March 7, 2017

Greetings My Friend, The question I have gotten is how can you cope with Parkinson's? I cope because I either live the life I have or I bemoan the life I have. I choose to live to the best of my ability, to enjoy my life and to share it with others and bring the Good News into a hurting world. Junior and I are doing our weekly Sunday school lesson in Philippians and we are learning about Paul's contentment no matter what the circumstances are. As we end the weeks lesson one of the passages is "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." In my journey of faith I am learning to be content with what I do have, not what I want. God keeps teaching me that He will supply my needs not my wants. I need food, clothing, a roof over my head, friends and love. God has provided me with all of these things and as I learn to be content, I keep discovering true contentment right where I am at. I have a need to work, to be productive so God has given me work to do for Kingdom building. My thought when I retired was I would do mission trips, volunteer and I even attempted to work in a thrift store that supported abused women until I realized even that was too much for me to handle. Surprisingly I was able to write without needing a whole lot of energy and I see that God has been pointing me to a writing at my own pace. I joined Facebook, Twitter and found a group of people to socialize with. When I was told I had Chiari I found a group on line who shared their struggles with Chiari Malformation. Within a short time I discovered I was not dealing with all the same issues most of the group was dealing with but I have maintained my association with these people. Next I was told I had Ataxia so once more I joined this group and I related kind of. Now that I know I have Parkinson's Disease I am in this group as well. I have a blog and a Facebook page where I write about my life's journey and how my faith in Jesus sustains me. By sharing my struggles I have made friends who also have disabilities and we support each other. Most of us have a faith in Jesus which helps too. Through all of this God has been supplying my need to work, to be ministered to and has given me a social life, a chance to enter into disability with others, to write about my discoveries and a chance to pray for all I meet who are going through various trials in life. Along the way I realized that God was allowing me to be confined more to the house than opening the doors for me to be active at church or in the community where I live. I believe God knew how I would get more caught up in socializing, wanting to be recognized as a person seeking approval and not utilize the gift of writing He has given me. I have learned to be content in the quiet of our home and today I enjoy this quiet. I am never alone because God is near all the time and He provides me with people to socialize with on line. In all of this I have a few young women whom I can "mother", women my age who are disabled and people with my disease who can relate to me. God has put Junior and I together and we are a couple with disabilities who support each other. We understand each others needs and concerns, which is answered by God as we pray to be what the other needs. Recently I have found I am asked the reason for my hope, especially in my support groups and I give them the hope I have in Jesus. I do this by giving my "story" and how I rely on God to meet my needs. I have lived many years now so I have many stories, abuse as a child, an adult, divorce, cancer and the journey to finding out I have PD. Sometimes I give a condensed version of all my stories or other times I relate my story to the person's particular struggle. I love being an encourager, an overcomer with Jesus' help and giving the hope of a Savior who loves us. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet