Update:
My updates may end up being posted later in the day from now on. With winter almost gone and being more
mobile, I am beginning to go to my office at church more. This morning I got up and didn’t finish the
update before I had to go to work; so it just now is being posted. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Thursday morning I had a Physical Therapy appointment with Randy. I had decided not to take the wheelchair but
rather to use my walker to get to my appointment. It is a good walk from the parking garage up
to PT on the fourth floor. I built in an
extra 30 minutes to my travel time in case I needed to stop and rest part way
there. I had no problem making the walk
and had an extra 30 minutes to spend in the waiting room. That wasn’t bad having some time to recover
before PT.
Most of my time was spent talking with Randy going over problems I had
encountered or questions that I had. He
had me walk a few laps and was impressed by my walking and how little I was
using the walker for support. We worked
on taking stairs alternating which foot leads (like two-legged people use
stairs). He checked my legs and foot for sores, pains, etc. and found none just
as I assured him. He is recommending to
the doctors that all my restrictions be removed and I start using a cane. Randy couldn’t get approval while I was there
(neither of the two doctors were available), so he is supposed to call me in
the next couple of days. Assuming
approval is granted, I’ll set up an appointment with him next week to begin
learning how to walk with a cane instead of the walker. One more step in my recovery!
After I made the long walk back to my truck, I went over to the
Prosthetic Labs for my appointment with Leah.
I had a number of issues that I pointed out and some questions that I
had. After having me walk and doing some
examination, she took my prosthetic back to the lab to cut away in some places
and add padding in others. Two days before,
my foot developed an obnoxiously loud squeak and she fixed that by putting a
sock on the foot. She also was very
pleased with my walking and agreed that I was ready to move up to the
cane. She is also ordering my next foot. It has more flexibility than my current
beginner’s model. When walking I’ve
notice declines and uneven terrain are difficult to traverse with this current foot—but
it is nice and steady for a beginner or someone who only walks indoors. It doesn’t bend in the right ways so it
throws my knee out to the side, etc. traversing an incline. Although I think more tweaking needs to be
done on my prosthesis, the adjustments made yesterday really made it more
comfortable and give me more flexibility as well. The idea is take a little away at a time and
see how I do instead of making a substantial cut that turns out to be the wrong
thing.
I then headed back to the hospital to do a pastoral visit. The person I was visiting wasn’t doing well
at the moment and wanted my company so I ended up staying a couple of hours
with her. I tried joking with her
telling her that currently it was dangerous to invite me over for dinner
because now I really did have a hollow leg.
I thought it was very funny—she just rolled her eyes, so I figured she wasn’t
feeling well enough to laugh. J Maybe my joke just increased the pain she was
experiencing?
I had hoped to have a late lunch with my son, Jon, but it was now 4:30
p.m. and he invited me to go with him to my daughter’s, Kate, for dinner. One of my other sons, Josh, was going
too. Kate welcomed me to come along as
well. I had an hour to spend before
dinner and I needed to give my leg a break from the prosthesis, so went over to
Kate’s early to crash. She was sitting
on the couch and her husband, Nick, was cooking. He made a very delicious Indian style
meal. I am glad that he made some bland
and some spicy. I tried a small bite of the
spicy and couldn’t take it. I found the
bland to be very yummy.
After the meal I headed home and arrived about 7 p.m. I was sleepy and tired after my day, so I
decided to take a nap in the recliner.
Instead of 30 minutes or an hour, I woke up at 11:30 p.m. It took me awhile to get ready for bed,
cleaning my liner, washing my leg, taking my insulin, etc. but I got back to
bed about 1 a.m. and had no problem sleeping for the rest of the night.
We had a rain/snow mix last night that froze overnight. I wanted to go to the office this morning
(Friday) to work. I’ll need to evaluate
whether it is safe for me to do it or not.
There is always next week and eventually this winter weather will be
over.
Thought for the Day:
Luke 8:5 & 11 “ 5A farmer went out to
sow his seed… 11This is the meaning
of the parable: The seed is the word of God.”
I’ve done enough gardening
to know that seeds don’t do any good in the package. Seeds need to be planted in the ground and
watered so that they can take root and grow.
In the parable that Jesus taught He said that “the seed is the word of
God.” The word of God is the bible or
scriptures and Jesus said it was like seed.
What is that telling us? It
doesn’t do any good left closed on your desk or on your bookcase. It needs to be opened, read, and pondered so
that its truths can be planted in our mind and hearts and allowed to grow.
Another thought that comes
to mind from this analogy is that you cannot wait to plant the seed until you
are hungry. The seed needs to be planted
and water and given time to grow and mature before it is ready to be harvested. Likewise, it isn’t a good idea to wait until
you have a great need and then hungrily tear into the bible. For best results, it is good to be in the
habit of reading and thinking about scripture for a long time before you have a
need, that way you have an abundant crop at hand ready when you need it.
The biggest excuse that
every one of us uses to not read the bible daily is, “I don’t have enough
time. I’m too busy.” There may be short periods of our life where
we truly might be too busy for a day or two—but usually that just is an excuse
(which I’ve used before myself).
“But it isn’t too late to
get started reading God’s Word systematically.
After all, people take time to read novels and newspapers and to watch
television, but they don’t seem to have time for the Bible, the most important
book ever published” [Warren Wiersbe, Everyday Wisdom From the Gospels].
It is all about
prioritization. We all have the same
amount of minutes in a day and even when we are crazy busy, there is always a
few minutes that we get to choose how we will spend that time. In some respect learning to be diligent in
reading the bible is like getting into the habit of exercising. At first it seems hard and you have to force
yourself to do it. After a while it
becomes easier and eventually you don’t feel right unless you do it.
A word of caution is
important here. Start small. Don’t try to set aside an hour a day. That is an unrealistic goal. But can you give at least 5 minutes of your
time? Spend 30 seconds saying a short
prayer asking God to speak to you as you read.
Spend about 3½ minutes
reading. Don’t go for quantity—go for
quality. Read a section or at most a
chapter; maybe even re-read it a time or two.
Look for a nugget of truth or a word of promise. See if there is anything to learn about God
or about yourself. Decide which was your
favorite verse. Then take the last
minute to pray. Ask God any questions
you had about what you read, confess anything that came to mind, give Him
thanks for all He’s done, etc.
Just five short
minutes. You can take longer if you want
to. But can you give God just five
minutes of your day? Five minutes to
plant some seeds into your mind and heart.
Five minutes that when added up day after day will make a difference in
you that will last for eternity.
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