Praise for Today – The Peace of Surrender
I’ve been feeling not so good these past two weeks because out of the blue, I got a case of shingles. My grandma had this, and my mom had this, and I already had planned to get the vaccine at age 60. That’s when the vaccine is recommended. Getting shingles at 51 seemed, well, wrong. Researching this more today, I found a Web site that explains the average age of a case of shingles is 51.7. So, okay, that would be me.
A couple of weeks ago, I was up all night with pain, felt like a bad sunburn all over my back and at the same time like someone was pushing a screwdriver into my back below my shoulder blade. Ibuprofen didn’t kick it, so I went to the doctor first thing Sunday morning to get my official diagnosis – this after having spent the entire previous week rolling out my back with a tennis ball thinking I had a muscle spasm. Seriously, using a foam roller to roll out my spine because it hurt so bad thinking I was helping – what I was probably doing with the foam roller on my spine and tennis ball on my back was making this stuff worse.
But…the point of this blog post is Praise, peace that comes from surrender to God. Praise Him for His mercy in healing me. Praise Him for the peace that comes from trusting Him.
In two weeks, I have almost kicked this. While up all night Saturday night a couple weeks ago, I started searching the Web and found that this virus can only thrive and replicate if it has the amino acid arginine. The amino acid lysine helps kill it. I decided to eat only foods high in lysine and low in arginine. It appears to have made a difference. I feel a lot better already. Since 1 in 3 people who had chicken pox as a kid will get shingles, here is a link to foods high in lysine and low in arginine so you can follow this diet if shingles ever happens to you.
I prayed a lot through this. With this virus and everything else going on, was I being put to a test? What I found is that it feels good to surrender my will to His will, to let my life follow His plans. So many decisions I get to make in life. In the past, when I have made my own choices instead of following God’s will, things haven’t turned out so well. Now, I want all my decisions to follow His will. This is where I find peace. I had to make a decision over the past couple of weeks. Through the pain of shingles, I decided to praise God, asking Him to find a way to use this pain for good – as I have done through many other painful experiences in my life. God can take all things, even painful experiences, and use them for good. We will see all the great ways He has turned things into good when we get to Heaven. It’ll be a great day, so I hope you will remain faithful to Him so we can find out together when we get there. In the meantime, these past couple of weeks have not been easy. Recovering from shingles and thinking about why things happen in life. And for all areas of my life, I decided once again, to renew my commitment to God, not to follow my own ideas or where my heart might want to take me but to follow His plan for my life today, one day at a time, surrendering to His design. For my health, for all my relationships, my career, for how I spend my time, the music I listen to, the movies I watch, my money, my talents. This brings me to this song I love. NEEDTOBREATHE – Multiplied.
This is the praise, praise Him for the peace that comes from surrendering my will to His will. I hope you either already experience this same peace or that you will find it, too. I just want to praise Him for taking such good care of me and for blessing me far more than I deserve.
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3, NKJV
Recipe for Today – Creamy Asparagus Soup
Creamy Asparagus Soup
This brings me to the recipe for today. You will notice this is not vegan. This fits the high lysine/low arginine diet. That means whipping cream poured right into this soup, plus butter. I’m sure we can make it vegan by using vegan butter and coconut milk, but for this week, I’m sharing this shingles-virus-fighting recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 Tbs butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 pound asparagus
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup whipping cream
Steps
- Pour vegetable broth in saucepan and heat to low boil
- Add butter to a large saucepan and heat to medium heat
- Sauté chopped onion in butter
- Add salt
- Chop asparagus (cut off and discard a couple of inches from the ends and chop the rest into 1-inch pieces) and sauté in butter along with the onions
- Add garlic to the onions and asparagus and sauté it all together
- By now the vegetable broth will be heated, add this to the large pan with the asparagus, etc. and boil until asparagus is tender (5 to 10 min, check it frequently)
- Use an immersion blender and blend the asparagus and onions and garlic right in the pan until smooth
- Remove from heat and stir in the whipping cream
Get in the Ark 