As the final weekend of August arrives, with a busy schedule of events that includes family and friends and church in Texas, my mind is very aware of where I and the family were one year ago.
I reread my blog post from Friday, August 26, 2011, "Choices for Such a Time as This." http://thats-the-spirit-patricia.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html My eyes moistened as I read, but I also realized I've never had a flood of tears in the year since my Dad's terminal cancer diagnosis and subsequent death. I am aware that flood still could come. But it also seems possible that instead of a flood, I will continue to have prisms, a combination of teary eyes, smiles, gratitude and the light of God's love and presence through family, friends, faith and precious memories. I cannot thank God enough for how He prepared and accompanied Mom and Dad as they led the family through that time and has continued to guide us in the days since.
Among the things I wrote at the time:
In the face of a beloved one's dire prognosis:
I choose hope.
I choose gratitude.
I choose to walk by faith.
I choose to see the good.
I choose to let God lead me.
I choose to believe God has prepared me.
I choose Jesus.
I choose love.
I choose life.
I choose joy.
None of these choices will automatically make things easier. I believe they will make things better.
I am humbled and blessed to realize that not only did I state those choices, I have followed them and continue to build upon them in my life, prayerfully, one day at a time. I thank God for that and pray to continue to do so.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine ... Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed! ... This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.
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(my comment on FB link) It looks like this could be it. If not a flood of tears, I may just experience a waves of emotion. Yes, I miss my Daddy, and I will be very aware of his absence as Whaley Church in Gainesville celebrates its 125th anniversary this weekend. (Mom, Becky and Amy be forewarned: I may shed some tears. Or maybe not; it seems I never do when I expect it, and when I don't expect it, such as while I'm writing this blog post and reading posts from last August and September, I weep.) But far surpassing any grief is my gratitude to God for the blessings He bestowed through my parents (and theirs, and theirs), family, friends and churches, including Whaley.
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