I Am Wishing Everyone A Blessed And Joyous Christmas And Hope For Tomorrow-Add Yours
Christmas is Upon Us Once Again
It is once again Christmas and time for family gatherings, food, gifting others and extending goodwill to all. This is certainly a wonderful time of the year that can fill us with hope. Because Christmas is the story of hope and hopes eternal. Christmas is a time of great joy and celebration for the one who has come to be our savior and hope eternal.
This year has been filled with all sorts of challenges for many people on both a widespread and personal level and there are some right now on this forum that are experiencing their own challenges. There are some with a diagnosis and haven’t started treatment yet and some who have started treatment. There are some who have finished treatment and are in different stages of recovery. The good news of Christmas is that even when the world or our circumstances change – the message of Christmas is timeless. Because Christmas is about the birth of God’s Son – Jesus. It is about how he came to give us love, hope and joy. That message doesn’t change from year to year. When there is so much bad news and devastation in the world, this is good news worth celebrating!
Your Christmas this year might look different to previous years. It may not match up to the commercial images you see or hopes you have. But the true meaning of Christmas doesn’t depend on the number of gifts under a tree or the type of food on your table. The message of Christmas doesn’t change if you are surrounded by family, missing loved ones for the first time or on your own. It is not affected by the house you live in – or don’t live in. God’s love is for everyone. You are not alone. You are loved, and you can feel hopeful and joyful. That is the true meaning of Christmas.
The word Immanuel, which means “God with us”, is another name for Jesus. His birth and life is a message of good news for us because it means we are never alone. It doesn’t matter how hard or hopeless our situation may appear to be, God is there for us. We don’t have to journey through our challenges and struggles alone. He understands them. He walks them alongside us.
This is Christmas, and I personally want to wish everyone a Wonderful and Blessed Christmas and invite you all to post your comments and messages and images as we celebrate Christmas once again.
I also realize there are a couple of folks that are not with us this year and we miss them and will not forget them and the help and strength they were to many of us. If anyone here knows of anyone else or you just want to post a memory of a member who helped you, inspired you, and or got you through the most difficult time of your life feel free to add that also.
Members We Miss:
Crystal (LitlCJdoll)
Bill (wmc)
Let me leave you with some thoughts to ponder as you celebrate the season with loved ones:
Enjoy every moment and take the time to give family and friends your undivided attention.
Be thankful in and through all things.
May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!
No matter how you spend these last few days of the year — may they be filled with joy, health and happiness!
Be forgiving and long-suffering with others.
Always remember the true reason for the season-the Birth of Jesus.
Wishing You All the Best
Take Care God Bless-Russ
Comments
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Russ,
I told family not to travel here from out of town as planned and I was just discussing with my Wife that church on Christmas is also no-go this year as I can’t risk catching a cold or anything else and delaying my second surgery (third if you count the first lymph node biopsy that turned into a tumor resection) shortly after Christmas. Thankfully our church live streams the services so we can join from home. This is all so surreal as it’s less than a month from my diagnosis and things are happening so fast. I’ll keep trusting in God and my care team. I’m hoping for a “normal” week next week and continued progress on my neck dissection recovery while celebrating Christmas at home with my Wife, and video chatting with family and friends.
Smitty
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Smitty, I think you are wise to play it on the safe side, you really don't need anything interrupting your treatments. When I was in treatment the first time and was having chemo it makes your blood counts low and I was told in that condition I was in not to go out more than necessary and risk getting flu or something in my weakened condition.
Half of people with cancer who are receiving chemotherapy have some level of neutropenia. It is a common side effect in people with leukemia. People who have neutropenia have a higher risk of getting serious infections. This is because they do not have enough neutrophils to kill organisms that cause infection. People with severe or long-lasting neutropenia are most likely to develop an infection.
That is one thing nice these days is so many churches live stream their services, especially Christmas services, it's the next best thing to being there.
Yes, keep the prayers going that God will watch over and protect you and lead and guide your medical team.
Christmas will be different for you this year for sure but who knows it may turn out to be one of the most memorable Christmases you ever had. Take lots of pictures and videos to remember it by.
Treatment time is most enjoyed when we look back on it in the rearview mirror.
Smitty wishing you and your wife a most Blessed Christmas.
Take Care God Bless-Russ
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Russ, thank you for the blessings! Merry Christmas to you, and all of us on this journey. Here are a few words that keep me grounded and hopeful... regardless of what the doctors say, and what I am feeling:
- Matthew 6:25-34 - Do Not Worry
"25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- The Serenity Prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things rightif I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
- 2 Corinthians 4:18. "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Have a Merry Christmas!
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