Arthritis

One of the things that made last Wed a hard day is that I found out I have arthritis in my knees. I have suspected it for a while, but it was still hard to hear the Dr say it. I feel like my own personal old age has begun and I am not ready for it. I have had 2 different types of pain in my leg/knees for several years. The one type is probably caused by the way I sit while we are doing school. The explanation made total sense to me and that pain can be alleviated with stretching exercises. The other pain is "early onset" arthritis. My mom has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for a number of years. She has done so with an amazing amount of courage and grace, but it is difficult and has been totally life changing for both she and my dad. My type, so far, is osteo-arthritis which is a different flavor than RA ~ it is not systemic so only the affected joints ache, not the whole body. There is an RA marker that can be detected by blood tests, and mine have been negative for which I am very thankful. But until recently I had not ever considered the possibility of the other type of arthritis, and it has been hard for me to accept.

But....I know that emotions, while real, are not the same as truth. And the truth is that God will help me to learn to live with this and move on and be fine. The truth is that it isn't life threatening. The truth is that God is gracious and faithful and loving and GOOD. With my mind and my will I choose to be thankful, and give my emotions time to catch up.