Good Medicine

I recently came across a picture of my wife that I had taken during our Junior College days in the early 1970’s.  It was part of a series of pictures that I had taken of her around her parent’s property wearing different outfits in varying poses.  You have to understand that my love for photography and growing love for this special young lady fit perfectly well into the scheme of things for many of the photo projects that I was assigned in the multitude of photography classes I took in High School, Junior College and later on at Sonoma State College.

In this particular picture she is sitting on the edge of her parent’s old deck, dangling her legs off the side with her head tilted slightly downward and her eyes upcasted toward the camera.  Piper is one of the few people that I have photographed in all the years when I did portraiture and wedding photography who is a natural in front of the lens.  Most subjects tended to freeze-up and I had to jump through hoops to get them to relax, but not Piper!  She is as calm and happy as-can-be with or without a camera being pointed at her!

If she didn’t just naturally fall into a pose, she was free to move any-which-way I suggested to find the “right” look I desired for the picture.  What I immediately noticed with this pose was that she had that “patented Piper” mysteriously sweet glint in her eyes that told me that she was having a good time and was doing her best to get me to start laughing!  What I also realized was that smile was just for me!  There was no one else around at the time and her smile was specifically meant to be an endearing moment for me… and me alone!

With everything that we have been through with her declining health over the last few years, I now find that I actually search for that special look in every picture I find of her from our past.  I understand that this might seem a little weird to some of my readers, but when the one you love can no longer communicate her special feelings to you, you’ve got to look at the remembrances where she demonstrated those intimate feelings toward you.

As I looked at that picture I also realized and before I knew it said out loud that “I really miss being able to make her smile!”  One of the greatest joys of my life has always been to put a smile on Piper’s face.  To make her happy and to encourage her sweet, joy-filled spirit.  And you know… even though she is unable to respond at this time, I still make every effort throughout each day to say and do things that would normally cause her to smile or be encouraged.

And speaking of smiling and being happy… I came across a scripture over the weekend that spoke directly into my thoughts about that picture that I found in one of the boxes of family photos that our older daughter had organized for me.  In Proverbs 17:22 the author expresses his understanding that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (KJV)  This verse has been a favorite of Piper’s and mine for many years and as I began to study it a little deeper I looked it up in some more modern translations to see if it brought forth any added revelation to me.

Well, a look at The Message paraphrase version immediately spoke to my heart, especially in the light of many of the personal experiences we’ve had when it came to different folks and the ways that they have handled my wife’s dramatic changes.  This version bluntly declares that “A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.”  The God’s Word © translation says that “A joyful heart is good medicine, but depression drains one's strength.”  While the Contemporary English Version simply and succinctly states “If you are cheerful, you feel good; if you are sad, you hurt all over.” 

One thing that we’ve learned over the years is the importance of maintaining an atmosphere of joy in our home.  Proverbs 17:22, among many other scriptures in the Bible, makes that charge absolutely clear!  An environment of joy helps to ford off bad attitudes, dis-encouraging words and/or thoughts, complaining, hopelessness and as this verse states, weakness and the encroachment of sickness.  And as far as I am concerned, if sickness does breakthrough in my home, then it is imperative for us to double the amount of joy in the Lord as found in His Word on a regular and reoccurring basis!

We’ve been to people’s homes where fear, faithlessness, and depression was so thick that you could almost cut it with a knife!  And that seemed to be the same way that they handled Piper’s situation.  If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog then you know of the many things that I do day-in and day-out in order to provide a strong and continued sense of joy in our home for Piper’s needs as-well-as for mine! 

I sing scriptural songs (and some dumb but uplifting nonsensical tunes as well), I confess God’s Word on healing to her throughout the day and evening, and I find myself laughing a lot… especially when things get extremely rough!  At times like yesterday, I’ll even gently take hold of one of Piper’s hand and dance her and her wheelchair around the room when an especially upbeat and swinging song is played on the Southern Gospel satellite radio we’ve come to enjoy since we moved to the Southern States!

So yes… we have seen what a lack of a cheerfulness and fear can do to an individual… even a Christian who yields to the pressures that attack all of us at times.  As we now enter the tenth year of dealing with this attack on my wife’s health, I find that I have to fight the negative temptations of fear and discouragement more and more.  But that just means that I have to increase all the things that I mentioned above that I do and trust in the Lord and His love, His joy, His peace, and the strength and truth of His Word more and more… and will continue to do so until we come to His conclusion of this chapter in our lives.

So, what will it be for you?  A life filled with discouragement, bad attitudes, sickness and fear OR one that is empowered by his cheerfulness and joy that according to the scriptures, are filled with Good Medicine?  Hummm… easy choice for me!

Have a great week, and as you do keep asking yourself… “Am I expecting to have a CHEERFUL attitude or allow sadness and sorrow to fill my soul?”