The Ralph Page: A Prayer For Women With Breast Cancer From Ralph

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A Prayer For Women With Breast Cancer From Ralph

A PRAYER FOR WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER

From Ralph B. Strickland, Jr.

Today Lord many women are suffering the pain of breast cancer, though I am aware You know that.

I know they must be so afraid! I have been terrified myself Lord, especially when I served my country in Vietnam. Prayer is the only answer to personal terror, I know. Therefore, I run to you, my Father, because these women need Your strength, love and courage. Yet many may find it too difficult after therapy for sustained daily prayer.

God, grant me the privilege to stand in their place. Take my courage and strength, such as it is, and multiply it among them as You did the loaves and fishes that day so long ago. I pray to You, Father, to give them the courage to get through what they must face, day after day. During those dark hours in the middle of the night when their anxieties and fears must overwhelm them, use my prayers and my courage through You to give them the calmness to remember to turn to You and to relax in the shelter of Your arms.

“Behold”, as Isaiah said, “God is my salvation: I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord, God is my strength.” Isaiah12:2

During their days ahead of treatment, be it radiation, Chemotherapy or surgery, and the loss of their privacy, dignity, and perhaps, even the loss of their hair, let them feel Your Presence in their lives. While lying in a CT scanner, having their veins probed and stuck for blood tests, or while they are waiting for test results use me and my prayers through You so that they remember that they are most certainly NOT alone and that Lord, You are especially with them. I pray they experience the blessings in this time of their testing of Your love for them.

May each woman know the sustaining love and support of their family and friends. I thank you dear Lord, for the wonderful doctors, nurses, technicians, modern technology and drugs that are available to help fight this disease. What a blessing they are! With all our help and prayers, Lord, may they meet this challenge one day at a time knowing You are at their side with Your loving arms around them.

Use me, Lord, for I am here. You know me. You remember me from all my prayers. Let me make a sacrifice for them that You deem appropriate. I ask a personal favor, Lord: that You especially take care of Mrs. Kelly Horne Phillips who inspired this prayer. I'd appreciate it very much.

I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen

1 comment:

AnonymousAugust 13, 2013 at 2:14 PM
Thank you for this prayer as it is especially meaningful to me as a woman of courage ~ a "trooper" as I called her ~ that I knew as an employee and then, later, as a friend.

It will be 3 years ago tomorrow that I was able to be with her and her 3 children when she passed away in the Hospice unit.

This writing touched me very much and I appreciate your ability to step outside of your situation and to reach out for another in the form of prayer.
May God bless & watch over your friend...
MM in AZ :)
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Dr. Darrell Pond

Dr. Pond, a minister friend of mine, has a prayer line sponsored by a Men's Bible Study Group in Chapel Hill. When you call 919/598-6464 you will hear a recorded message from Dr. Pond and he will end in a prayer. They are receiving 6 to 8,000 calls a month. There is no charge for you except the call. If you enjoy the daily message (there is a new one every day) you may call 919/596-4000 (Darrell's personal number) and ask for 10 or 20 of their business cards. You only have 45 seconds to give you name and address and # of cards you need with some speed - but clearly. He will send them to you free and you may send them to friends, or when you pay a bill put it in an envelope or as you so choose to spread THE WORD. When you run out of the cards, you only need to ask for more.

About The Author - Ralph B. Strickland, Jr.

I am a Roman Catholic, husband to the most beautiful girl in the world, Drusylla - and you should see her soul, too - and the father of two wonderful children and I like to think a father to my lovely daughter-in-law who calls me Dad. I am also a disabled veteran due to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and PTSD from the trauma I suffered there.

I have taken forced retirements from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, Smith Rodgers Law Enforcement Legal Consultants and Attorneys at Law PLLC [ http://www.policehelp.net ] and the Garner Police Department because Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from my 11 months and 25 days in Vietnam in 1970 have made me unemployable as an attorney. I say, “forced” because I agreed with the head of each organization that I could no longer serve them in my former capacity and at the same level of service as I was previously capable. I am just 66 years old. There you are.

I'm a Tar Heel with a BS and a JD from THE University of North Carolina without a hyphen. I wish that everyone could love his or her alma mater as much as I love mine. I was an attorney for over 35 years working almost exclusively as a government attorney for law enforcement officers - all of whom, especially in North Carolina I still consider my best friends.

My two greatest accomplishments in life I consider to be (1) convincing my wife to marry me and (2) then surviving Vietnam while my wife and three month old baby daughter waited for me to return. My wife looked exactly the same. NO! She looked better! But my daughter had grown in the 12 months and really changed. I told her I was Santa Claus and we got along right from the start.

I have always wished for a trip to the moon on gossamer wings, a Corvette with a passenger ejection seat for people I really don’t like and to slowly feed Kate Beckinsdale a whole Mars Candy Bar, tiny bit by tiny bit. {As to that last bit of fantasy my wife has said, "Bang, zoom, straight to the Moon!” See the old TV show, “The Honeymooners” with Jackie Gleason and you’ll get the joke. There will be no gossamer wings!}
For those of you familiar with military nomenclature, handle it carefully or it will blow up in your face. The EOD guys told me a half a bucket of any explosive would kill you. I carry mine around in teaspoons. MY DD-214 says I was in Vietnam 11 months and 25 days. I SAY 11 MONTHS AND 28 DAYS. Look, I can count to 362 correctly when I have 362 days to do it. A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.