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gratitude/2023-12-25-grateful-for-doctors/index.md

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-I broke my first bone when I was 17, but I visited my first doctor many years before. 
+I didn't break my first bone until I was 17, but I visited my first doctor many years before. 
 
 I grew up with an odd fever syndrome that came and went every six weeks. 105 degree fevers each time. I remember two distinct moments hallucinating that the room was splitting and shifting and another when bees were covering the corner of my bunk. The delirium was real. 
 
 Eventually it went away. But there was also a doctor there each time I got sick. One for me, to take my blood. One for my mom, to try to comfort and counsel her. 
 
 I'm grateful for doctors of the mind who help alleviate sicknesses of stress, anxiety, depression, etc. I know more people with some type of recurring emotional distress than I know without. I see the benefits reaped by those who seek emotional healing through therapy. I'm proud of the friends who struggle, but who don't struggle alone. The only way out, is with.
 
-I'm grateful for healers of the soul. Christ invited everyone to change their ways, to let go of the things that didn't bring them true happiness, and focus on the things that do. In one invitation, he urged us to come into him ["that I may heal you"](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/9?id=p13&lang=eng#p13). 
+I'm grateful for healers of the soul. Christ invited everyone to change their ways by letting go of the things that didn't bring them true happiness, and focus on the things that do. In one invitation, he urged us to come unto him ["that I may heal you"](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/9?id=p13&lang=eng#p13). I've witnessed spiritual healing through prayer, which is the process of going from feeling forgotten to then knowing I am a child of God and he has a plan for me. 
 
-This to me is the meaning of Christmas: healing. Freedom from the chains of death. From loneliness. From pain. 
+This to me is the meaning of Christmas: healing. Freedom from bruised bodies, broken minds, or hurting hearts. He came to be broken, so that we may be healed. 
 
-Not all healing happens in an instant. But I'm grateful healing is possible and there are doctors in the constant pursuit of it. 
+Not all healing happens in an instant. But I'm grateful healing is possible and there are doctors in the constant pursuit of it. And I'm grateful for friends who have, at times, helped heal me in all these ways. 
+
+Most of us won't be known as doctors. But all of us try the best we can to help heal our loved ones, helping a child with a band aid, a spouse with a hug, a chat with a friend looking to be found. Thank _you_ for doing the work of Christmas, all year round. 
 
 
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