ENCOURAGED IN HEART

I asked my friend and fellow writer, Sarah McCleskey, if she would allow me the honor to post her poem. She graciously agreed. Her bio is below and you’ll never guess how old this little woman is as her knowledge of pain, joy and trust in God is far beyond her years on this planet. I’d sure appreciate it if you’d say a prayer for Sarah too as she sure means a lot to me.

If this poem inspired you in any way, I’d love for you to post a comment as I believe it would inspire Sarah too!

He Carries Us

By Sarah McCleskey, April 15, 2009

He carries us through the waters,

He carries us to the shore

He carries us to the finish line,

When we can run no more

He carries us when we’re weak,

For he is always strong

He carries us and loves us

Each day, our whole lifelong

He carries us back home,

When we have gone astray

He leads us out of night,

And back into the day

He carries us thorough valleys,

And the dark places of our life

He carries us so we won’t stumble

On the rocks of pain and strife

So praise the Lord our God

Who has carried me this far

Praise the Lord our God

Who has broken death’s strong bar

Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m 12 years old. I love to bake, write, sing, sew, and do all sorts of things. But most of all, I love to run. My whole life used to be centered around running. I competed in track and cross country, and I also flew to Nebraska to race in the National Junior Olympics. I was enjoying every minute of it, and my dream was to someday be in the Olympics. But then something happened that changed my dream.

After an infection in my colon, I developed POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). POTS is a very complicated illness, but basically it’s where your autonomic nervous system (ANS) doesn’t work properly. The ANS is responsible for controlling all the unconscious functions of our bodies, such as your heart rate, digestive system, and breathing; so you can imagine the problems that would occur if something went wrong with your ANS.

It’s a long story, but now, six months later, I have 31 different symptoms. I have a severe case of POTS, and I’m unable to stand for more than a few moments without going unconscious. I have a feeding tube that goes through a port in my stomach, and I have seizures that last for hours each day. It’s been a hard journey, and I’ve asked God over and over why this had to happen to me.

But now, through my illness, I have found that I’m still running a race – God’s race. Through all the pain and suffering, Jesus has shown me that nothing, nothing, is more important than His race. I’ve seen my prayers being answered in amazing ways, I’ve heard God speaking to me through his word, and I have a relationship with my Savior like I never could have, had I not been privileged to go through these trials. There are still times when I cry myself to sleep, there are still times when I ask the question why, and there are still times when I dream of the Olympics. But my Savior has carried me this far, and I know he’ll carry me to the finish line too.

I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

Would you please pray for Sarah’s older sister, Kelsey too. Just this past moth, she too, was diagnosed with POTS.

Sarah and Kelsey are the oldest of SIX (yes, you read that correctly) children. I can only begin to imagine what their parents, our dear friends, Katy and Jarrett are truly going through. I’d deeply appreciate prayers for this precious family.

This morning, as I put in my contacts, I just couldn’t see correctly…to the point I almost abandoned the thought of wearing my non-prescription shades at the pool.  And I REALLY hate not wearing sunglasses in the sun because I’m all squints-ville in the sun and I like having the clearest, birds eye view of the boys as they splash and swim.

The fourth time I reset my contacts, my vision remained so bad that I was woozy! Could my eye prescription have changed that dramatically over night….did the boys lace my morning java with a bottle of Benadryl…what is up?!!?

After ten minutes or so, I found the problem. BOTH of my daily wear contacts had TWO contacts per pack, I had four contacts in! What are the chances of that one?

Whether under corrected or over corrected I still see blurry.

There was my sweet nugget from God…and how I needed it.

This past month I couldn’t see correctly either. In my eating and exercising I decided to over correct which led to my vision impairment (recovery relapse). I don’t need to do more or less of what God’s told me to do in my eating addiction recovery. No, just like my contacts, I need to follow the prescription that my Doctor gave me. And so it goes in my eating addiction recovery. I need to follow My Doctor’s prescription. Shortened private times, extra curricular snacking, going to bed late, revised exercise and a most hectic month, helped me not lose weight at all. Problem is that I have so much diet, weight loss info, exercises and healthy recipes I just might explode (think the last 10 lbs would blow off my butt if I did?!). I really don’t need to add anything to my “prescription” I just need to FOLLOW my prescription. Heck, sounds easier than it is!

If I don’t do anything, I’m blurred. If I do too much, again, I’m blurred. If I choose to follow the prescription my True Doctor gave me, I can see clearly.

My friend Bella gave me a great reminder this past Saturday via her trainer’s wisdom. If you are plateauing, that means you are not gaining and that’s a whole lot to celebrate! Don’t beat yourself up for not gaining weight.

Then this very morning (before the whole tango with my contacts) my friend Jamie Lynn called. She’s one full size smaller than last summer. CELEBRATION again!

Two weeks ago, my friend Linda was talking about our awesome boot camp instructor and how health is all about being “healthier” – it’s not a size or weight, but being healthier.

I’ve yo-yo’ed some pounds this month, but not gained, haven’t changed clothing sizes and am healthier so I can celebrate, shake off the negative self talk and get on with my “prescription” for healthy living! When the going gets tough, I sometimes withdraw and say, “I can do it all by myself,” but that is a horrible lie. I can’t without God’s people. We need to draw strength and wisdom from one another. So thank you gals for faithfully staying the course and by the course I mean if you haven’t given up, you sister, are still on the course!

Bella, Jamie Lynn, Linda and I aren’t at our “goals” but our vision is clearer because we’re following the prescription designed for us, best we know it. And like eye prescriptions, they’re personalized to the patient. We all don’t have the same eye prescription nor eating/exercise/prayer plans…but we are seeing things more clearly the further we go.

Do you know what your prescription is? Will you share it with a friend to keep the course!

One of my most favorite Bible verses is Galatians 6:9 (find a version you like and say it to yourself or pass it to a friend and cheer her on!) I say it to myself a lot because I need to encourage myself, particularly when I’m feeling weary. This past month I’ve felt weary. It says (Steph edited) – “Don’t get weary and DON’T QUIT – at the right time you’ll reap!” I’m not “there” yet but am already reaping from improved spiritual, physical and mental health!

Last week I wrote about saving money while doing Do It Yourself home improvement projects.  Well, I experienced a little problem this week that I wanted to share with you.

Our kitchen faucet needed replacing.  I had done this before so I knew what to do.  When I picked out a new faucet at Home Depot, I picked the cheapest one because I’m all about being cost effective.  That was mistake #1. I figured it would only take a few hours to change the faucet, so I started the project at 8:00 PM Wednesday night.  That was mistake #2. I struggled removing the old faucet.  It took just over an hour.  Working under a sink isn’t the easiest thing to do.  You have to contort your body into positions that just aren’t natural (or comfortable).  I truly have an appreciation for professional plumbers who do this on a daily basis.

Once the old faucet was out, I started installing the new one.  Everything was going well until the very end.  I was missing two connectors that were supposed to be included with the faucet.  It was now 10:30 PM and Home Depot was closed.  Ugh!  So I got up nice and early on Thursday morning and was at Home Depot when they opened at 6:00 AM.  The Home Depot associate that helped me couldn’t have been nicer.  She opened up a new faucet of the same faucet and was going to give me the connectors out of that box.  Lo and behold, they were missing from that one too.  So clearly there was a quality control problem.  She then gave me some connectors she thought would work.  Once I got home it was quickly evident I still didn’t have the correct connectors.  Off to Home Depot a second time.  This time I found the connectors I needed and finished installing the new faucet.

Once I turned the the water back on, it started spewing from multiple areas.  After I tightened a few connectors I still had a leak at the faucet.  After checking the directions, I determined that I needed a washer that wasn’t depicted.  So I took the one out of the old faucet.  I fixed the leak and was home free, right?  Wrong!  The water pressure was almost non-existent.  After checking everything I knew to check, I waved the white flag and called a plumber.  I had spent much more time than should be necessary (almost 4 hours now) trying to switch out a faucet.

Once the plumber arrived, he was able to quickly deduce that the “new” spray head was defective.  We switched out the spray head for one he had on his truck and voila, water pressure.  Unbelievable. A new product with multiple problems: missing connectors, faulty instructions, and a defective spray head.  I quickly filed this under my lessons learned as sometimes you get exactly what you pay for.  Instead of purchasing a better faucet originally in the $150 dollar range, I ended up with a Frankenstein-faucet for $218 ($85 for the original faucet which is working minus spray head and $133 for the plumber’s spray head).

So your financial tip of the week is, purchase quality products when you are doing DIY projects.  It may cost a little more initially, but will be cheaper and worth it in the long run.  My second tip is NEVER buy a Glacier Bay faucet under any circumstances.  Their quality control is obviously non-existent (the plumber even said this wasn’t a good product!).

Do you have any DIY stories that you’d like to share?