'The Lord is my strength'

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
       my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
       My heart leaps for joy
       and I will give thanks to him in song.

-Psalm 28:7

There's physical strength - important. Then there's strength of faith in God - even more important.

A stroke can weaken muscles, no doubt. In this Lenten season, take some time to take your strength of faith to a higher level. Read his word. Pray. If you are able, attend church services - and if you don't have a church home, it's a perfect time to find one.

A good church home if you happen to live in or around Columbia, Mo. - Community United Methodist Church.

Lent ends not on the day that Jesus died on the cross, but with his resurrection. Talk about strength!

God, through health professionals, can often help with physical strength in stroke recovery. One recent study adds to the discussion:

There is some controversy surrounding strength training in stroke patients, as some rehabilitation groups feel that strengthening stroke-weakened muscles will also increase spasticity and pain. But that's not what Dr. Janice J. Eng and Dr. Jocelyn E. Harris, of University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, found.

They pooled results from 13 studies that recorded how strength training exercises, versus no strengthening intervention, affected overall arm strength and function in 517 stroke patients with mild to moderately impaired movement of the upper limbs.

On average, strength training lasted for about one hour on 2 to 3 days a week for 4 weeks, although some of the training periods extended as long as 19 weeks. Most interventions used small weights, resistance bands, and gym-type pulley weights to build muscle.

The combined results suggest, "strengthening does not increase spasticity on a permanent basis," Eng told Reuters Health in an email. Rather, strengthening may actually reduce muscle spasticity, she added.

 (Image from Printables 4 Scrapbooking)