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There is definitely one advantage to my dementia. My wife mentions ice cream a lot more often! She is constantly saying, "After ___________ we'll go for ice cream!" or "_____ is coming over and she's going to take you for ice cream." Or "Would you like an ice cream?"
The problem is, that said ice cream never seems to materialize...
Oh, I am taken to an ice cream store, I pick out my flavours (yes, you can't have only one scoop, now can you???), I watch them hand me the cone, I even sit at the booth and my hands and face get sticky; but I never get to eat it! I don't know where it disappears to! I'm really not sure why my wife wipes my face and talks about me having ice cream there! How can that be when everyone gets it except me?
Then the weirdest thing always happens: Someone will ask me if I liked my ice cream! What ice cream? Everyone else is eating theirs, but I don't remember having any! My response at this point is always the same: "I didn't have any ice cream yet. But I sure would like some!"
Why is it that everyone laughs when I say that? Don't they know how cruel it is to talk about my favorite dessert of all times and not offer me any? Even going as far as to eat it in front of me?
My wife always has a slightly different story. She tells everyone that I eat it so fast that it's gone before anyone else has a chance to even begin theirs, and then I forget I ate it at all! How could she say such a mean thing?
Yet she isn't a mean person at heart, and it isn't like her to withhold my ice cream... Is it possible that I simply eat my ice cream too quickly, and then I get so focused on everyone else and their ice cream that I just forget I ever had any?
It makes me think about God's blessings. The Bible says, "I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." (Ezekiel 34:26 NIV). Why, then, do we often feel like God has bypassed us when it was time to bring out the blessings? Like He put an umbrella over your head that you wouldn't receive any of the "shower"?
Another place, we are told: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." (Ephesians 1:3 NIV). I don't know about you, but it doesn't always seem like I've been blessed with every blessing in Christ! Take my current situation! Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10 NIV). Well I'm sorry, but having crippling dementia doesn't seem to fit my definition of having life to the full!
Many of you reading this are going through trials as well, and I'm pretty sure that you don't feel like your getting life "to the full"! And what about unanswered prayers? So often we pray for days, weeks, months, sometimes even years, and the answer doesn't come! Take my dementia as an example. God gave me a promise of healing 7 years ago; yet I still haven't seen it!
Could it be that we have "spiritual dementia"? Just as I'm so focused on the ice cream I don't have that I don't remember that I had one, could it be that we are so focused on what God hasn't yet done, that we totally forget what He has done?
I mean, He died for us. Isn't that enough?
Yes, it is. But He does so much more than that! He sends the sun and the rain (See Matthew 5:45). He sends His angels to protect us (See Psalms 91). He surrounds us with loving kindness (See Psalms 103:4). And the list could go on.
But there is far more than even these global, impersonal things. How often does God answer your prayers, but because there are other pressing issues, you don't remember the blessing? Maybe when the answer to your prayer comes, you manage a weak, "Thanks, Lord! Praise God!" But do you remember this answer to your prayers when the next problem arises? I don't know about you, but I tend to forget them!
I'm pretty sure that if I spent more time contemplating the ice cream I am eating, rather than looking at the ice cream in the hands of others, I would likely remember that I had it, at least for a few minutes! How much happier would we all be if we would spend more time focusing on the prayers God does answer than on the ones where He hasn't yet responded?
I challenge each one of you to watch for God's blessings each and every day. Write them down. Praise His name for them. Share them as testimonies. Focus on these rather than what He hasn't yet done for you, ever believing that the God who already blesses you so abundantly will also answer your prayers in His time!
Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Founder, Answers2Prayer Ministries
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