Welcome back to “Friday Feature!” Grab a cup of coffee, relax, and enjoy today’s devotion! If you missed the last devotion, you can read it here!
Brooke Chapman brings us today’s devotion titled, “Hold the Gait Belt.” Brooke, a preacher’s wife, and mom to her precious baby boy, Laban, is also a healthcare professional and a MONAT market partner. (MONAT offers premium hair and skincare products!) Brooke and her family are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet! Give Brooke a follow! @brookelynnchapman
Hold the Gait Belt
When Laura asked me to be this weeks Friday Feature, I was humbled and honored. While I consider myself nowhere near a great speaker, blogger or what have you, I do know that when given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the One who saved my soul, I will gladly take every opportunity placed before me. Laura had no idea that the week before, God had placed something on my heart and I began to pray for a door to be opened for the opportunity to share.
Anyone who knows me knows that I work in healthcare and absolutely love it. Throughout my career I have worked in various types of healthcare settings. I have worked long-term care, med-surg pulmonary, home health/hospice, rehabilitation and currently in surgery for eye/ent. In all cases, someone experiencing healthcare has a need. In my experience with rehabilitation patients, I have witnessed many times how badly someone would be in pain and there would be someone tagging along with a gait-belt or some sort of assist. I found more times than not, that the patient had gotten their body into a state that needed repair. Something was out of sort in their body that just wasn’t right. In some cases, some had let the problem get so out of control that eventually it broke their body down.
For example someone with shoulder pain might find themselves in excruciating pain eventually if they do not exercise the shoulder frequently. That shoulder pain can create long term pain and effects if not cared for often. I find so often we might translate this type of care to our spiritual life. If we neglect our spiritual life, we may start to recognize symptoms of decline. While we might neglect to read the Bible one day, then one turns into two. Before you know it, not only do you forget to read it but you forget that you even forgot to read. Thinking small things might not make as big of an impact, is where we go wrong.
Exercising our faith is important just as exercise is for our bodies. And here’s the thing. Just as physical therapy has someone tagging along with that gait belt, so should you spiritually. Have someone who will hold you accountable. Someone who will not only “go to therapy” with you, but will invest in your health. Spiritual therapy. Spiritual health. Be that tag along. Hold the gait belt.