Author Archives: samuelrchoy

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When we are tested

When you have ADHD, it feels like you are tested more than other people, and more often than not, we feel like we’ve failed the test. But God’s tests, though, aren’t like tests at school. He already knows the outcome. Our tests are for our improvement, because He loves us.

Recently I had a test that I’ll admit I failed miserably. I won’t go into details, but I was legitimately wronged by someone. However, I acted out of anger and actually put my self in a dangerous situation. Even in my stupidity, though, God kept me safe through it.

I have never acted out of anger and had a positive outcome. The same was true with this time. Hopefully, though I’ve grown and will act more like Christ the next time I’m wronged.

When you find yourself tested, take a deep breath, give it to God, and tell yourself you want to pass this test. Ask him to help you pass the test.

James 1:3 says, “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”

Have you been tested lately? How did you do? Feel free to share your experience in the comments.

Here is a great video from the people at The Bible Project on when God tests his people.

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We All Need a Miracle Once in a While

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. There are some things going on I’d rather keep private. However, I can’t help but feel if it couldn’t have been prevented, it may have been blunted were it not for my ADHD, and I’m in pain.

However, I’m going to cling to Jesus, my Good Shepherd, and pray he’ll make it right.

Romans 8:28 says,

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Sometimes I just have to cling to this verse even if I don’t see the answer.

This video gave me a lot of encouragement. I hope it does you too.

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Uncategorized

Early in the morning? What if I couldn’t sleep?

As an ADHDer, I have trouble getting to sleep on time. As a result, I have trouble waking up early enough to get to work on time much less have a decent devotional. It used to bother me a lot that I was having my devotional at night rather than first thing in the morning. One night many years ago, I expressed my frustration that I wasn’t having a devotional first thing in the morning to a mentor. She looked at me funny and said, “why not just have it in the evening?”

That blew my mind! I thought that the best time to have a devotional was first thing in the morning, and was feeling guilty about having it at night. After all, there are plenty of Bible verses about rising up early. In fact, just doing some research for this devotional, I came across a website imploring us to rise up early, and giving a lot of reasons to feel guilty if you don’t get up early to spend time with God.

However, I would argue that the verses that talk about rising early are more descriptive than they are prescriptive. Yes, Jesus often rose early, but does that make it a sin for us to have our devotionals at night if we have trouble sleeping?

I’ve said before, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Here’s a gem:

Ecclesiastes: 11:4
Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. (NLT)

In other words, if we always wait for the perfect time to do something, we’ll never get around to doing it. I think that’s especially true of ADHDers with our propensity to procrastinate. It’s more important to have a devotional regularly than it is to have one in the morning. When the urge comes to spend time with the Lord, if you can, do it then!

What else have you felt guilty about when you don’t need to? Do you feel pressure to do something from someone else’s legalism (or even good intention)? Pray about whether it’s true conviction from the Holy Spirit or pressure you’re feeling from an artificial rule from someone else.

And if you’re still feeling bad about having a devotional at night, read this one:

Psalm 63:6
I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. (NLT)

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ADHD, Comeback

Making a Comeback

I’ll be honest. I have not been consistent with this devotional. Before I started posting again, my last post was almost three years ago. During that time I went through some life changes. Two of my kids got married, and one of them now has a kid and the other is pregnant. I experienced a couple of job changes and a season of unemployment. During the lockdown, I found myself without a job, stuck at home, and sitting on my backside most of the day playing video games. I slipped into a funk. I heard the phrase, “failure to thrive,” and that’s how I felt. I was just kind of there for a while. Existing. I’m not complaining or making excuses. That’s just how things were at the time, and I know I’m not alone in anything I experienced.

But the Lord is good and faithful. I have a good steady job and I am back to doing many of the things I did before the lockdown. And now, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve been doing with my life. I’m well into my middle years, and there are things I want to do…things I feel that the Lord is leading me to do. One of them is to bring back this blog. Despite my negligence, it is still getting visited. And while it’s not huge, the numbers tell me that there are ADHDers who need spiritual encouragement. Most of the sermons and Bible studies out there are aimed at neurotypical Christians. I want to encourage other ADHDers that Jesus loves us, understands us, and is on our side by sharing insights from the Bible that apply to us.

What about you? Have you had setbacks? Have you had failures? It’s not too late to make a comeback. If there one thing I know about ADHDers, it’s that we are a persistent lot. We may stumble, but we get up again, and again, and again. Don’t give up because God hasn’t given up on you.

While this verse doesn’t apply directly to what I just said, it is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I hope you find it encouraging too.

Ecclesiates 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (NIV)

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Looking Straight Ahead

Distractions are all around us, especially for ADHDers. We are distracted by our phones, YouTube or TikToc videos, or even that sock that just doesn’t feel right.

Personally, I feel like there’s a busy part of my brain that craves input, and looking for that input can keep me from attending to my tasks. Sometime

Often I find that I have to physically remove all the distractions from my office. I close the door and turn off the music. I do not keep my phone in my office. Ever. The busy part of my brain hates the silence…so much so that it starts looking for input from anything. If the only thing available for input is my task, then it gets the input from my task.

This reminds me of Proverbs 4:24-36 (NLT)

Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.

Not only do we get distracted from our tasks, we can get distracted from our relationship with Christ. What is distracting you right now? Sometimes we need to set something aside, even if it just for a short time, to put all our attention on God.

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ADHD, Encouragement

Little Things for a New Year

A verse that I have used to beat myself up over is Luke 16:10. In it, Jesus says,

If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.
Luke 16:10 NLT

That accusing voice that all ADHDers are familiar with says, “Aha! That’s why you haven’t achieved anything! You’ve been faithless in the little things, so God hasn’t blessed you.”

However, I want to challenge you to turn that thought on it’s head. This verse is made for ADHDers. When the problems of life and it’s responsibilities seem overwhelming, Jesus tells us to be faithful in little things.

Little things.

We can do little things. We can handle a small task. Little things aren’t overwhelming.

The next time you feel overwhelmed with a thousand things you need to get done, pick one. Just one little thing. Just one.

You never know. Your hyperfocus might just kick in, and before you know it, you’ve completed a dozen little things. But don’t make that your goal. Do that one small thing today. That’s all that’s expected of you.

This year, pray about the one thing to do, ask the Lord for the strength, and you’ll do it. You’ve got this!

One. Little. Thing.

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ADHD, Disappointment, Encouragement

Our Weakness, His Strength

Special thanks to Hadijah for your recent comment. You’ve helped me see that God is still using this blog to encourage people.

As ADHDers, we often feel powerless to control the many problems in our lives. And unfortunately, most of these problems come from our own brains.

Right now, we may feel helpless in the face of COVID-19. Some of us have lost our jobs and incomes because of the virus. Others fear losing our health, our loved ones, or have already lost both.

I’m not going to lie to you and say everything is going to work out the way you want. I don’t have all the answers. However, I know that while we are weak, God is strong. And while we cannot rely on our strength, we can rely on His to get us through.

I have seen God come through for me many times in my life. Though the outcomes haven’t always been what I wanted, in retrospect, I see His strong hand holding mine, even when my problems were my fault. And especially when they weren’t.

When we are weak, He is strong

2 Corinthians 12:8-9.  Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” (NLT)

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ADHD, Plans, Uncategorized

No New Year’s Resolutions this Year

No New Year resolutions this year. Instead, I’m doing a plan. Plans are achievable, measurable, and have a due date. For me, I’m going to lose 1 pound a week for 30 weeks by keeping my total caloric intake to 1800 calories a day. I’m going to do that by keeping track of my calories in My Fitness App.

All of that external input, including seeing your calories in the app, recording your weight, using photographs of your weight loss (which no one but me, my wife, and God will ever see), are very important motivators to the ADHD brain. We need all that stimulus to keep our interest in our goals.

Also, for one more motivation, I’m going to figure out a reward to give myself, both little ones for losing a pound each week, and one large one for attaining my goal. Rewards are also an important motivator for the ADHD brain. It gives us something to look forward to and keeps our interest in our goals.

I believe everybody, especially ADHDers are hard-wired to be motivated by rewards. Even God will give us a reward in heaven for what we did and didn’t do (1 Cor 3:13-14 and many other verses).

A reward is external to the benefits of meeting a goal. Benefits of losing weight are lowering blood pressure, having more energy, and looking better in your summer clothes. A reward is buying yourself that dress or suit you’ve been looking at (probably best not to reward yourself with a chocolate binge).

There’s nothing wrong with rewarding yourself with meeting your goals. This may feel weird if you’ve grown up with authority figures who believed that an appropriate reward is to not get punished. But that is a horrible motivator, especially if you have ADHD.

So this year, do away with vague resolutions and give yourself some ADHD friendly goals.

Have an awesome and blessed new year.

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ADHD, Encouragement, Forgiveness, Uncategorized

New year, new start!

Image of man leaping in front of a sunrise

On January 1, I began my annual attempt to read through the Bible in a year. This is something I fail at more often than not. But nevertheless, I try every year even if the previous year was unsuccessful. So why do I keep trying? Because it’s a new year. A new opportunity.

If you have ADD/ADHD  you probably feel like your past is riddle with failures. I know I do. The great news is that whatever your failures are, they are in your past and covered by the grace of God. Let’s leave the past where it belongs. Behind us. Let’s go forward.

Lamentations 3:22-23

The faithful love of the lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. (NLT)

1 John 1:8

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (NLT)

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