You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink its medicine

My mom has been sick for the last couple weeks. She had a urinary tract infection and was given antibiotics. She was starting to feel better, but then the antibiotics ended. About 24 hours after the antibiotics ended, my mom started feeling sick again. She soon developed a high fever. Fearing it was a relapse of the infection, she went to the emergency department. After many tests, everything came back negative.

I posted on Facebook my mom's health status. A dear friend informed me about a highly concentrated form of vitamin c called Lypo-spheric vitamin c. I researched the product and found it indeed delivers a high concentration of vitamin c direct to your cells. Vitamin c is essential in helping your immune system fight off invaders such as viruses, bacteria and fungi. So, immediately I ordered some of this product. The item came yesterday. In order to take this form of vitamin c, you have to put the small amount of vitamin c gel into a small amount of ice cold water. My mom took one dose of the vitamin c last night and was repulsed by the consistency and taste.

Today, I keep asking my mom if she would take some of the vitamin c, but she refuses. It is very frustrating. In my frustration, I decided to take some of the vitamin c myself. The consistency was slimy, and the taste was not Jell-O, but overall, it was not bad. About an hour later, I noticed something remarkable. The intense pain in my back started disappearing. (I have been really run-down and exhausted trying to take of my mom. When my body becomes very fatigued, it starts breaking down muscle (rhabdomyosis). The muscle fibers are filtered out by my kidneys and excreted in my urine. Passing the large muscle fibers through my kidneys causes excruciating back pain.) Now, the back pain is about 75% less than what it was, and I can now lay on my back without having intense pain. I am overjoyed at the benefits I have experienced from this form of vitamin c, and thus I am so bummed my mom will not take anymore of it.

Through this whole process, I think about God and how frustrated we must make Him. He leads us in paths which might not be pleasant and might have a bad taste, but it is for our own good. It is to grow us and to nurture us. How often do we refuse His way and instead opt to continue suffering in our current ways. Thankfully, God has abundant patience and does not give up on us. "The Lord is not slow concerning His promises as some count slowness, but is patient to us, not willing that any should suffer but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).