{"id":1892,"date":"2017-12-20T11:28:57","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T17:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CalebStrong.org\/?p=1892"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:34:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:34:52","slug":"joy-lord-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/20\/joy-lord-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"The joy of the Lord is MY strength"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I share about my own journey, at times I have chosen to share about the depression I experience. I force myself to do this in an attempt to keep us talking about these issues that many people go through, and everyone wants to sweep under the rug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact is that many, if not most, go through these seasons of darkness and it drastically affects our lives. For me, it affects my home life as my patience for others dwindles, my motivation to do ANYTHING fails and my inability to focus\/concentrate\/remember push those lists of to-do’s into the mental circular file (aka recycle bin). Additionally, it strains relationships and trust because of my perceived callousness or “attitude problem”. It affects my work, I am unable to focus, to retain basic information that isn’t “amazingly interesting” and I feel like a worthless failure because of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo
Photo by christopher lemercier on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The longer I live and struggle with this, the more I figure out, usually with help, ways to help navigate both life in general and the specifics of each part of our world. Personally, I live by lists. Without my phone I would be completely without focus. Tasks and Timers are the lifeblood of my home and work schedules. (If it’s not on the calendar, it must not be important). I am blessed to be married to a fierce, yet patient woman who has worked to understand how my dysfunctional mind processes the world around me. And, of course, I write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write Facebook posts, articles, sermons and talks, about where I am or have been. I write about what the Lord has done to keep me moving forward, even in my darkest of days. I talk about how He reminds me who I am in His heart and Kingdom and how much He paid so that I could be a part of His family. I teach about who I, and by extension, we, was\/were designed to be as children of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it must ALWAYS, start with the acknowledgement that we all walk through – I repeat …THROUGH… – the valleys of darkness. Why?  Because it is IN those valleys that we are reminded, time and again, that we need HIM to be our shepherd (sp? did I spell that right? spell check is being stoopid). By relying on His guidance and resting  in His care, do we find the pastures that will feed us, and keep us filled, energized and moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, until the end of the year, I will be posting a piece of His word that has inspired me and given me Hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s is Nehemiah 8:10…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Then he said to them, \u201cGo and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve<\/span> <\/strong>(be sad, worried, scared, fearful, dismayed, dejected, or troubled)<\/span><\/em>, because the joy of the Lord is your strength.<\/strong> – Nehemiah 8:10 (CSB)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And there you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
May Jesus have His way with your day<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
  – Gary C –<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Gary Cartagena is a dedicated husband and father.
\nHe is Founder and consultant for Tek Management<\/a>,
\nFounder of the Men\u2019s Community site: Man Skilz<\/a>,
\nCo-Founder of the online Bible study app: BibleCounts<\/a>
\n\"ViewView Gary Cartagena\u2019s profile<\/a>
\n
\nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.<\/a>
\n\u00a9 2008-2026: All content on this and other pages within the TekMan family of domains are the specific intellectual property of the owner of the site, Tek Management and\/or The Strong Foundation. Content may be reused or reproduced according to the licensing restrictions without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source as per the licensing restrictions found at the link above. Opinions of the authors may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The longer I live and struggle with this (depression), the more I figure out, usually with help, ways to help navigate both life in general and the specifics of each part of our world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,34,12,16,17],"tags":[8,84,20,32,85,23,37,33,39,86,35,13,14,15,24,30,26],"class_list":["post-1892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery","category-fellowship","category-life","category-philosophy","category-religion","tag-8","tag-adhd","tag-bible","tag-christ","tag-depression","tag-facebook","tag-family","tag-fellowship","tag-god","tag-hope","tag-jesus","tag-linkedin","tag-meta","tag-myspace","tag-objectivity-philosophy","tag-religion-and-spirituality","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1892"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2340,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892\/revisions\/2340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}