This blog has various uses such as inspiration, as well as education, information and just plain ol' fun..This particular post is one of the most inspiring emails I have seen from someone I actually know..Many of you might know Tiffany Pate (formerly Tiffany Smith).. She went to East Gaston High school with me.. She was a very sweet person and was a joy to be around...After high school, I had not heard or seen her in quite a while and then our paths crossed once again at Parkwood Baptist Church in Gastonia..Tiffany had gotten married and had two boys, both of which are excellent well behaved and respectful young men...Not long after seeing her and her family about at church did we get an email letting us know Tiffany's life would take a different course than many of ours..She was diagnosed with Stage IV Breast Cancer..It was then that I saw the true light of Jesus Christ shining in Tiffany's heart and life..This post is not to chronicle her struggles and victories thru the cancer battle but to offer a glimpse of what it is like to TRUST AND HOPE in the Lord Jesus Christ..I wanted to copy an email from her that we just received yesterday..See Tiffany had beaten the breast cancer..well as much as it could be (I believe Stage IV can never be cured)..but she had beaten it into submission..shall I say..and she and her family decided to take a Disney Cruise to celebrate the outcome..and then just a few days from her vacation ending, she began to suffer from severe headaches and when she got home, they did a scan on her brain and found spots (cancer spots)..The cancer had moved to her brain..I was grieved beyond words when finding this out..Here was a person who through all her battles with breast cancer kept the Lord exalted in her life, giving Him praise and admiration even though her life would never be the same..Instead of turning bitter and blaming God, she simply drew closer and closer to Him..inspiring us all who followed her story..and believe me, she has shown a degree of faith that I inspire to achieve and that was just the beginning of my experience into seeing another person evolve in the Glory of her Savior..I cant begin to find words to describe some of the emails I have seen from her and her certitude toward reading and depending on God' word..but this last email after all the exhilaration of handling the breast cancer and then the vacation and then being rushed to DUKE medical for treatment for Brain cancer really opened my eyes and my heart to a pure Faith that I had yet to experience either in my own life or in another.. Tiffany Pate displays a Faith that is inspiring and FULL OF HOPE..I wrote a post the other day about HOPE..but this simple email from Tiffany just trumps that definition 1000 Times over.. Should any of you ever feel like all Hope is lost or your life is to difficult..Take a minute and read this email from Tiffany so that you can evaluate the perspective you currently have...and just maybe you will get a glimpse of a CHILD OF CHRIST in the purest sense known..
You can get Tiffany's story from her blog at http://www.tiffanypate.blogspot.com/
I am blessed beyond measure to see such Faith in a friend..someone in whom I know personally and not from some CD or Speaking Circuit..This is the real deal!! Be prepare to be Blessed and Inspired..
Hi, Carol:
I truly hope you can help me get this posted in all the right places! This is the first chance I have had to get on my e-mail since before leaving our cruise. As you can imagine, there are so many people that I long to touch base with! Before I even begin, I will have to apologize. I am receiving radiation to the "whole brain" therefore, my head is very "fuzzy" and I am sure there will be a lot of typos. I am going to make this short, sweet and try to express my love as quickly as I can.
Wow! Who knew? Two weeks ago we are celebrating a Disney Cruise with our precious family....and today, whole brain radiation!!! Where do we start? It all seems like whirlwind, really? My last scan, three weeks ago, showed no signs of cancer in my torso area. I am sure you all immediately wondered why they were not more careful to scan every region of my body. The only answer I have to that right now is that this cancer experience has been far from typical since day one. The "typical" route of this cancer would have been throughout my body before heading to my brain. Since everything was clearing up in the body, it seemed very safe to assume we were safe in the head (like that was ever really safe to assume)! So, Dr. Peppercorn, was in no way, remiss with his treatments. My body just doesn't like to be "normal".
So, now we just go from here. I will do 10 days of radiation treatments to destroy and shrink cancer cells in my brain. Then we will go an oral chemo for the brain to keep the cancer at bay in the brain as long as we can. We will also continue an oral chemo to help keep the cancer under control in my body. This is where we are right now. We know nothing more or less. The doctors says he sees people live years or months. There is no "scenario" that I can give you! Frankly, I am happy with that! It seems my scenarios have never gone according to planned anyway!
Now, what I really want to get across with this e-mail is how much I love all of you and appreciate you from the very bottom of my heart! My mindset is amazing and I am filled with the joy of my LORD every single day! I love Him, and my FAITH in Him will NEVER waver! I am more at peace with this diagnosis than I have ever been. I am totally okay with the best case scenario or the worst case scenario because the worst case scenario is of this world...not of my GOD!!! I win either way! It's really an amazing feeling to know the peace that I am experiencing! If the doctor looked at me tomorrow and said, "okay, girl...we are going to hook you up to these pain meds, make this as easy and quick as possible, and help you all get through this"...my response would be...."let's go" My only reason(s) for staying here one more day is to Glorify my God in any way we can! I trust Him to take care of my boys and my husband! I trust Him to take care of my family! We are going to get through this! The big deal is to not finish this race without fulfilling God's purpose for it! So, please, never feel that God has let me down or is "not delivering". My eyes and heart are not focused on the immediate track we are running. My eyes are focused on the puzzle that I cannot see until the last piece is in. Whatever small part I can play in placing that one piece in the right place is all I have to worry about! I want your prayer to be that that will remain our focus and that we won't "miss" anything God has intended for us along the way!
I want to be an open vessel for my God, and the rest will take care of itself. If you have one moment to share His glory, grab it with full force and never take it for granted!
I am probably at my limit now....but, I will be in touch soon!
I love you all and will never know how to thank you for being all that you are in my life!
In Him
Tiffany
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment