Character Confession: Renewing My Mind and Wrist
Thursday I went to my first post-surgery check-up and was warned hand therapy would be immediately after. The surgeon loved the x-rays and how my wrist looked. He got rid of the stitches and ordered a new splint. He called for the therapist and told her point blank, “Her body is naturally resisting. You need to work on her mind as much as her wrist.”
My previous therapist came via a doctor script. My new therapist explained that when this happens, both the doctor and therapist believe all is well and they go full throttle, and that happened with me. What no one knew was that the bones were moving in reverse. The pain was indescribable, but my reaction to tense up in this new situation is natural.
This time around, this is a specialist working hand-in-hand (ha, funny) with the surgeon. She knows my story.
My first session was more about renewing my mind and gaining my trust than anything. It took several attempts to assure me my exercises didn’t need to be fast, with weights, or with a ton of mobility. By the end, she noted how my back relaxed.
This is a lesson that far transcends my wrist. I’d say the last 8 years I’ve come up against circumstances where the first time around, things went awful. The pain was deep and my natural reaction was to never, ever go through anything that looked like that again. And not because He’s a meanie, but because He loves me enough to want me to grow, God would create circumstances that looked near identical to the first. I’d fret, stew, whine, cry–and eventually give in.
And I learned through renewing my mind in Christ and trusting God that it was going to be okay.
Can you relate? I have a feeling someone out there can. I’m going through it, too. The therapy example helps me, and so does the cardinal.
Yea, the bird.
For nearly two years there was a cardinal in my path. In my driveway, dive-bombing my car, walking up to our patio, chirping to get my attention. It was during a time I was struggling to trust God because He was putting me in situations that looked far too much like ones I’d already been through, and I was scared.
It took me time to realize there might be something to the cardinal. I read up on it and guess what I learned?
The cardinal is a loyal defender.
I realized all those cardinal sightings were God’s encouragement that He had not forgot me, and that He was going to be my loyal defender. I entered those situations and not only were they not like the first, they went way, way better.
If you are scared, trust God. He truly is your loyal defender.
Even when I have to trust Him with my wrist.
