Peace: The Light Struggle vs The Dark Struggle

Sometimes life can be going so well. You went through a "light" struggle and you came out of that struggle with vision to move forward. The aforementioned word "Light" has a lot of meanings. The one that I prefer to use in this context is the noun: the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible. You see when we struggle, or go through trials and tribulations sometimes we can't see too well, but please remember God's "Word" IS the light. Let me tell you a story: I remember when my mom was doing great at her young age of 27, my young age of 9, and my brother was 4 years old. When I say "doing great" I was talking about her health. As I'm now a trauma critical care registered nurse, I realize now she wasn't doing so great as far as health, but as a young kiddo she seemed fine. Financially we were struggling and not doing very good. We rode the bus everywhere to visit family, to go to doctors appointments, grocery shopping among other things. We were on section A and had to use food stamps to buy food, or borrow money to get us out of tough situations. I've seen so much that I have to pause or this could get quite lengthy, but I will share in later blogs. I can still see my mothers veins popping out of her skin as I helped her carry groceries approximately one mile up a hill to our apartment complex. That walk sucked let alone carry 10 - 15 grocery bags and watching after a 4 year old. That was ONE paragraph in a Chapter of struggles, but I'm here to tell you then we could still see the light. 2 years later we got a 1977 Cutlas Supreme (we were in the year of 1992), but having transportation is all that mattered. No more dragging grocery bags up that hill as long as that car we bought held up. That brought us some PEACE. God blessed us with PEACE, but I didn't know there was a hurricane on the horizon. If you have ever heard of PEACE BEFORE THE STORM, then you can hopefully feel where I'm about to take you. Going back to what I was talking about again...a "LIGHT" struggle. You can "see" your way out as you pray and have faith. Even people that are questioning their belief and faith can still sometimes see light in those struggling moments through reasoning, problem solving, etc. You know the WORLDLY things you are taught through education and experience. I think that's fair to say without going into too much detail. The scariest challenge is when you have "DARK" struggles. Now there are many definitions of dark and I prefer to speak on the noun: the abcense of light in a place; and a couple synonyms are: darkness, gloomy, shadow, etc: That already sounds scary right? I am not proud to say that we have experienced the "DARK" struggles in life, in marriage; you name it. Which is one reason why we decided to make this blog. Not only to share the struggles, but give solutions to how we overcame (and I'm sure we will be faced with more challenges to overcome) to hopefully inspire... I don't like that word "hopefully"...I meant to say: give solutions to how we overcame to inspire others to do the same. See when you speak words into existence it will happen. I'm going to share a dark moment with you to inspire a life that needs this word, and if you don't need it pass it on to someone who does because this is about soul saving. Going back to my mom...2 years before we got that car I mentioned previously, my brother and I took the bus with her to a doctors appointment. In that appointment is where I found out that my mother was HIV positive. During the early 90's they were still trying to find an identity for this disease process, and medication management was mostly trial and error. That was one of the worst days of my life because at that time in the early 1990's HIV positive was associated with AIDS and death. My Mom will die soon is all that was gloomy in my mind. We were seeing the LIGHT because that year she was still moving around like a normal person, carrying groceries up that long hill, etc. She started working on and off doing little jobs, but eventually her health started to deteriorate. My brother and I seen the stages of death and dying first hand for about 8 months. Weight loss, vomiting, delirium, memory loss, depression, anxiety, frustration, crying, etc was some of the things we saw during this time. Remember during your toughest times is when your true supporter's make YOU a priority. They are the people that take TIME out of their life to help your transition to a higher purpose. They don't just talk about how happy they are for you and "like" your messages on Facebook, Instagram, etc.; instead they ACT on those words because they feel your purpose and they feel the pull from the almighty to be there. Those people (souls) are the ones you want to always hold close to you as they are hard to find. This is not to say the people who like your Facebook comments etc are not there for you nor are they your enemies; but instead just realize the aforementioned above are hard to find and you want to ensure to keep them close; and be there for them as a supporter of their God given purpose as well. This is where True Friends, Friends, and Associates start to delineate. This is key to realize in any given moment that we will speak on later. The Bible says Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Therefore always hope for the best, have faith that things will work out for the better in Jesus name, and be righteous towards people. Remember blessings always chase the righteous. I wish you peace in the days to come, and remember there IS light even in the darkest moments. Have faith and turn your darkness into light. My brother and I could have easily strayed and used excuses to turn our cheek and self esteem to negative behaviors, thoughts, etc; but I chose to have a spirit of excellence to set an example for him to follow. This has lead to both of us having a blessed life.

Remember it's imperative that you get through the dark times to be able to grow to your fullest potential and reap the blessings that are promised for your life.