Published by This article is about young as well as older people who are dealing with some serious illness and how they choose to handle their sickness. Are you also a young person dealing with a serious debilitating sickness? How can young people cope with sickness when their life should be filled with happiness and activity and somewhat carefree? You can succeed in this situation, just set your mind straight. Are you older and have family but they just don’t wish to be bothered with caring for you, or maybe you just don’t have any family at all? Are you elderly and depressed even though your family is doing all they can to help care for your needs? Take courage, there is help for you also.
Life is to short to waste it on negative feeling and thoughts. There are a number of things that will help both young and old to cope. The person dealing with a serious or debilitating illness must have a positive mental attitude. Depression, negative thoughts and feelings, giving up, or just plain feeling sorry for yourself, being angry, does not help you in any way at all. Having a positive mental attitude will aid to you feeling the very best you can, in spite of your illness. But, how can one have a positive mental attitude even though sickness is painful and debilitating and in many cases frightening?
One needs the help of a doctor who knows our mind and our thoughts and the sickness we suffer from. Where though can we find such a doctor? In the Bible we are told that Jehovah God has created us and he knows every part of us. We need to throw our fears and pain and suffering into Jehovah God’s comforting arms. We can find his loving counsel in the Bible which will help us to help ourselves, if we just take advantage of it.
If you are dealing with sickness and you are suffering, then turn to Jehovah God and read the Bible. This above all else, will help you to get a positive mental attitude. Notice what Proverbs 18:14, in the Bible says: “The spirit of a man can put up with his malady; but as for a stricken spirit, who can bear it?” To worry about what the future holds in this world, or to have a negative mental attitude, will not help you to deal with your illness. In fact it will make it more difficult to deal with. I personally have learned this, but I did not feel that way all the time. I remember growing up and being very angry about my sickness. This anger would pull me down and it would only make me depressed and full of negative thoughts. I soon learned that in life, there are no guarantees for any of us. We do not know what our life will be. I learned that we can not live tomorrow because it has not come yet. We can not live yesterday, for it is already gone. We can only live right now, and how we live can affect our I physical bodies and our mental attitude.
Learn to live one day and a time and find positive solution to your problem for that day. Don’t worry about tomorrow, it is not here yet! Living with my illness is not easy, nor is it something that I would want anyone else to suffer. I have Cerebral Palsy, which makes my whole body, hands, feet, head and everywhere shake and twitch. Lifting a glass of water is almost impossible unless a lid is on the top of the glass or cup. The positive solution put a lid on the glass or cup I use. Does it stop my continual shaking? No, but is makes it bearable and helps me deal with it. My walking is at times difficult, my legs give out and it is hard to walk. I found a positive solution to this ailment also. When it is too hard to walk, I sit at my computer and telephone those who are sick or shut-ins that need encouragement. It makes the person I call feel encouraged, and I feel great. I also have a spinal cord problem. I contracted Encephalitis a few years ago and it left me with nerve damage. I have trouble feeling my left leg. I have to examine it daily because if I cut it, I won’t realize it until I see it. The nerve damage and the pain it cause in my back is severe at times, but mostly it is bearable by me keeping within my limits of activity. I have another condition is called “transverse mellitus” and can be extremely painful. What though is my solution? I do not take pain medications, seeing it makes the pain worse after they wear off. When the pain gets bad, that is when I turn to my God, Jehovah for help to deal with the pain. I find comfort knowing that he knows what I am feeling and because he loves me, he will get me through it. I pray and then I leave the matter in his capable hands. I also read or listen to soft relaxing music or I just do some deep breathing exercise.
This is definitely not a cure, but positive solutions that help me keep a good mental attitude. We are all individuals and we all must find a solution that works for us in helping to deal with our sicknesses. What might work for me, might not work for you. Then when you find out what works for you, share it with others, who knows, your solution might help someone else cope with their sickness.
Please share your positive solution with me, maybe what you do that is positive, might be good for me or some others I speak with dealing with sickness. I recently have been helping a man who is in his 40’s and was just diagnosed with Pancreatic and lymphatic cancer. He has a wife and two daughters and he of course is worried about them. He is undergoing at present Chemo and radiation treatment which makes him real sick. I have been sharing some of my coping solutions to aid him. He is so appreciative of my help and it makes me feel good. So, if you are reading this article and have a positive solution you use to help you cope with your sickness, please share it. I am trying to put together a book with all the different suggestions from other’s who by personal experience, have had success in dealing with serious sickness. Most of all this article is to bring the most positive solution of all, and the hope that will bring an everlasting cure.
When we become sick we need to use our mind and body wisely. Fight your sickness and save your energy for that purpose. Use your mind to help you stay alert. This will help you to also feel better. Don’t just watch the television. Write poetry or a letter. If you can’t write, ask your family to write it for you. Don’t give up, remember Jesus trusted his father and prayed to him in his time of need. Jesus didn’t think about his discomfort but he thought about others. Welcome friends and family visits. Use this time to get your mind of yourself. When sickness strikes us we need to use our bodies and minds wisely and in accord with our own unique circumstances and limitations. Most of all turn to God because he promises us that there will come a time soon, where we will not have sicknesses nor will we feel pain and suffering anymore.
(James 4:13-15) 13 Come, now, YOU who say: “Today or tomorrow we will journey to this city and will spend a year there, and we will engage in business and make profits,” 14 whereas YOU do not know what YOUR life will be tomorrow. For YOU are a mist appearing for a little while and then disappearing. 15 Instead, YOU ought to say: “If Jehovah wills, we shall live and also do this or that. . .
God promises us in the Bible this in his word, the Bible;
Rev. 21:4, 5: [God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.’ And the One seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new.” Also, he says: “Write, because these words are faithful and true.””
Matt. 9:35: “Jesus set out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching. . . and preaching the good news of the kingdom and curing every sort of disease and every sort of infirmity.”
2 Cor. 4:13, 16: “We too exercise faith . . . Therefore we do not give up, but even if the man we are outside [our physical body] is wasting away, certainly the man we are inside is being renewed [or given fresh strength] from day to day.”
Our bodies may be sick physically, but in a spiritual sense we are renewed, if we put our trust and hope in God’s promises.
I wrote this article to share with other’s like myself who suffer, and yet have found positive solution that help them deal with serious sickness. There will come a time God promises at Isaiah 33:24 And no resident will say: “I am sick.” Yes, that is the cure for sickness, but until that time becomes a reality, may we who suffer from sickness everyday, practice these few simple steps.
- Turn to Jehovah God, our life giver
- Read the Bible
- Take one day at a time
- Find a positive solution that will help you cope
- Share your solution/s with others
- Welcome visitors and family visits
- Use your mind and body wisely
- Know you limitations and accept them
- Don’t give up
- Trust in God’s promises
- Remember the hope of a paradise where no
One will ever say I am sick.
