Perspective

I once encountered two very different people on the same day. One was an older single who struggled with the fact that yet another birthday was fast approaching. The other was a young bride anxiously awaiting her upcoming wedding. The single woman could easily look at this bride and feel pain and jealously that she has sought her husband for so long while this young girl found him effortlessly.

But she would be wrong. Because I know something that the older single doesn’t. I know that this young bride suffered the terrible, life-altering trauma of being raped when she was a child. She continues to struggle with the impact of that horrific event, particularly as she approaches her wedding day. Coping with singlehood was not this girl’s struggle. Being raped was.

If you could choose between the struggle of being single and the struggle of being raped, which would you take?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 “You can eat whatever you want and still stay so thin? You’re SO lucky!”

Maybe. But would it ever occur to you that the reason I stay so thin is because a terrible disease is slowly destroying my body from the inside out? The freedom to eat as much chocolate and ice cream as I want is nice, I will admit… but the price tag is medications, and hospitalizations, and surgeries, just to try and push death off another day. Not to mention the pain and exhaustion that is part of my daily struggle to live the normal life you take for granted. All the ice cream in the world can’t compensate for that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look at your struggles, and be thankful… Be thankful for the struggles that God chose NOT to give you.