Why "Looking for Bright Spots"?

In 2012, my husband suffered a very serious accident which left him with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The following four years were the most difficult years of my life and there were brief moments when I just wanted to leave this world. It was too hard, too much pain, too much trouble & chaos, living like that made no sense. I understood why someone would consider taking a life and then ending their own. It seemed we were nothing but a problem for everyone, plus I was exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically. But keep reading!

Jesus was and is my saving grace. He is my Savior and Lord and I knew that my husband's and my own life were in Jesus' capable hands. So although Satan might tempt me with those thoughts, I quickly rejected them with the Word of God and looked for the "bright spots" along that rocky path. Spiritually, the Lord was pruning away my self-sufficiency, independence, and pride and was teaching me that He is all I need.

Writing has not been a long-time desire for me. However, I believe God has been developing this gift over the past few years as I blogged about our trial and triumphs. Now I believe God wants me to use this gift to share from my own experiences, joys, pain, and struggle in the hopes that it will encourage another (maybe you who are reading right now) to never give up. God loves you and wants the best for you and me. We can trust God completely even when we don't understand His ways.

I want to share from the wealth of what God has done, plus what He continues to teach me through this adventure of living for Him no matter what may come. I will share from experiences both before, during, and after this traumatic event. Throughout life God provides what I call "bright spots" along the way to lift my spirits and bring joy and encouragement. At times they are large, brilliant, and impossible to miss, at other times, I have to squint to see them. I believe that everyday there are bright spots along our journey, we just have to look for them.

Starting out, I plan to post once a week. My prayer is that this blog will help you look for the bright spots that are in your life, no matter how dark your path may seem. Whether you are a caregiver, or someone going through a season of difficulty, or merrily rolling along life's road without a care, keep your eyes and ears open for those bright spots of joy and peace.

I John 1:5 (ESV)

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, 

that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

To read about our 4 year adventure with God and TBI, you can check out these links:  https://www.caringbridge.org/signin - then type in “Mike Rice”. (There now seems to be two Mike Rice CaringBridge sites. Ours has a photo of Mike and a dog by his name and was started in April 2012.) In November of 2012, I switched to a blog which I have continued: www.onlyadventures.blogspot.com.