In my humble opinion, one surefire way to get through tough times is by way of the power of prayer.
Even in the darkest times of my life, like after I lost my dad and found out four months later that my 79-year-old mom had Stage IIIB colon cancer, there were times when the only way I made it through the day without falling apart was to pray and pray often.
The things I prayed for most often during that timeframe were for strength, patience, courage, and grace, because as a family, we were getting hit with bad news at what seemed like every turn.
After mom's diagnosis, the number one thing I prayed for was for her to be able to beat cancer.
Thankfully, after mom rang the bell in March 2023 upon completing three months of chemotherapy, the results from the periodic bloodwork and CT scans she's had to get in the monitoring phase have been encouraging, and we have certainly felt blessed with those reports. Her next round of scans and bloodwork is coming up in July, and needless to say, I am calling on prayer warriors to do their thing.
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Having said that, there are also the unanswered prayers to consider.
We've all said prayers over things in life, prayers that seemingly weren't answered.
I remember in high school, when I was a sophomore, how I would pray and pray that the high school senior whom I had been friends with for a few months and whom I liked would pick me over another student he'd been talking to.
When he asked me out, I was elated, naively figuring I had been picked as "the one." And after going out a few times, I thought I'd won the lottery - only to learn that he'd also been going out with the other girl, and that things (supposedly) had gone a lot further with her than they had with me, if you catch my meaning.
I even overheard him bragging about it one time.
Though I admit I was hurt, I wised up and walked away. He had always been a jerk, but I was young and foolish and initially had been too starstruck to see it.
Some 20 or so years later, I bumped into him while I was out with some friends. Though I hardly recognized him from his physical features, I recognized the smug self-importance and the over-inflated opinion he had of himself as he boasted of his alleged accomplishments and told me "you still look good" and that he would "love to" see me again.
He was still a jerk after all that time had passed. I had really dodged a bullet on that one.
In another instance, as I was getting my previous home ready to put on the market - a process that took way longer than it should have - I prayed that one day circumstances would change up a bit to the point I could one day move back into my old neighborhood, which I had loved, in a part of the development that would have been perfect for mom and me.
But I've kept up with the old neighborhood in part through friends who still live there, and they tell me how it has changed and not in a good way, that it's good I got out when I did. While it made me sad, it also provided another reminder to me that sometimes it's good that certain prayers go unanswered.
The more I think about it, though, maybe a better way to describe it is that all prayers are answered, just not always in a way that we would like them to be at the time, which, admittedly, can be painful. The Lord, though, has His reasons, which eventually reveal themselves in due time.
RELATED: To read my previous Caregiver's Diary entries, please click here.
