Closing in on the end of the Easter season, one thought has been with me this entire past weekend…..

“My Rights for His Righteousness”

This may sound simple phonetically. But take a minute to think about what this truly means.

I’ve always been a very opinionated lady. Ever since I was a little girl I remember always being someone who could never really be told what to do. Grant it a lot of scenarios in my life, and the culture we live in, made me take up the “I have the right to do anything” approach to most things. My entire entrance to adulthood reflected that thought approach. I felt like I had the right to do anything and everything that I wanted to do and say what I felt needed to be said. The problem with that though, is that the only person you’re really considering in  that mindset is yourself. I’m sure if you look above you will notice all the I’s mentioned. And living in the “I” zone of life will keep us from ever seeing from the Christ perspective.

Learn how J.E. Berry came to see things from a new perspective by visiting JEBerrySpeaks.com.

If anyone knows pain, it’s me.  And my friend, Dr. Michelle Bengtson.  Even more, we both know hope.  I believe that’s why God brought us together.  You’ll hear more later about her upcoming book, Hope Prevails, but in the meantime, be blessed as she shares her heart and her pain here at the Well:

“Please pray. The pain is excrutiating…” was my feable request to a dear friend and prayer supporter before going on to talk about a commitment she had asked me to prayerfully consider taking on.

In her gracious reply, she promised to lift me up in prayer then offered, “First of all, the last thing you need to do is take on another responsibility…you of all people know what happens when we push our bodies too far.”

I knew she was right. How many times had I told that to my patients? I humbly had to admit, “The pain has been unrelenting and it finally brought out the very ugly mom and wife in me.” How could I have let that happen? I knew better. I gently taught about this very issue to my patients repeatedly.

I had to chuckle at her response: “It’s because the ugly mom is crying out for a break. Please take a break. Remember saying the same thing to me recently? Now it’s your turn to listen to your own doctor wisdom and stop pushing so hard!”

I sighed. How could I argue with that? I remembered sharing with my friend in her own moment of pain how God taught me that lesson. Years ago my body finally broke and said “No more” and left me unable to do, unable to achieve, unable to drive it to the type-A, perfectionistic extremes I was used to pushing it to achieve.

I wish I could say I finally learned my lesson. My body wishes the same thing. Pain is the signal that it’s time for a refresher course. But it never comes at a convenient time. That’s part of the lesson. If we don’t listen to our body’s signals, it will fight to be heard, and not when it’s convenient.

Visit DrMichelleBengtson.com to continue to learn how God speaks in pain and exhaustion.