Being a Registered Nurse, I work with a lot of different kinds of people from all walks of life. Some are very difficult to love while others are so easy to love. Some people are very appreciative of everything you do while others will criticize everything you do, regardless of what you do. It’s a very rewarding job, but at the same time it’s a very hard job both physically and mentally. Nursing is definitely not what I expected it to be, but after working for a year, I’ve learned so many things about myself as well as God.
1. People are going to be difficult, but you gotta love ‘em anyway.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve had difficult patients, and even doctors that I’ve had to work with. Some people will push your buttons just because they want to push your buttons. I had a patient once who was complaining about everything I did. They wouldn’t let me touch them, wouldn’t listen to me, and demanded multiple times that I just leave them alone. By the end of my shift, they said to me, “You stay pretty calm. You don’t really change tone with me or get mad or anything.” To which I replied, “I try to just not give in to the hype of people’s frustrations.” They then told me, “Well I respect that. Sometimes you just gotta test people out to see how they are”. In my head, I was thinking to myself… you’ve got to be freaken kidding me…They were just testing me?! But I had earned their respect. The next day when I went in to work, everything went so much smoother and they were actually very pleasant to take care of. Colossians 4:6 says “ Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.” Even when it’s hard, we have to be aware of our speech and our tone and we must show love, regardless of how difficult a person is to love.
Everyone’s days are numbered.
Job 14:5 A man’s days are numbered. You know the number of his months. He cannot live longer than the time You have set. Fortunately, I work on a floor where we don’t see death very often. But when we do have a patient that passes away, I take it pretty hard. Or even when we have a patient that wishes they could go, but the family wants to hold on with everything they have.. I take it very hard. I’ve prayed that God would take my patients when it’s their time, or that they would miraculously get healed, or for something to happen. But what I’ve learned is that even when the medical profession tries to “play God”, there is only 1 God, and he’s numbered our days. And in some of my patients last days, I’ve found it to be a true honor to care for them and show them unconditional love and respect in their last days. So it got me thinking, why do I not show everybody the same love and respect on a day-to-day basis? I’m challenged to love unconditionally and to show respect to each person I come across.. You never know when somebody’s last day will be.
You can be confident in your calling.
When I first became a nurse, I was a little hesitant whenever I thought something needed to be done, but somebody else didn’t think so. So I second guessed myself, and figured they knew better, I’m a brand a new nurse.. whatever. Now that I’ve been exposed to many different things in the past year, even though I’m still a new nurse, I have gained so much confidence and will stand for what I feel is right and needs to be done. Proverbs 3:26 says that the Lord will be your confidence.. The calling God has placed on me is to be a nurse. I’ve gone to school, graduated and have the best coworkers I could hope for.. He’s given me all the resources to be better and He has given me confidence in my calling to stand for what is right. In a world that is slowly changing moral standards and pushing God out of everything they can, I feel like it is causing people to rethink what they believe. It’s causing people to second guess God and His Word. But what I’ve learned is that now more than ever, I need to utilize the resources given to me so that I can stand firm in what I believe so that when the rest of the world goes through the wide gate, I will stay on the straight and narrow (Matt 7:13).
One of my main prayers while I was in nursing school was that God would prepare me for missions through nursing. I didn’t expect it to be quite like this, but does God ever really do what we expect? He always goes above and beyond. I’m thankful for the last year and what it’s taught me. There’s so many more things that I could list, but these are the main things.
People have asked me, “Oh, you’re quitting your job for a year? What will you do when you get back?” Honestly, I have no idea. But I’m excited about not having any plans, and I’m thankful that I have a career where I can literally do it anywhere. I hope to bring hope and healing to people in Asia and if I happen to use any of my nursing skills as a way to do it, then so be it. But I will carry these 3 truths with me to Asia as I spread the Gospel.
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