After a year without a weekly hour of Eucharistic Adoration (A Catholic practice of spending time in front of the Eucharist, Jesus). It was something helpful to me. I always felt closer to Jesus when I regularly spent time with Him.

The year I didn’t have my own hour each week turned out to be a difficult year. By the end of summer vacation I was exhausted and a little overwhelmed with things. I was craving time with Jesus. I found an available hour in our adoration chapel at church and have been going the past two weeks.

Duchenne has been weighing more heavily than usual on my heart. As I approach the first anniversary of my sister’s death my heart aches. Paired together they are more than I can handle. I was desperately seeking help and comfort. Fortunate enough, I turned to the right guy for help, Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is working through those around me. He has continued to put the right people in my path…they’ve been at the YMCA as I’ve started working out regularly again.

They’ve been in the doctor’s office as I finally grew courageous enough to ask for help with sleeping. (I have a hard time sleeping. At night when the house is quiet and my body is at rest, my mind goes and goes.)

They’ve been friends that we rarely spend time with suddenly all coming together for a fun and much needed night out.

The best part has been adoration though. I’m working through a book called “Graceland: Discovering Truths Through Seasons of the Heart.” It was a gift from one of my readers. I cherish the thought that went into the gift. She even made a cover for it and therefore, I call this My Book of Joy!

I recommend this book. It has been so uplifting and is rooted in scripture, in fact, the author tells you to have your bible ready as you work though the seasons of the book.

Last week the lesson requires that I read a verse in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4. I read the entire chapter because it was like it had been written for my heart for just this time. Verse 18 read, “as we look not to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.” In my journal I wrote, “2 Corinthians-for the hard days with Duchenne.”

As I thought more it seemed to be perfect for the hard days with grief, and for all the hard days.

I’ve always thought and not just for this blog, I’m sure several of my friends can recall me saying this when I’ve talked about the weathered storms in my life. I’ve always thought that is it hard to know joy without having suffered in some way.

We can be thankful for our pain and suffering because it brings us closer to Jesus and being close to Him brings joy.

On the days I’m hurting most, the days I’m tired, the days I’m anxious…I want to remind myself that it is completely and totally worth it. The unseen, the eternal will be an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

The weight of our crosses with be replaced with glory beyond all comparison!

I will remind myself of this.