Rachel L McManus

  I thought my darkest days ended when my husband came out of his coma. I was wrong. God has had us on this journey for a reason although I am not quite sure why, other than His Name be glorified. When our life suddenly changed in November of 2019, I expected it to eventually get back to 'normal'. It hasn't and it never will. Our lives keep changing every few months. Sometimes weekly it seems, just when I get used to things being one way, something else changes with him or something in our lives and it turns us topsy- turvy again.  The first few weeks and months after his stroke and coma, he was having to relearn things. His speech was affected not only by how he pronounced things, but his descriptions of things, his command of the language itself was teetered on the edge of almost non existent. He switched words around and got frustrated when I couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand me. He couldn't tell you what the name of a clock was, could mainly

 E very time I get to know God a little bit more, I fall in love with Him just a little deeper. His love for me seems to penetrate the shell that I built around my heart a long time ago. He knows that I know when I do something wrong and if I don't immediately repent, He lays it heavy on my heart until I do. See it is not about what I have done, who I am or what I have accomplished in this life or finished. It is about what HE has done, Who HE is and what HE has accomplished and finished.      It is something that He has to deal with on a daily basis and get my heart right before He can maneuver blessings into my life, or even people and situations out of my life .   Sometimes my pride and selfishness get in the way of the plans that God has for me and my family.      God has blessed me greatly within my life and am so greatly appreciative of His love and guidance. Why does He even love me? Care about me? Or desire to even see me accomplish anything? I have done nothing to deserve

 There are two types of loving yourself. There is being conceited, prideful, and arrogant thinking you’re better than everyone, which is a sin and there is naturally loving yourself. Naturally loving yourself is being thankful of what God made. Scripture never says to love yourself because it is normal to love yourself. No one has to tell you because it just comes naturally. Naturally we love ourselves so Scriptures teaches us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  On the other hand, Scripture does warn us about self-love. Our focus should not be on ourselves. We must trade self-centered love for agape love. Loving yourself too much shows selfishness and arrogance which God hates. It leads to self-criticism and the sin of boasting. Take your eyes off of yourself and look at the interests of other people. Love others as yourself. If you can't love yourself, how is it then that you can love others? Don’t focus on yourself, instead focus on the awesome love that God has for you.

  As I started on my thyroid journey, I honestly didn't believe I would feel any better. There I said it! I was a complete skeptic, that I would ever feel any better. I didn't think the brain fog would leave me. I didn't think that my symptoms would stop or diminish. While they haven't gone completely away, I am still in the newness phases of this journey and its been enough of a difference to want to tell everyone about it. That nurse I told you about in the first blog, had a lot of holistic knowledge. He didn't have to think about what he was saying, he just knew the research he had done. He had tried it for his mom and it made a huge difference in her life he said. She was hypothyroid and had tried it and it worked for her. He suggested ordering Nascent Iodine and Selenium. The Iodine comes in a dropper bottle and you literally add one drop to a small cup of water. I took the Selenium at the same time, and chased it all with orange juice and my NP thyroid pill

   I got diagnosed 4 years ago with Hypothyroidism and Iron Deficiency Anemia. The past 4 years has been a huge struggle for me to deal with all the symptoms associated with these 2 things. People think that if you take a pill all those symptoms go away. I thought this. I thought I would take the pill, let it get into my system and then the weight that I gained because of it would just melt away as fast as it came and my memory would be immediately restored. What a joke! It just didn't happen like that at all. It still is something I deal with, but thankfully after taking my own health into my own hands I am finally getting results. Let me start at the beginning of this journey and tell you the background.    Hypothyroidism runs in my family. That doesn't mean everyone will get it though. I spent my whole life being thin. Had myself a nice curvy but thin figure. Until about 38 years of age. Suddenly I had memory problems and thinking problems. I gained 20 pounds in a few week

While I was away in Nebraska and South Dakota I wrote down things that I saw as God led me out of my slump of not writing. I feel as though I have been uninspired for over a year. I have been in an intense brain-fog for several years as I have been plagued with iron and thyroid issues. I am now trying to get back to the place I was before and listen when He speaks to me.    In South Dakota the hills start off gently rolling, but you can see for miles on the high peaks of these hills. The 2 states of Nebraska and South Dakota blend together in their beauty. These hills are not for decoration, it is farmland. This land has a purpose to it. Some hills and fields were dark and rich with over turned earth. It had already been worked over and over again and was ready for planting. Some were brown with old crops that had been cut last season and left to lay fallow until the season is right to begin the work that would take months. The life of a farmer is not easy. They have to wait on favora