Melissa - Charitymaeprosper

September 15, 2018October 23, 2018

At least we’ll have cake

Today I was feeling halfway decent so I decided to try doing some chores around the house. This house needs to be clean and there’s chores that need to be done. I’m getting impatient not being able to do much without it either causing me pain or wearing me out. Anyways…

I decided while my son and husband were away to burn the papers, make a cake for Sunday dinner, fold two loads of laundry, and sprinkle D.E. on the ant piles I keep seeming to step in and get myself bit up. Well, I managed to do them but I ended up hurting myself in the process and wearing myself out. Ugh! The clothes still need to be put away. I’ll eventually get to them. At least I got something done.

I’m looking forward to eating that cake. Still have to make the frosting though. It’s a Depression Era Chocolate Cake. The weird thing is I don’t normally like chocolate cake, but I’m looking forward to this one. It’s for Sunday lunch. We have cake, but I have no clue what the main course will be.

Oh, I almost forgot. While baking the cake, I decided to brew some tea for dinner (chili’s in the crockpot heating up). My husband kindly pointed out that I forgot to add the tea bags. Ugh! Frustrating! Oh, well If at first, you don’t succeed.

The homemade icing didn’t turn out too well. I added too much milk and don’t have enough powdered sugar. At least we’ll have cake…

Time for a break. My head hurts and my brain is getting foggy with vision blurry. Until next time….

September 7, 2018October 23, 2018

Feeling Frustrated

So…I’ve been trying to work on setting up this website/blog since April to document my recovery in an effort to help others as well. I have purchased a book, tried to read the book, watched youtube videos, etc. and it still seems like Greek to me.

I thought I was making a little progress today until I hit the wrong button and messed it all up. Now I’m trying to fix it, but I can’t remember how I did it in the first place even with the notes I’ve been taking. Ugh!

Right now I am just so frustrated and feel like crying because no matter how hard I try I just am not comprehending what to do to get what I want to be done. In the sense of being honest (I forgot how the saying goes), my mind is telling me that I should know how to do this, but my brain isn’t getting it!!!!

As with brain injuries when my brain gets too taxed or stressed, my brain begins to feel foggy and my eyes seem to get blurry. It then goes into shut down mode.

This is actually one of the many symptoms a person with a brain injury encounters. Learning new things is rather quite difficult because it requires attention, concentration, and memory. When your brain is injured, it has trouble with the memory process which causes difficulties. It doesn’t mean that I’m not ever going to get this…it just means it will take much longer to progress.

Time to take a much-needed break and try again later. Praying for the Lord’s wisdom in setting up the website/blog.

September 7, 2018April 2, 2019

Better or Bitter?

August 22, 2018

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” Philippians 1:6

We will incur many adversities in our lives. How we choose to approach them will affect our outcome. Will you choose to be better and allow the trial you are currently enduring to make you stronger becoming the victor through Christ’s help? OR will you choose to become bitter and allow yourself to fail and become the victim?

Though I fail at times, I would like to think that I try to press on to the victory – looking for the lesson I might learn that I may grow in Christ and in turn be able to help others do the same. Sometimes pain is the very thing that God can use to help you help show the love of Christ to others in only a way that you can.

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit and trust the engineer.” – Corrie ten Boom, Holocaust survivor.

August 24, 2018October 1, 2022

Gentle Persuasion

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” Romans 15:1-2

Romans 15:1-2 teaches that we that are strong ought to help the weaker. We are not just to please ourselves, but rather help teach others to do right and build them up in the Lord. Our greatest example is Christ who bore our sins on the cross.

There’s an old English proverb which states, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. Tis true. We can also apply this to life. How many times have you been in a situation where you were yelled at by someone which resulted in an argument rather than come to a peaceful agreement? What about the opposite? Do you remember a situation where you were upset about something and someone only had kind words to say which helped you to calm down?

“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” Proverbs 15:1

People generally are drawn to kindness and quickly repelled by criticism. Our love for others will prove to the world that Christ is real. Remember to be sweet and loving with your speech. We need to make the most of every opportunity to be a light for Christ.

“Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Colossians 4:6

“Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.”- Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863), British Hymn writer & Theologian.

August 22, 2018August 24, 2018

One in a million

As I began trying to search for ways to help heal from being struck by lightning injuries, I struggled to find anything definitive on the internet to help. Sadly, most doctors don’t think that this phenomenon happens enough to warrant studying this out to any extent.

In the months following, I have been able to learn that one in one million people get struck by lightning per year! In our finite minds, we generally think that is great odds. But if you sit and ponder it a little more…

There are over 7 billion people in the world. With that in mind, an average of 7,000 people gets struck a year. Of those that do get struck, 90% survive; and 80% of those survivors have lasting effects from their encounter. I’m thinking that should be enough for some doctors and/or nurses to study this out to help the survivors that have long-lasting effects from their lightning strike encounters.

C. S. Lewis wrote, ” We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. It is for this reason that I have decided to try to document my journey to recovery hoping that maybe my findings can help someone else who may need help finding the light in a dark world.

“The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalm 34:18

July 18, 2018August 24, 2018

1 Year Anniversary

July 18, 2018

Today marks my one year anniversary of my life-changing event of being struck by lightning!!! I am thankful to be alive! I continue to thank God for His faithfulness and that His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23

It has been a year of ups and downs that come with the after-effects of the damage the lightning left behind – nerve damage, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and migraines are among a few of the daily battles. This is something that you won’t hear on the nightly news media. Until recently, the only time you heard of someone being struck by lightning on the news was when a person was killed by the lightning strike. I have yet to see them cover how a lightning survivor copes with the injuries or struggles to find doctors that have dealt with this type of injury in order to get the help they desperately need. Sadly, most survivors struggle with depression after struggling to find either a doctor that is willing to help or even keep a friend that understands the plethora of symptoms that they struggle with on a daily/weekly basis.

We continue to pray that God will heal me completely. While waiting for God to answer that prayer, I am doing my best to learn how to use natural remedies as much as possible to aid in the healing process.

I thank God for the loving support of my family and close friends. I also thank God for the new friends I have made through my Lightning Strike support group. God has already opened doors for new friendships and has enlarged my coast (1 Chronicles 4:10) beyond what I could imagine allowing me to be able to help others. I look forward to how much God will extend that coast in the near future.

June 6, 2018July 25, 2024

Lightning Strikes

I have a new appreciation for Lamentation 3:22-23 “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed…”

I was struck by lightning on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. The meteorologists called for rain that day, but it was a sunny day. I was sitting at the kitchen table working on our laptop when all of a sudden I heard an extremely loud clap of thunder. Our daughter saw a blue streak of light come through the house and I was being zapped!!! Our middle son felt a light zap through his earbuds as he was on the computer in the living room, but he’s had no lasting effects from it.

We later found out that lightning had struck the ground not ten feet outside the back of the house. It side flashed and came through the house hitting me on my left side! We screamed!

I lost control of my left hand and dropped the cell phone. The left side of my body was immediately numb and tingling. I had an enormous headache, my chest hurt horribly, it felt like I was being stung all over at the same time, and I was disoriented.

My husband came home from work and took me to the E.R. The ER Doctor admitted that he had never treated a lightning strike survivor and had to google internet to find out what to do. They ran tests (EKG, bloodwork, and Xrays) to check my heart for damage. Everything seemed to be okay. After several hours, I was sent home.

The next couple of weeks were a blur for me. I am struggling with side effects that could either be temporary or permanent. I am not bouncing back as fast as I’d like, and my thoughts are often quite scattered.

I am thankful that the Lord spared my life “because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

We are asking prayers for complete healing and relief of pain that I now experience on a daily basis. Hug your loved ones because you are not promised tomorrow.

April 25, 2018July 7, 2024

Hello world!

Hello! I’m glad you are here. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to drop by for a while. I pray that you will find this site both informative and encouraging.

Last year my world was drastically changed when I was struck by lightning! Yes, you read right. I was struck by lightning and survived.

Some of my injuries include nerve damage and a traumatic brain injury. Since there isn’t much information on the recovery process of being struck by lightning, I decided to document my recovery in order to help others like me. Please note that I am not a doctor or a scientist. I’m just doing my best to find natural ways to the path of healing.

This will be a journey of learning and discovery …