MANAGING THE PAIN

So I have some mysterious problem where I get pain.  I  get really bad headaches and a fun neck issue, where the pain starts somewhere and just keeps on going through my arm.  I also have been having sore legs for awhile; my theory is they think they are 80.  Then there were the doctors who couldn't figure it out and I have stopped going to except for just a family doctor.  I used to hate not knowing what was wrong and kept telling myself for sometime, "If I just knew, I could deal better."  Well, I really started thinking about it and the constant doctor's visits was worse than not knowing so that is where I am at with that.

I am better than when this all hit me.  A year ago I was in really bad shape.  Don't ask me what I am doing differently, because that is the fun of my condition it makes no sense.  I am learning how to manage it all.  I have found certain drugs to work without making me sick.  But, on the days where no pill works I am learning how to still live.  Whatever I have it hurts and it makes me want to just sit on the couch and not move.  But, when I move and get going it not only takes my mind off my pain to some degree, it usually helps.  So daily I struggle to remember this fact and to get off my butt and move.  Some days it feels like climbing Mount Everest as I get up and move through the pain.

More than anything though I am working to really live by what Paul writes in Philippians 4:12-13 "I have learned the secret of living in every situation...For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."  In this case the situation is pain, but I know God can help me overcome and that my purpose in this world can still be achieved if I rely on Him and His strength.  That is the thing I want the most.

ALWAYS WANTING TO DO IT RIGHT

I really want to get it right in raising my children.  Right now we are just failing in training them up in the ways of God.  I didn't grow up in a Christian home so I don't really know what it looks like.  I need to get better about reading the Bible to them on a regular basis.  But, more than that I really want our house to have Jesus present.  Don't get me wrong He is here, but I want us all to be aware of that — to be present with Him.  

I know one of the main problems is myself.  I am not thinking of God all the time, and unfortunately sometimes very rarely in a day.  I am reading this book called "Don't make me count to three," and the woman who writes it talks about in disciplining our children we need to support it with scripture.  So when an issue comes up she just whips out scripture.  I honestly don't know how to do that.  Maybe when an issue comes up give me a half hour and I will look something up.  I guess that proves I don't know my Word well enough.  I know it isn't all about knowing and being the best, but I do wish that when an issue arises that I would look to God and what He says about it.  Why don't I do that?  Why aren't I so close to the Lord that He just flows from me?

So my question is what does it look like in your home?  How do you teach your children about the Lord?  I can fix the fact that I don't read the Bible to my children, but what about when the Bible is on the bookshelf and we are just playing, shopping or whatever.  How do you then remember Jesus throughout the day?