The Lord is My Shepherd

Psalm 23 “Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need. He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honors him the most. Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as your guest; blessings overflow! Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with you forever in your home.”

As you know, there are many challenges in my life since the accident. Yet, as I think about others, I recognize that everyone has challenges in their own life. Of course those who have been affected in their brain like me, have their own challenges, but so can those who have broken bones, cancer, medication problems, age, work, neighbors, spouse, family, baby with birth problems, emotional pain, psychological problems, pain, loss… We all have challenges as we live on the earth.

One of the new things for me to understand is how to share our blog ‘thelifewithjoy.com’. Recently I had women in our apartment building, some in 3 different knitting groups as well as some in our church who wanted information on what happened to me. I didn’t know how to tell them how to access the whole story in our blog. So, I had Gary help me to finally understand, even though he has explained it before, that all I need to do is offer our blog website that anyone can find on their phone, just as they look for anything else they want to read on the internet.

It touches me to share our blog to other people. At the beginning of Gary’s writing it was about the terrible accident, asking everyone to pray for God’s help and touching me to live. Many who read the blog did pray and miracles where given over and over. Now that our new ‘normal’ is how we live, we enjoy all that God has given us. Rather than just asking for prayer for us, we are sharing the thoughts of how God is teaching us through our Bible reading and book and devotional writers. Our blog is open to anyone who may find God’s hope to them as well. We write new thoughts each Friday morning, hoping others will be touched as we are touched.

As I understand more and more, I truly believe that God kept me alive after a deadly accident. My personal message from God is to live for Him and serve others who need help. One of the ways I can follow God is by sharing our blog to anyone, with no embarrassment due to my imperfect life. Thank you for sharing our story to anyone in your family, friends, neighbors, church, workers, those who suffer… May God help others as He helps us each day we live. We give God glory, honor, praise, and thanks as He teaches us every day.

Psalm 100 “Shout with joy before the Lord, O earth! Obey him gladly; come before him, singing with joy. Try to realize what this means—the Lord is God! He made us—we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Go through his open gates with great thanksgiving; enter his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.”