Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Illustrate the meaning of "Every Dark Cloud has a Silver Lining" (without using the actual phrase or literal example). (02/28/08)
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TITLE: I believe God! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lisa Kingsbury
03/05/08 -
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There are no words to describe the utter feeling of hopelessness that constricts your very soul. Especially when you have been attending doctors appointments with your spouse for over a year to find out why his arm is losing muscle and atrophying; and why his face and tongue twitch all the time. What makes it worse is the more the doctors talk the more helpless you feel. How do you fight a disease that has no cause and no viable treatment options? As you research this disease you realize just how terrifying it is. You begin to forget who you are and buy into all the medical reports. After all these are doctors and they have degrees.
ALS is a motor-neuron disease. What happens with ALS is the neurons in the brain that deliver messages to muscles, start producing a toxin and die. The muscles eventually atrophy, or waste away. This only affects voluntary muscles that can be controlled i.e. arms, legs, speech, swallowing, etc…Eventually an ALS victim becomes wheel chair and then bed bound. They lose the ability to speak, chew, swallow, eat, and breathe. They usually end up on a ventilator. Most ALS victims die within two to five years of diagnosis and mostly they die from respiratory complications. An ALS victim does not lose any brain or sensory functions: sight, taste, touch, and smell are all unaffected. They literally become prisoners in bodies which will no longer work for them. It is no wonder it strikes fear to those of us who have had to hear this diagnosis of a loved one. But it is critical during this difficult diagnosis that our families and friends continually remind us doctors are not in control of our lives, and that only God has the power of life and death.
As we sat in that office in Boston I remember I couldn’t stop shaking. I don’t know if I was trying to hold back the tears or it was the terror I felt; probably both. I looked at my husband, Jim, and everything felt like a bad dream. I remember wondering what he was thinking. How does it feel to be giving a terminal diagnosis? As extremely difficult as this has been for me; how must it be for him? I am ashamed to admit it never crossed my mind that God is in control. I became so caught up in what doctors where saying that I forgot who I am---a child of God and he is the creator. He is in control, not them!
From symptoms to diagnosis, this has been a terrifying journey. But I have learned so much about what my beliefs are. Now I know what I truly believe and trust in.
My total confidence is in God. Doctors do not have the final word. Only God has the power and authority over life and death and for that I am very thankful!
With this new revelation I don’t feel so much fear now. I have stopped reading the medical reports and magazines and I have stopped feeding myself the opinions of so-called “experts” who place their experience and knowledge on “science”.
I choose to believe God!
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It would help the reader to put a extra space between paragraphs.
Good job, keep writing.
Just a note: your first paragraph is written in 2nd person ("You...") Later, you write in 1st person ("I...") and it's much stronger, because it's more personal.
Blessings on you and your husband.