Shadow of His Wings: A Personal Walk Through Cancer

By Sheridy Walker

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Phillipians 4:67 (NISB)

You have cancer. These were words Sheridy never thought she would hear concerning herself.

Travel with her through the hardest challenge of her life. Learn how she had hope and peace and allowed God to carry her through cancer, chemo, and heartbreak. Rejoice with her as God blessed her in being faithful to her calling to be a light in a dark place, which led her to a glorious ministry.

Feel Gods strength in all of her weaknesses. Be encouraged as you witness her unshakeable faith. Rise to the challenge to live your life to the fullest no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490801186

Sheridy Walker

Sheridy Walker loves the Lord with all of her heart, all of her mind and all of her soul and because of her walk with cancer, God has given her a calling to minister to those that are hurting and to challenge women to live life ALL IN FOR JESUS CHRIST. She writes a daily blog which is filled with biblical challenge and encouragement. She teaches an in depth Bible study class as well as on line each week. She is the visionary of Shadow Of His Wings ministry which is called to minister to women on every level and to rise to the calling of God to change the world one woman at a time. The ministry is growing each day and the doors are opening that she never dreamed possible when she said yes to God. She takes every opportunity given to her by God to speak to womens groups and conferences. She loves nothing more than sharing, encouraging, teaching and challenging others to Be strong in the Lord as they walk through this life.

Book preview

Shadow of His

Wings

A Personal Walk

Through Cancer

SHERIDY WALKER

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Copyright © 2013 SHERIDY WALKER.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-0118-6 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/05/2013

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Foreword

Chapter 1.   Before I Begin

Chapter 2.   My Life—October 2012

Chapter 3.   The News

Chapter 4.   Surgery

Chapter 5.   Waking Up

Chapter 6.   Before Chemo

Chapter 7.   Life With Chemo

Chapter 8.   It Is Only Hair

Chapter 9.   Gift Of Songs

Chapter 10.   Tennessee

Chapter 11.   Week Of Torment

Chapter 12.   Nurses—More Than People

Chapter 13.   Angels

Chapter 14.   Nearing The End

Chapter 15.   A Word From Melissa

Chapter 16.   A Word From Michelle

Chapter 17.   Friends Along The Way

Chapter 18.   Life After Chemo

Chapter 19.   60 Days Of Devotion

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

Day 27

Day 28

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31

Day 32

Day 33

Day 34

Day 35

Day 36

Day 37

Day 38

Day 39

Day 40

Day 41

Day 42

Day 43

Day 44

Day 45

Day 46

Day 47

Day 48

Day 49

Day 50

Day 51

Day 52

Day 53

Day 54

Day 55

Day 56

Day 57

Day 58

Day 59

Day 60

About The Author

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to all those who have encouraged me to write this book, especially my husband Mike, my daughters Michelle and Melissa, my good friend Tiffany and countless others who did more for me than I could ever write in one book.

Mike, for your love, support and for holding true our marriage vows, in sickness and in health. Michelle and Melissa as they helped to guide me and supplied me with all the encouragement I could ever need and were willing to share a piece of their heart with the world. To Chad and Kurt, my son-in-laws, who have always supported and loved me with their whole heart and encouraged their wives to help me as much as I needed. To my friend, Tiffany, who helped me in every area possible, and has been a faithful friend, loving me, encouraging me and praying for me daily. To my parents who stood by me through my chemo walk. Last but definitely not least, my friend and Savior Jesus Christ who guided me every step of the way.

Truly I love you all.

Introduction

Throughout this book I have written and thanked people that stood by me during the cancer and chemo chapters of my life. There are so many people that were instrumental, it would be impossible to name them all. If you sent me one card, or brought me one meal, it didn’t go unnoticed by me. If you prayed for me, I felt it and I thank God each day for all of you, even if I don’t call you by name.

The Bible references are taken out of my New Inductive Study Bible, Updated New American Standard version (NISB), which is where I gain insight and strength and precious Words of life from my God.

I have but one purpose for this book, and that is to encourage you as you walk through this thing we call life. Sometimes life is so hard, we can hardly breathe and we have to walk through so many things that we do not understand. I am here to share with you HOW to make it through anything life throws your way.

I long for God to allow me to minister and share His love to all who will receive it.

Foreword

As a medical doctor, wife and mother, you could say that I am a woman who is very concerned about feeling healthy and being healthy. To me it is not good enough to just live… I feel God put us on this earth to thrive, so what does that mean to thrive in good health? Well, I believe that being healthy is far beyond the idea of just maintaining excellent physical health. Of course we would all agree that this is vitally important, yet I also believe that thriving in good health involves being mentally healthy, emotionally healthy, spiritually healthy, having healthy finances, and healthy relationships. I believe it is a feeling of confidence that comes from knowing who you are, fully accepting who you are and maybe even falling head over heels in love with yourself. I certainly believe it is falling head over heels in love with our Heavenly Father and coming to lean on His grace in good times and bad. Finally, there is a feeling of fulfillment that comes from knowing what your unique gifts are and how you are using the gifts that God gave you to make a contribution to humanity.

This is perhaps the ideal that we all desire. A way to thrive and be happy … and yet what is happiness if only but a thought. A thought about the past…a wish for the future…what about the present moment and what exactly we are experiencing this day, this hour, this minute, this exact second. Can you allow yourself to feel….just feel and be present? What is that feeling that you feel? Is it joy, laughter, peace, hope, faith, harmony… is it love? What is there, right now, in this moment? Perhaps there is uncertainty, sadness, anger, despair or even fear. If so, how do we move beyond this to a place of love and light, a place where our light outshines the darkness and our love conquers our fears? In this revealing book, Sheridy Walker points you in the direction of love and light. Through her story, her insights and through the very powerful healing that she received, she poignantly shares a powerful message that just may change the way we all think about life, right now, in this very moment.

I have heard it said many times, that God has a plan for our life. That God has a bigger purpose for our life and that if we are experiencing something painful or challenging in our life, it is because we are meant to learn something from the experience. I truly believe that it is in our moments of greatest weakness or pain, we learn life’s greatest lessons and that those people who hurt us the most are perhaps our greatest teachers … teaching us life’s greatest lessons and molding us into the person that God wants us to become.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future. Perhaps this promise can renew our strength in challenging times. Having faith through grace, that when we are at our weakest this is the perfect time to allow God’s strength to shine through us. If you look around now and see challenges, pain, or darkness, take comfort in the fact that God is with you and His guiding hand will never leave you. What Satan means for evil, God will use for good. You will find your light through the One who will never leave you and never forsake you as you come to understand you are always in the shadow of His wings.

Sheridy experienced what we would all agree is one of humanities biggest fears, the diagnosis of cancer, a terminal disease. What would happen to all of her hopes, her dreams and her desires for the future? What would happen to her family? Sheridy could have easily lost her faith and succumbed to despair, sadness, anger and fear but she put her faith in something far bigger and received a gift from God far greater than many of us have ever imagined. As you read her story, you may shed tears as I did, when she tells you about her angel. You may smile and feel amazing gratitude as you reflect on your own life and I am sure you will cheer out loud as she explains her amazing journey from the edge of death, to a new life.

Enjoy!!!

Sugar Singleton Marcy, MD

1

Before I Begin

H OW DO YOU write a story about your life without thanking those that help you walk through each and every day? I have the most blessed life a person could every hope for. I have a wonderful, faithful, husband, Mike, who has been a strong source of encouragement for me and has stood by me, in sickness and in health for thirty-three years. Two beautiful daughters, Michelle and Melissa who are more to me than daughters, I am blessed to call them my best friends. Their husbands, Chad and Kurt, who are faithful and strong men of God who love me and give me support through everything we face and more important than that, love my daughters more than I ever could have hoped for. And then of course, my precious grandchildren. At the time of my cancer we were only blessed with one precious grandson, Remington, but now we have four beautiful grandchildren, Remington, Woodlynne, Shia and Kasen, that bring completeness to our family. There are my parents, Ernie and Helen, who were there each and every step of the way and my good friends, which are too numerous to name, who faithfully prayed for me and called and encouraged me. My friend Tiffany who is closer than a sister, and has loved and supported me on every level. And last but not least, all those that sent cards and emails—oh I am so blessed indeed and there is nothing more precious than being a part of the body of Christ.

As I was going through my cancer journey, God showed me so many incredible truths. I saw God working miracles first hand. I felt His power and love so deeply, that I really just wanted to shout it from the roof tops. As I lived my life before my journey, I knew the need for others to know the Lord. But as I was living in the chemo chapter of my journey, the need for others to KNOW the Lord became so powerful within me that I prayed for a way to share with the world what God had done for me and how he could be that for everyone who would just let Him, or ask Him.

I believe that each of us has a story. There are things that have happened in each of our lives that will change the world. I also believe that things that happen to us, when used the way God wants them to, have the power to change others and help them through the trials in their lives. We go through trials, not to punish us, but to make us stronger and to refine us to become more like Christ. When we become stronger, we in turn tell someone else about it and how we dealt with it and hopefully it helps that person. So….. I want to tell you my story. I want to share with you the realness of my God. I want to allow my experiences to help someone else. It is in no way a perfect way, and there were times that I didn’t act right. I’m not trying to come across as any sort of super woman or anything like that. I just want to show you my heart and share with you my life, and I pray it will help and encourage others out there who desperately need peace in their life.

Here is my story…………………………..

2

My Life—October 2012

I F I WAS to rate my life prior to 2010, I would say it was fairly normal. I have suffered loss and we have had some major illnesses in our family, but to look at our life, I would say that we are totally and completely blessed. Mike and I have the privilege of living in the same town as our girls and their families. My parents live right next door. Our work is great and strong and life is rocking right along. Oh don’t get me wrong, we have our share of troubles and hardships. But until about three years ago, not a whole lot had totally and completely rocked my world.

When I was thirteen years old, I found Jesus. I was at a church camp with a very faithful friend and I remember very clearly the call on my life. I was baptized that very night in the middle of the lake in front of the car head lights. I was very passionate about my calling, and I knew that I wanted to serve Jesus with my whole life. Through the years I have grown in many ways, and truly God is the reason that I live. I am thankful each and every day for my friend, who wasn’t afraid to invite this un-churched friend to church camp where I found the Lord. Today, I still live for Him and my faith has been tested and tried, but I know now, as I knew so many years ago……………..

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

—John 3:16-17

I have been married to my high school sweetheart, Mike, for thirty three years. We have lived in lots of different places, but moved back to our hometown in 1993 and have lived here ever since. We were fortunate to be able to raise our girls in a small town and share in a bit of farm life with them.

Growing up both Mike and I loved sports and that is what we did. It was a real shock when Michelle came home one day and had decided the she wanted to raise pigs. Neither one of us had a clue as to what that would entail, but here we are many years later, still raising animals. Both girls fell in love with the farm life and the 4-H program. Michelle had her love for pigs and steer while Melissa loved sheep. We tried our hand at raising pigs, but in the end it was the sheep that stole our heart. Melissa asked me