing through prayer.  Jesus is praying for me….he is praying for you…he desires for our hearts to be drawn to him in complete dependence and to pour out our hearts to our Father.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]

Can Cancer separate us from the LOVE of Christ?  Here’s the deal.  We all face hardship and through those times we allow the devil to speak lies to us.  “God doesn’t love you…. I told you there isn’t a God…who would let this happen…. you won’t beat this…. you aren’t worth anything….” And it goes on.  We need to see, claim and understand that Satan desires to destroy us and the message of the hope of the gospel however he can.  He will use our difficulties to try and refocus us off of what is True.  Don’t let him.

 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k]neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are promised to conqueror every situation we face because he loves us.  It’s nothing we can do.  We cannot earn the right to be a better conqueror because of what we have done.  His promise in ALL THESE things is based off of who HE is and the love he showed us through Jesus death for us.  There is nothing – in my case, not even cancer -that can separate me from God’s love.  He has promised to fight this battle for me, to sustain me and in the end I will conqueror it because of who he is.  I could throw a party after I read this passage!  

So as I move forward through this 6 first week journey of Chemo/radiation please pray these things for me:

  • Peace as I lay on the machine and complete focus on the Lord
  • Peace as my M-F days will be going to get the radiation and remembering to take medicine 
  • Good health and energy during my treatment
  • For God to continue to give me opportunities to encourage my family, soccer players and anyone else the Lord brings into my path – may I never listen to the lies of the devil and may I continue to claim his Truth to matter what.

 

Seriously so thankful and humbled by all of you.  Please feel free to send me your prayer requests.  I have so many journals going right now for different things, but I want to be faithful to pray for you as you struggle or battle.  I like to spend as little time thinking about myself and praying for others has been such a blessing to me already.

family picture
Continue to pray for the kids and Scott as we battle forward