Love You Award

I've been busy running around today and when I finally had that chance to sit down on my favorite recliner and started checking the blogs for encouragement, sister Andrea had a surprise waiting for me! Please visit her site if you haven't known her yet. It's really amazing when the Lord brings us altogether and be able to blog for His glory! I am blessed by so many of you and sister Andrea was one of those I had met during my earlier times of writing. I am so thankful for her friendship that she remains a great friend to me, a great prayer buddy and of course, a dear sister in Christ.



I will just write here what sis Andrea explained about this blessing:



These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.



It's my honor to share this "love you award" with the following and I hope that you will take time to visit them and say "hello" and I pray, that we'll all become friends...Since the other great friends and brothers/sisters in Christ I've known have received it from her, too, I would like to extend this blessing to the following:

Just Be Real - who continue to inspire me with her courage and transparency.

Brother Chris - a great daily prayer Intercessor.

Sister Heather - whose pictures, posts, poems, just about everything are so beautiful as her heart after God shows in all of her works. Tip: She even offers blog designs for "free"...

Brother Warren - his latest posts about parenting are awesome and very helpful.

Sister Denise - another encourager who is very much on fire for the Lord, too.

Brother Billy - an amazing writer. You have to visit him to know what I mean. He grills steaks and makes lemonade, too.

Sister Jennifer - the moment I visited her site, I was hooked. From the title of her blog, it already had me. See for yourself how terrific of a writer she is!

Brother Peter - I have met this unselfish man who shares his battle with depression and has a lot of tips in how to overcome it. He did it because of his unwavering faith!

And the rest of you, too many to mention, you know how awesome your friendships are to me! God bless you all and thank you for always encouraging me...

STD's

The inmate came and sat down on one of the chairs, with a shy look on his young face. I summoned for him to come to the clinic because he put in a request for a Nurse’s sick call for complaint of burning with urination.

“When did you start noticing the symptom?”, I politely asked.

“Just tonight, Ma’am. But I gotta’ tell you something. I got some sort of bumps, too down there,” as he shyly tried to talk in whispers.

I got the picture! This man must be suffering with the onset of an STD [Sexually Transmitted Disease]. I started probing more to get as much history as I could to aid the jail physician who would examine him later that day.

“Do you have one or multiple partners?”

“A lot,” was the quiet answer, his gaze wouldn’t look at mine.

“Do you use protected sex or not?”

“Ahh…[long pause]…No, Ma’am.”

“When was the last time you had a sexual intercourse?”

“The day I got arrested, Ma’am.”

“Will it be okay for me to examine it inside the exam room with the presence of the deputy?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” was the quick response [He must be really uncomfortable].

I saw a few red bumps that formed. There was no drainage nor pus. There was no blister. His dipstick urinalysis was negative [using test strips]. I encouraged him to increase his fluid intake as long as he could tolerate that. Then, I put him for the Doctor’s sick call that morning so that the physician could evaluate him further and him, be given an anti-viral kind of medication if needed.

He felt relieved that the assessment part was over and that he would be seen by the jail MD.

God had a lot of warnings, too regarding the meaning of sex. His warnings are clearly written on the Bible for us to be guided to avoid problems such as these. Teenagers are so quick to try it out, out of curiosity and pleasure. Not thinking of consequences, unwanted pregnancies lead to abortions, financial woes and most of the time, teenagers are not ready to commit to a lifetime marriage. But God had given that as a special gift between a married couple.

God warned us that sex, outside of marriage, destroys relationships. But if used within marriage, it can be a relationship builder.

We should give our sexual desires and activities under Christ’s control. God created sex for procreation and as an expression of love between a husband and a wife. We avoid contracting many sexually transmitted diseases only if we follow God’s ways regarding this matter.

The apostle Paul had this to say:

1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1 - “Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You are doing this already and we encourage you to do so more and more.”

Verse 2 - “For you remember what we taught you in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Verse 3 – “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.

Verse 4 – “Then each of you will control your body and live in the holiness and honor –

Verse 5 –“not in lustful passion as the pagans do, in their ignorance of God and His ways.

Verse 6 –“Never cheat a Christian brother in this matter by taking his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before.”

Verse 7 –“God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives.”

Verse 8 –“Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

P.S.

If you click on the title of the post, I linked it with CDC's site regarding this, if you want to learn more about the many kinds of STD's [Sexually Transmitted Diseases]. Please note that I am not an expert regarding this matter. I only wrote what I know as a medical professional, what I had witnessed from work and what I know from my Lord's Word.

The Name Above All Names

She was confused, pacing in the clinic’s waiting area. She had been in and out of this jail. Her addiction to alcohol was so severe that her liver started deteriorating and same with her cognitive functions. She was known to be “homeless”. I glanced at her chart before assessing her and taking her vital signs. Her name was “Penny Cash”.

When I was just a new nurse years ago, I used to pass medications to inmates housed in different housing. With careful preparations to place the prescribed medications inside a tiny envelope with the inmate’s name on a printed label in front of this envelope, medication nurses would go and give those one by one, as the inmates walked up with a cup of water and their ID’s. This man was housed alone and with the deputy opening just the tiny door in his cell’s door, he would often just stick out his right arm and with a cupped palm, I would pour the medications on it. Giving him meds for a while, I had learned about his story. He stabbed a female companion to death. Spared from death penalty, he was given a life sentence because of that horrifying act. I looked at the name printed on that envelope: “Lawless” was his last name.

Doing the charge nurse role one night, I had told my co-workers to take a break altogether so at least they could enjoy their break and it was a quiet shift at that time anyway. If I needed help, I could easily just call them over the radio. I got a call from one of the units and requested for me to evaluate this distressed man.

When this young male came, I started probing, “The unit told me that you seem restless. Are you hearing voices, Sir or do you have any history of mental health problem?”

“Yes. I’m hearing voices. The devil is telling me to kill myself,” as his voice seemed to have come from under the grave and his intimidating look met mine.

“Do you believe in God?” I calmly asked.

“No! There is no God!” as he smiled sheepishly.

“What’s your name?”

“Christian” [I placed him on suicide watch to be treated appropriately].

When morning approaches, it’s a busy time for the LVN’s as they do their accuchecks and administer insulin to those who are on it. One time, I was helping them by calling the inmates’ names so the LVN’s could monitor retrieving back the needles from every inmate and would not be distracted by others.

“Mr. Freeman! You’re next!” I hollered.

“Oh, I’ll be here for a while, Ma’am, I still need to go to my court dates” was the response of this smiling middle-aged male.

I’m not making fun of these names I had mentioned. Everything was true! And I started paying attention because I was thinking to myself that their names made it more interesting with whatever situation they were in.

We, as individuals, are known by our names. People kill others sometimes, to protect their treasured family names. Some try to protect their reputation because of their names. Some are famous because of that, too. Sometimes, it can be very unpleasant when we call other people “names”. Names can influence. Names can hurt.



But there is a Name that stands out among all the names. It is the Name of “Jesus”. For those who are saved, “Jesus” is the most meaningful name we have ever known.

Philippians 2:8-11 –“And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

You have the power to choose now whether you want to commit your life to Jesus as Lord or will you rather be forced to acknowledge Him as Lord when He returns?

And Christ can return any moment. Are you prepared?

Decisions

The smell of alcohol reeked all over the four corners of our tiny Nurse’s clinic in this particular unit. The rotating wall fan helped a little bit to scatter the intoxicating and repugnant smell as I started assessing one inmate sitting on the chair. The deputy was right next to me, listening intently to the outcome of my observation.

“I didn’t have anything, Ma’am. And I’m not on any medications either,” stated the man with a slight slurred speech.

He was obviously drunk and I just made sure that his vital signs were stable and that there were no problems over-all with his neurologic status. My notes would be for record-keeping.

“Next!” I yelled to the other inmate [the first man’s cell mate] as I motioned for the first inmate to leave the room and wait for the deputy outside this clinic.

The second inmate’s eyes were blood-shot, his steps wobbly as he tried to come in and make his way through the door. He denied taking anything intoxicating, too. I noted my observation, too on him. He was just plain drunk like the other man.

The deputy finally told me what really happened. He was making his usual logs - of checking every cell every hour and on that particular time, he noticed these inmates flushed something down the toilet. He observed that they were acting funny and trying to be silly. And he smelled the alcohol whiffed past his nostrils as he stood by their particular cell.

In the meantime that the deputy was conversing with me, these inmates were still having a good time laughing outside the Nurse’s clinic. They didn’t think that anything would happen to them. Little did they know, they would be in a lot of trouble when they sobered up. They were definitely caught intoxicated with “pruno”. And because they did it, there would be an additional time with their sentence when their latest violation of the jail’s rules would be added to their other charge or charges. They were laughing then, but I was wondering if they would still be laughing once they became more aware of what they were caught for.

In our lives, we make decisions, too that we don’t think of any possible consequences after doing so. Even with little, but wrong decisions, the truth is: it still leads to mistakes. Making the right decisions every day start with even the little choice we have to make. Then, we can be more prepared when the need to make bigger decisions come.

The wisdom or ability to make the right choices, either in small or big matters, is a gift from God. Understanding this makes us more willing to include God with our decision-making.
If we include God in all of our decisions, what can go wrong?

Have you asked God to help you with today’s decisions?