Hello :-)

Dear Friends,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written an update on here.  As I wrote in a letter earlier today to a dear friend who is also fighting lyme disease, I shared with her that every time I have sat down to do a blogpost I would “start with a blank screen and end with a blank screen.”  If I’ve ever had “writer’s block” in knowing how and what to share regarding this continual battle with Lyme it would be the past several months.  Part of it has been honest to goodness extreme weariness of trying to put into words what living with daily pain is like and just wanting to flat out ignore it and not have to think about putting it into words.  The other part is that it is REALLY hard for me to make such personal things public.  But this past week has reminded me once again how precious it is to have so many of you out there who care about me, who are praying for me and truly want to know how I’m doing.  Thank you.  It brings tears to my eyes feeling so loved by so many whom I have never met…..  The e-mails, letters and phone calls I get from people concerned over how long it’s been since there’s been an update on here touches my heart deeply.

 

This Fall and Winter have not been without their challenges, but I’m still doing better than I have in several years.  As for current treatment, I’ve been doing the “Cowden Protocol” with herbal supplements and have worked up to a pretty high dose. (Those of you also doing “Cowden” know how hard that is!) I’ve been very faithful at staying on the herbal drops even though the herxing has at times been very uncomfortable.  If my lyme count isn’t as low as we’d like to see it next month, I’ll have to go back on antibiotics.  Because of the side effects antibiotics always cause for my gut, I’m really praying and hoping the “Cowden Protocol” will prove to be successful for me as it has for others with Lyme.  The other thing I’m taking right now that has helped several people I know turn around their Lyme is “Plexus”.  I was very skeptical to try it at first, but as long as I’m on it I don’t get daily “shaking spells” or “lyme seizures” as some people call them.  I’ve been on it since last June and when I went off of it for a short time over the Fall, the shaking returned and then disappeared again when I got back on it. The shaking was so bad I’m scared to go back off of it.  It hasn’t seemed to take away my fatigue like it has for a lot of people I know, but I do feel much more stable on it and more comfortable getting out and being around people again because of not having to worry about “shaking spells”.  That has been a HUGE blessing and I’m really praying that it’ll help me turn around the damage the Lyme has done to my body, as it has for others that I know.  I had a fever for two days about a month ago, and ever since then my pain level and inflammation has been pretty high.  My body seems to be having a hard time recovering and rebuilding from that sickness episode. I’m used to it taking a month or so before I feel better after an additional sickness on top of Lyme, but this has seemed to take me out of the game more than normal and ever since has induced a lot of chest pain and heart palpitations again.  I’ll be talking to my Doctor on Monday about if I need to bring a Cardiologist back into the mix.  I’ve had a lot of heart issues since first coming down with Lyme 10 years ago, and we like to rule serious conditions out with a cardiologist. In the past, except for some blood pressure problems, 1st degree heart block once and lots of palpitations – usually the Cardiologists are not too concerned.  All that to say, it’s not too alarming to me what I’m currently experiencing, but its been keeping me up a lot at night to have so many palpitations and I’m really praying for wisdom and discernment about what I can do to strengthen my cardiovascular system.  I know the Lyme has really taken it’s toll on that part of my body, as it has the rest as well.  My nutritional IV’s always REALLY help with heart issues, but I’ve been hoping & praying that my body would be strong enough to not need them anymore.  I may need to go back to them, and that would be ok…..Jesus knows. ❤  I know I can trust Him and I’m very grateful for that! ❤  I just definitely long for the day when getting poked with needles on a regular basis is a thing of the past.

 

Specific Prayer Requests:

• That my Doctors appointment on 2/8/2016 goes well.
• For the Cowden Protocol to continue to bring my lyme count down.
• For my heart to be strengthened and palpitations to stop.
• Continued wisdom, guidance and peace.
• Grace to keep praising Him each and every day because His plan is perfect and beautiful…even if it’s hard to see and understand at times. ❤

 

Thank you, friends, for your generous support, encouragement, love & prayers!  This fight is far from over, but Jesus has it in His hands and I’m praying for grace and strength to continue to praise and thank Him each day for whatever physical strength He chooses to give or withhold.  ❤   I love this quote: “When we long for a life without difficulties, remind us that oak trees grow strong under contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.” ~Peter Marshall   

 

God has a plan and we can most certainly trust Him!!  Thank You, Jesus! ❤

Thank you, again, dear prayer warriors!!! Love and prayers to each and every one of you!!  I hope you all are well and enjoy a beautiful February!

 

With Love,

Monica

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Doctors Appointment Today

Hello Friends!

Heading in for my every 3 month appointment with my main Doctor today. I definitely appreciate your prayers for direction as I continue to battle Lyme Disease. Praying for wisdom specifically today regarding the best treatments/medications/alternative options to continue that will most aggressively and successfully help to completely eradicate the Lyme from my body. Some days it feels like this battle is never going to end and I’m always a little nervous before Doctors appointments because I never know what the tests will say or show….will it show that I’m improving or getting worse?! On days like today I love to claim the Name of God – Jehovah Shammah – the God who is THERE. ❤ He’s already there in my Doctors appointment….He’s already there in knowing what my test results are…He’s already there in whether I’ll win my battle against Lyme next week or next year. He knows and He is faithful…nothing is a surprise to Him because He is Jehovah Shammah, the God who is there. And I can rest in just knowing He knows. ❤ ❤ Thank You, Jesus and thanks for praying!! ❤ 

~Monica

Update :-)

Hello Friends!!!

I know I’m long over-due for an update…thank you to all of you who have been checking in to see how I am! ❤ Hope you all are well and enjoying the beautiful colors of Fall! 🙂 I was reading through my journal from this past year and read a quote I had written down on December 28th, 2014 and wanted to share it with you all – “This is how you deal with God. Praise Him BEFORE you are delivered. Praise Him for what is coming. ADORE HIM for what He is GOING to do. I do not think there is a sweeter song in God’s ear than the song of one who blesses Him for grace that has not yet been tasted, who blesses Him for answers that have not been received but are sure to come. The praise for past gratitude is sweet, but even sweeter is the praise of FULL CONFIDENCE that ALL WILL BE WELL.” ~Charles Spurgeon // That quote affected me a lot last year when I still hadn’t experienced any huge breakthroughs with my health….and it’s still encouraging me today! I can genuinely praise Him for all the healing that He HAS done in my body from Lyme Disease and can continue to praise Him for the healing that is yet to come….and WILL come in HIS *perfect timing*. As far as how you can pray for me specifically regarding my health – continued wisdom for my Doctors and for me is hugely appreciated! The past several months have brought more healing and strength than I have experienced in years! Praise the Lord!!! His faithfulness just astounds me. ❤ But there is still a huge daily reminder that my body isn’t in “the clear” yet…. I still experience a host of lyme related symptoms on a daily basis, but the severity of them is MUCH smaller than in the past. Thank You, Jesus! We’re going to keep moving forward fighting Lyme Disease until it’s completely gone and eradicated from my body. Prayers for the ability to stay strong in this fight praising my Jesus all the way is so SO very appreciated! ❤ And that He will get the most glory in my healing…in whatever way He sees fit to bring the healing.  🙂  Looking forward to running my first race someday with any and all of you who can join me! I have no idea if that’ll be 1 year from now or 5 years from now…God knows! But whenever it is…it’s going to be good and it’s going to be the perfect moment that He has already chosen. ❤ 😉 Praying God’s blessings on your weekend and thanks so much for reading and for all your continued prayers and e-mails/notes that encourage me SO much!!!!

~Monica

August Update

Hello friends!

My test two weeks ago showed that the Lyme count has stayed about the same in my blood over the past 3 months. This was discouraging news AND encouraging information at the same time. Discouraging because we like to see the count progressively decreasing…but also encouraging because it showed that everything I’m doing is keeping the Lyme at bay and it hasn’t gotten any worse. It basically means I need to pick up the pace a bit with this fight and do everything I’m currently doing plus extra a little more intensely to keep the lyme count coming down. Also, to keep things in perspective, the test was SIGNIFICANTLY better than 1 year ago when the Lyme had basically taken over my whole body and all my organs….it’s now 1/4 or less than it was a year ago. So that is a HUGE ANSWER TO PRAYER!!! Thank You, Jesus!!  🙂  I am in the process of easing onto some more medications/supplements to increase the intensity of the fight against Lyme. Words can’t express how much your continued prayers mean to me! Sometimes this fight feels like it’s never going to end…but then God leads me to verses like this: “…For YOU equipped me with STRENGTH for the battle…” ~Psalms 18:39 and God reminds me that I’m not fighting this alone. I have Him on my side….and all of you through your prayers doing this with me. THANK YOU!  ❤  Overall, I really have been feeling MUCH better…and learning to pace myself and start being involved in more activities again without pushing myself over the limit and crashing. There’s a constant mental/physical gauging of what my body can handle and what it can’t…which can be exhausting sometimes…but I’m just SO happy to be up and around more!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!  ❤ 

Please pray for me tomorrow during an important Doctor’s appointment at my clinic with my primary Doctor. I definitely have kept all my Doctors and Specialists on their toes with my case.  😉 Grateful God has been able to use so many people in my life to help me with this continued journey to full recovery and that I’m *ONE DAY CLOSER* to beating Lyme and running my marathon!  😉

Thank you so much, friends!!! God bless each and every one of you today.

~Monica

Football and Pearls

Those pearl bracelets from my sister-in-law, Amy have been on my wrists for almost every single Lyme Treatment I’ve had the past 3 years….they were on me when my arms were too weak to brush my hair or feed myself…they were on during some intense blood treatments and IV’s…and the past few weekends they’ve been on me as I’ve been THROWING THE FOOTBALL around with my brothers and sister-in-law. Isn’t God amazing?!?! Keeping either my volleyball or football near my bed when I was really sick was something that kept me encouraged knowing that God would bring the strength back in HIS timing for me to do two of my favorite things….throwing the football and playing volleyball. I haven’t been strong enough to play a game of volleyball yet, but I have been throwing the football around a lot this Summer and I’m SOOOOOOO beyond grateful to Jesus for the strength to do that! Sometimes I just have to kneel down in the middle of an activity and THANK JESUS for the miraculous healing He has done and continues to do in my body. May Jesus never let me take for granted being able to play sports… ❤ The fight is still hard and I’m still in a lot of daily pain from the Lyme Disease. It’s hard to tell if the pain is from the Lyme or from the damage the Lyme has done….but every day by His grace I’m doing the next right thing for fighting this disease and trusting that each day brings me one day closer to full complete healing. Thank you all so much for your continued prayers, encouragement and support! As I throw this football with these pearls on it reminds me of all that my Jesus has done for me and that EVERY SINGLE PRAYER anyone has ever prayed for me also is playing a role in the God-given strength and healing I’m experiencing now. Thank You, Friends! God is good…ALL the time…and ALL the time…God is good. “…ALL His work is done in FAITHFULNESS.” ~Psalms 33:4 // -Jesus, thank You for all your have done, all You are doing, and all You will do! We love You and we trust You…. You make ALL things beautiful in YOUR time. Thank You. ❤ ❤ ❤

Sand Dunes!

Hey There Dear Friends! ❤

HAPPY JUNE!!!  The month of June makes me SO delighted.  It’s my brother, Benjamin’s Birthday month as well as my own and just such a pleasant time of year with all the sunshine and warm flip-flop weather!  🙂   If any of you know me well, you know that Sand Dunes and Lake Michigan hold a very special place in my heart and are two of my most favorite things/places IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!  I’m so glad God allowed me to grow up in the state of Michigan! 🙂  This past Sunday my family took a trip out to the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. I was feeling pretty sick the morning of, so I *ALMOST* didn’t go with them….but at the last minute I hopped in the van because I just couldn’t bear the thought of not getting to see my beloved Lake and being away from my family all day.  Incredibly thankful I went; it was very good for my soul. 🙂 My family took several hikes which I wasn’t able to participate in because I’m not quite that strong enough, so I had a lot of alone time with my Bible & Journal, but just BEING THERE was glorious! I could sit out on the beach ALL.DAY.LONG.EVERY.DAY.OF.THE.YEAR and never get tired of it. 🙂  I also managed to climb up one sand dune!!!!  It took me a loooooong time….. seriously, a LONG.TIME. LOL! 🙂  Climb a few feet, sit down and rest…climb…rest…climb…rest….climb… rest…etc  Which frustrated me quite a bit thinking back to the days when I could run up them no problem….but then I had to remember where I was last Fall and how walking 3 steps on my own wasn’t even an option.  That vivid recent remembrance of intense weakness made me INCREDIBLY grateful to the Lord for the strength that I DID have and that I was able to climb up one dune.  I thought about this quote when I started feeling frustrated at my lack of strength: “It is ALWAYS possible to be grateful for what is given rather than resentful over what is withheld. One or the other will become a way of life.” ~Elisabeth Elliot //  I pray my way of life will be one of continually thanking Him for His many blessings in my life and never a “grass is greener on the other side of the fence” mentality.  If I don’t cultivate a spirit of gratefulness in the here and now I don’t know that I ever will. ❤  Praying He teaches me more of His heart in that area…

  Here’s some pictures from the day!  Hope you enjoy!  It’s fun posting something other than just a strictly medical update now and then. 🙂

My ipod doesn’t take that bad quality pictures, eh?! 😉 Here’s all of us kids with Mom.

Us kids with Dad! 🙂  And yes…I know I know I’m the only one still in my tennis shoes. 😛

Here’s Little Sable Point Light House…..or, what I prefer to call it: Petite Pointe Au Sable Lighthouse…which is technically what it’s name was BEFORE they changed it to Little Sable Point in the year 1910.  “Petite” is just a slightly cuter tone than “Little” and somehow sounds more endearingly conducive to the loveliness of Lake Michigan.  😉   Lol…okay, moving on….:-)  Somehow, whenever I look at this lighthouse picture I start singing the words to the hymn, “Let the Lower Lights be Burning.”   – || “Brightly beams our Father’s mercy, from His lighthouse ever more, But *TO US* He gives the keeping, Of the lights along the shore.  Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the wave! Some poor fainting struggling Seaman, You may rescue, you may save.”   ||  That hymn had been going through my mind the past few days ever since taking the lighthouse picture and came back today when I listened to Ravi Zacharias’s testimony on how he came to know Jesus.  He had tried to commit suicide as a teenager, but PRAISE GOD it didn’t work.  As he lay completely dehydrated and hardly able to move on his hospital bed a man who felt led by the Holy Spirit brought him a Bible…to which Ravi’s Mother read him out of and that’s how Ravi became a Christian!  And now, years later, because of the one man’s obedience to the Holy Spirit JUST LOOK at the THOUSANDS if not more people that Ravi and his ministry, “Let My People Think” have touched!  I’ve learned so much about history and Christian apologetics from him…I can’t imagine not having Ravi Zacharias a part of the family of God.  Thank You, Jesus, for the man who chose to be a “lighthouse” to Ravi and bring him a Bible which in turn saved a “fainting, struggling seaman”!  May we all be lighthouses wherever God has placed us!!!  None of us are where we are at by chance.

Silver Lake Sand Dunes.  Are they not absolutely beautiful?! I’m glad God made sand dunes and Lake Michigan!   One of my bucket list things that I haven’t been able to do yet but so desperately want to is to camp out directly on the beach and listen to the waves of Lake Michigan ALL NIGHT LONG.  Wouldn’t that be amazing?! 🙂   Well, I have a lot of Bucket List Adventure things I want to do when I get all better…but that’s probably one of the top ones. 😉

As far as how I’m doing physically today….honestly, not that great.  I’m dealing with tremendous amounts of inflammation and lyme pain today that is making me feel positively miserable.   But it’s okay.  All the pictures I took on Sunday make me so very happy! Visiting Lake Michigan was so very good for my soul and I keep replaying the videos I took of Lake Michigan’s waves…such a relaxing sound!  Only God could create such beauty.  “He shall beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.” ~Psalms 149:4

Well, it was fun writing a post that was on something other than Lyme Disease.  Hope you enjoyed this *happy* post and God bless you with an incredible first week of JUNE!  To all of my lymie friends who read this…I hope and pray each of you are able to get out and start enjoying the sunshine.  I know Summer heat is something so many of you can’t handle and that makes me really sad.  I was at that place up until last Summer.  And it was really hard not being able to enjoy the outdoor warmth.  THANKFULLY as my body has been getting stronger my ability to handle hot temperatures has dramatically improved….Thank You, Jesus!  I’m praying that is improving for all of you as well!  ❤   Stay in HIS Word, pray back His precious promises to Him and don’t let the enemy discourage you or make you doubt anything Jesus says in the Bible.  Meditate on His promises until you believe them with everything inside of you. ❤ Hiding His Word in your heart will help you so much….even if it doesn’t always feel like it is. ❤ To all of you fighting hard battles today with Lyme, “Chin Up Buttercup”! We’re all one day closer to beating this not fun disease!  Thank You, Jesus!

“YOU are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with shouts of deliverance.” ~Psalms 32:7

“Against all hope, Abraham IN HOPE BELIEVED…without weakening in his faith…” ~Romans 4:18-19

“My soul be silent unto God; for my expectation is from Him.” ~Psalms 62:5  (I’ve been meditating on this verse recently.  My expectation cannot be in treatments or medicine or new Lyme research coming out….my expectation must be COMPLETELY and ONLY on God, my Savior….He will never fail me.)

“There is always the afterward of His gracious promising” …Jesus, Thank You for the “afterward”….but DURING the trial…keep us strong! ❤

With Love and Prayers,

Monica

P.S.- A quote a wrote in my journal recently and have been going to back to a lot a mulling over:  “Joy is not gush; Joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God’s will, because the soul delights itself in God Himself.  “I delight to do thy will”, said Jesus, though the cup was the cross, in such agony as no man knew. It cost Him blood. Oh, take the Fatherhood of God in the blessed Son the Savior, and by the Holy Ghost; REJOICE in the will of God, and *nothing else*.  Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done.” ~Prebendary Webb-People, Springs in the Valley, 5/28/15.

NutraEval

Hey Friends,

I hope this finds you enjoying a lovely Spring day!  I’m pretty good, except that I’m experiencing a lot of “air hunger” (feeling like I can’t get enough air because of a lyme co-infection I’m dealing with) and some bad chest pain today.  Both of which definitely wipe me out, so I’ve spent today resting in bed.  Because my activity is quite limited on days like today it’s a good opportunity to write a blogpost then, right?! 🙂 Right. 😉

On Tuesday I saw my main Dr. at the Born Clinic in Grand Rapids, MI.  We were going over the results to my NutraEval test through Genova Diagnostics which is a very comprehensive test looking at the function, health, nutrition and toxicity levels of your individual cells.  It was quite fascinating because it was an 11 page report on all the nutrients your cells need to function correctly.  I would recommend ANYONE to get this test who are experiencing any kind of health problems.  I learned that for myself personally, ALL my vitamin B levels are WAY below normal range even though I’m taking a lot of vitamin B already.  And when I mean ALL B levels…I mean ALL. 😉 LOL.  B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9, B12….no wonder I feel so exhausted and tired all the time!!!  I’m also quite low in magnesium, a-lipoic acid, glutathione, vitamin C etc etc…  I do take all of those vitamins but now I’m needing to increase them even more and possibly take different versions of them as well as other supplements that will help my cells actually absorb the nutrients.  Recently 2 of my main symptoms have been heart issues as well as major fatigue which besides Lyme causing both of those things, low vitamin levels can also cause them. Magnesium is one of the most important nutrients for the heart to function normal, so it makes sense if my magnesium is so low that I’m getting heart issues and then my energy is pretty low which ANYONE is going to have low energy with their Vitamin B levels being almost non-existent like mine.   My Doctor showed me a diagram of the “Krebs Cycle” and how you need the right balance of fats, carbs, proteins, amino acids, etc for your cells to accept and process nutrients.  If you don’t have enough of something, pathways shut down and can cause a host of bad symptoms in the body….not to mention that already Lyme itself totally depletes the body of it’s nutrition storage as well as glutathione and other things the body uses to process vitamins in the cells.  I know I’m doing a terrible job of explaining this….but it’s so interesting how God made our bodies to work and that if any one thing is out of balance it will start to cause problems.  A test like this definitely helps with recognizing what areas of nutrition you need to work on and what areas you are good with.  You don’t want to overdose on vitamins…but sometimes, you do have to take quite large doses of certain ones to get your levels back up to normal.  This is just one of the many puzzle pieces we are working on to get my health back up to par.  It’s easy for people to think that it’s all about just killing the Lyme Disease.  And yes, that’s a HUGE piece to the puzzle of recovering your health from Chronic Lyme, but there are many other pathways that need to be taken care of as well and making sure your body is getting the proper nutrition is just as critical.  Your cells can’t repair the damage the Lyme has done to them without it.  I look forward to the day, hopefully soon, when my Lyme is completely gone and I can just focus on rebuilding my body and get back to my old self! 🙂  I know that day is coming….thank You, Jesus!  I’m so ready for life to involve more than Doctors appointments and tests and treatments and rest days…..:-)  *INCREDIBLY* grateful that I have been able to start branching out and doing more activities again outside of the home recently…I can’t tell you how much it blesses my heart to be able to get out of the house and see people!!!! 😀 🙂 Granted, I often times crash afterwards for a day or two….but it’s so wonderful at least having a little bit of energy back!!!

A few days ago I was getting overwhelmed with EVERYTHING I have to keep track of to keep my health moving upwards (it’s more than a full-time job) and just felt like bursting into tears and was like, “God, I just can’t do this anymore…it’s so hard to keep fighting such an intense battle.”  And I felt like He just looked down at me and smiled and said, “Monica, grab your hymn book and go outside and just rest in praising Me for awhile.”  And so….that’s what I did.  Without fail, EVERY SINGLE TIME I just spend time praising Him renewed strength, courage, joy, peace and encouragement floods my soul balancing out my emotions and getting my focus back on my Savior!  He inhabits our praises!  Satan flees at praise!  Praise erases discouragement because you focus your heart, mind and spirit on the One who conquered death, sin and sickness on the cross.  The God who made Heaven and Earth is the God who helps me and you, who walks with us through EVERY moment of joy and EVERY moment of sadness.  I love this verse: “But thou art holy, thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Psalm 22:3 – He inhabits our *praise*!  And where God inhabits…where Light permeates…darkness is forced to leave.  I guarantee you that you can’t stay discouraged for long when you start singing through the solid hymns of old and praying through the precious Psalms.  And so, thanks to God….that’s been my habit lately, if I start to feel overwhelmed or like I can’t carry this burden anymore…I sing through hymns and pray through Psalms until that feeling of discouragement lifts and only He is left.  To those of you who may be suffering in even deeper and greater ways than I am, I am not downplaying your suffering….or mine.  But isn’t it amazing that we have One who *understands* and *sees* and *knows* and has promised to somehow work it all out for good and for His glory? ❤ We CAN praise Him for what He has ALREADY done, we CAN praise Him for what He is to us RIGHT NOW in this moment, and we CAN praise Him for what He is GOING to do. “Forty years was a LONG time to wait in preparation for a great mission.  Yet when God delays, He is NOT inactive.  This is when He prepares His instruments and matures our strength.  Then at the appointed time we will rise up and be equal to our task.  Even Jesus of Nazareth had thirty years of privacy, growing in wisdom before He began His work.” ~John Henry Jowett   And also this one: “God is never in a hurry.  He spends years preparing those He plans to greatly use, and never thinks of the days of preparation as being too long or boring.  The most difficult ingredient of suffering is often time.” ~Streams in the Desert   And so, knowing that we can trust His timing as being perfect, when discouragement hits you based on any battle you are facing, whether it be Lyme Disease, another Chronic Illness, or something else….remember these verses, choose to trust your Heavenly Father, and praise Him because He ALWAYS does somehow and in some way work everything out for good. “Rejoice *ALWAYS*; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 

To all of you fighting hard battles today….physical, emotional, unseen or seen….be encouraged.  Just like your God did not forget Joseph, Moses, or Job during their long moments of “waiting” seasons…He has not forgotten you!  Recently I’ve been re-reading “Abide in Christ” by Andrew Murray and was blessed by this section: “Blessed rest, the fruit and the foretaste and the fellowship of God’s own rest, found of them who thus come to Jesus to abide in Him!  It is the peace of God, the great calm of the eternal world, that passes all understanding, and that keeps the heart and mind (Phil. 4:7).  With this grace secured, we have strength for EVERY duty, courage for EVERY struggle, a blessing in EVERY cross, and JOY of life eternal in death itself.” ~Andrew Murray  – He went on to explain how Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches…with the analogy of everything that the branch has and does is determined by it being connected to the Vine.  Everything in the Vine spreads to the branch….the Vine holds nothing back.  The same is for us with our Jesus!  We are the branches and so EVERYTHING that our Jesus is…His strength, love, hope, joy, courage etc…ALL of that can be ours as we spend time abiding in Him and looking to Him to meet every need.  Afterall, the branches can’t do anything on their own apart from the vine, and neither can we apart from God. 🙂

Okay, enough talking, Monica! 🙂  Blessings on you and your day!  Thanks for reading and God bless you.

With Love,

Monica