Terri's Blog

It's been several weeks since I posted anything to the blog and I hope you'll understand that I've been a bit busy with surgery and recovery. I have so many different things that I could share, but the most immediate is that on top of everything else, today I had to have a tooth extracted because it was broken and couldn't be saved. When I smile the huge hole that was left cannot be seen by anyone and yet, I had moments of feeling sorry for myself because of it. I think in those few moments I felt the lose of this tooth more than the lose of my cancerous breast. For some reason, that toothless-hole seemed much more cosmetically ugly; and it made me feel old. Teeth become brittle and softer with age don't they? No one in my family has had to have dentures or teeth pulled because of aging and I guess I don't want to be the only one. I'm not that old, but sometimes all these changes make me feel that way. I had my 50th birthday and it's as if my body is falling apart.

I did say that these feelings existed for only moments. After taking some pain medication, and no it wasn't from the medicated euphoria, I began thinking about my blessings instead. Today was such a sunny, beautiful day and so many more good things have happened to me over the previous weeks, that a tooth just didn't seem important at all. The small amount of pain will be gone by the weekend. I'll have a bridge inserted in a few weeks, and life will continue to go on. I'm going to look at everyday as an opportunity to learn something new, enjoy my family and friends, and live to serve my Lord. I know there will be other challenges, but just like these, God will bring me through them. As Beth Moore, my favorite Bible Study author says, if God delivers us from the fire, our faith will be built. If he delivers us through the fire, faith will be refined and if we're delivered by the fire into his arms, our faith is perfected. I am thankful that each day my faith is being refined.