Be Gentle on Yourself

I was told by my cousin,Jim,to be easy on myself as I tried to make changes. This is good advice. Cancer makes you examine your life and see the shortfalls and sin.

Physically this may mean a lot of big changes, which I will address about one by one in separate blog entries. One by one, in my opinion, is the best way to implement these changes. Otherwise it becomes overwhelming. Hence, the physical tip of the day is "Be gentle on yourself."


Spiritually, this is true also. Be gentle on yourself there also.

The first way to make it easier on yourself is to get prayer support. It is hard to control emotions after you are diagnosed with cancer. There is always the question of "Has it all been destroyed?" Up until this point I have had tremendous prayer support. Family, friends , and people I don't even know have prayed for me. I could feel this literally lifting me out of fear--there is no more amazing thing. My advice to you is to find people who will pray for you through the toughest times.

Then deepen your roots so that you can drink your own comfort and sustenance from God. Now, I have pretty much finished treatment and I know that people have to move on. It is not possible to have people pray for you like that indefinitely. I know that I am going to have to develop deeper resources in my own Christian walk. Consistency and self discipline have not been my strong suits.

As I traveled through my cancer adventure so far, I have been relaxing in the Psalms and Proverbs or just cruising through the promises in the Bible. My plan now is to start going to sleep to New Testament Bible CD's to keep me from fear.

I am taking my cousin's advice and going step by step spiritually in a way that is easy on me. My experience with God is that He is that way--not overwhelming in wanting changes, but gentle.