How are you Coping?

This post definitely applies to everyone, no matter what trial you are facing, so we won't limit ourselves to EDS today.  I have been humbled hearing others’ stories because so often I realize that my difficulties are so trivial compared to what others may be dealing with.  Your challenge may be health related, work related, relationship related, anything.  But whatever it is, you have to be coping somehow.  There is something that you are putting your trust in to make it through.  Where are you getting your strength from?  Maybe you are counting on yourself.  You think you have a pretty bright mind and can handle this all on your own.  You have the ability to make rational decisions.  You cannot rely on anyone else.  Nobody else really understands anyway.   Your family and friends want to help, but there is so much you just have to do on your own.  Your own husband or wife may not even be on the same page as you are.  Are you running on overdrive from sunrise to sundown?  Bearing it all on your own shoulders takes A LOT of energy. 

Allow me to share with you how I was coping.  I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was in fifth grade.  My parents had taken me to church all my life and it was there that I learned I was a sinner from birth and there was nothing I could do to get to Heaven on my own merit.  When we believe Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins with His own blood and we accept His free gift of salvation, it is a done deal.  We become His children FOREVER, NO MATTER WHAT and when we die, we will meet Him in Heaven and live there for eternity!  That does not mean life will be easy after that.  In fact, I went through a really rough patch trying to cope.   I was trying to figure out how my God whom I loved since childhood could be allowing my family to suffer such hardship.  How could I have served Him all my life and then have Him abandon me like this, or so I thought?   

 I almost turned my back on Christ and my family.  (Now thank goodness, we can never run away from God.  He will remain faithful even when we are not.)  When I think of how difficult it was just coping with a child who had EDS along with other conditions, I think of Christ.  I had Him in my life, sealed in my heart, and I felt like I couldn’t handle the circumstances HE HAD ALLOWED in my life!  You may be wondering, “Why would I want Christ then if it didn’t change your circumstances and you still had trouble coping?”  What God taught me is that although I was His child, although I had accepted His gift of salvation, He had to teach me to trust Him more each day and not trust in myself.  When I finally surrendered fully to Him, I had peace.  For me, this is a daily process even still.  I continue to find areas I need to lay at His feet and trust Him completely.  I cannot imagine trying to get through this lifetime all on my own or through human effort.

What about you?  Are you tired of navigating through this nightmare on your own?  Have you asked the Heavenly Father to come into your life and help you?  And if you have, are you trusting Him COMPLETELY so that peace can fill you?  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33 NIV. 

Scripture for further study: Romans 3:22-26, Romans 3:10, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 6:23, John 3, Ephesians 2:8-9, John 1:12-13, Romans 10:9-10, John 17:3.