Category: Looking to God

October 21, 2022

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou6 Comments

This is the Thirteenth Year Since my Dad has passed–I wrote this letter to friends and family the Christmas after he passed, and I would like to share it again with you all.

Dear Family and Friends, Christmas 2009
This year, my siblings and I lost our Dad. Our mother lost her husband of 52 years. Many of you lost a brother, brother-in-law, uncle, Grandpa, cousin– a friend.
I’ve lived long enough to know that not all Dads were like mine. I was one of the lucky ones. I had a Dad who was involved and committed to his family: he loved his wife, children and grandkids. My Dad wasn’t one of the lucky ones. He overcame a very painful childhood. He wanted things to be different for his own family, and it was— in large part because of his faithful helpmate and soul mate—my dearest mother.
So many of my childhood memories involve my Dad doing things with us, taking us skating, sledding, camping, and swimming. When I was in High School I decided to join the track team– my Dad ran with me every day to get me in shape for the track season. My Dad was a great runner himself, and in many ways I think my Dad was trying to get me ready to run the race of life. We would run, and he would tell me stories, trying to impart his own passion and drive into my approach to running, into my approach to life.
It was my Uncle Jimmy, not my Dad, who told us the story of my Dad running in the State finals. He was the only white runner in the race. The other racers turned to him, and said, “Hey white boy, what are you doing in this race.” My Dad replied with a grin, “You’re about to find out”, and he went on to win the race.”
My brother Patrick summed it up so well, he said Dad has taught us and trained us in so many ways to live life. My brothers got to be with my Dad when he died, and Patrick said that Dad had one more lesson to teach them, he taught them how to die– he wrote the last chapter for them on how a life should be lived.
The biggest lesson my Dad taught me was to never give up. Our sins and failings may bring us down, but they don’t have to keep us down. My Dad was a man of faith; he learned to receive God’s forgiveness and extend it to others. This was not easy for him–sometimes the hardest person he had to forgive was himself.
The night that he died, I sensed my Dad’s presence, and he was so happy. My Dad came to say goodbye. He was finally going home—to his true home, he had finished his race, and he had finished it well.
Whenever I go to a funeral and see the body—I am struck with the fact that all of us are “living souls”. That is what the Bible calls us. It is so apparent to me that the soul of the person has passed on.
God is offering each of us “living souls” an eternal relationship with Him. He wants to give us the gift of His love and forgiveness. This is the true gift of Christmas— “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Romans 6:23 What we have earned is a spiritual death, because we have each sinned against God and each other. Instead of what we have earned, God desires to give us an eternal relationship with Him—Jesus’ death took away the penalty of that spiritual death and replaced it with life. But like any gift—it must be received for it to become truly ours.
In so many ways, my earthly father taught me this. I could never earn the love he freely gave me—but to experience that love, I had to receive it as the gift it was.

On another note–October 21st is my husband’s dad birthday!! I wrote about my husband’s dad in the blog titled September 23, 2013.

The biggest lesson, I have learned from both of these dads–is the lesson of forgiveness and perseverance. They both finished their races in life. They finished well. I think that is so encouraging, as it is a testimony of the faithfulness of God. We can be encouraged by those who have gone before us–for if God was faithful to them, He will be faithful to us!! (Philippians 1:6)

So Be Encouraged!!

My Blog Thoughts

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou6 Comments

I came across this blog–titled “My Blog Thoughts” in my files–I wrote this over 3 years ago before I started my “Blog”.   I really liked it–it was a look into my heart and mind, and showed what God was putting in my heart and mind to do.  It shows that there are seasons to a person’s life, and I was aware that I was entering into another season of my life.  Anyway—Here is this blog–written over 3 years ago–I hope you enjoy it, and it encourages you.

I have told myself for some time that I would start writing, and today is the day, even if no one ever sees my writing, even if no one else ever cares.  I have wanted to write professionally for a long time.  I think I may have a gift for writing.  Many times, I write, and I wonder where the words came from—it’s as if they spring from my fingers to the page, my heart, not my head bringing them forth.

And I feel the same kind of awe that I experience when I hear a lovely song, or see a poignant picture.  I think artistic gifts awe me because I don’t intellectually understand them.  I don’t know how someone can compose a song, or paint a picture, or write a book.   (I can play the piano, but I can not compose).  I can draw a picture, but there is a big difference between my drawings and Leonardo de Vinci.    🙂

When we see or hear or read a master’s creation, there is a sense that we are seeing or hearing, or reading the work of God.  That the divine has reached down and touched us through this master.

(Now I am not claiming at all that I am a Master, far from it, but I do think that there is something spiritual about writing for me.  Because it is so clearly a gift—it would be as foolish for me to take credit for my writing, as it would to take credit for my blue eyes.)  However, there is also an element of work about writing—about practice—and having a voice and opinions and expressing them through writing.

That work of writing is what I need to see if I can do.  The day to day, I am going to write, I am going to practice, I am going to take one more step to the goal of becoming a professional writer.

I have been busy in the season of raising children, I’m still busy in that season, but that season will be coming to end before I know it, and the same voice that speaks through my fingers is also telling me to start a new season for my life—the season of being a writer.

So the big question—what do I write about?  What does this voice want me to express?  That too is easy—my life has been wrapped up into my children, and my husband, and I want to tell of what I’ve learned.  I want to tell you the value of letting my life be wrapped up in my family.  Not because my children are perfect, or are navigating life as God would want them to, nor because my marriage is perfect and we are living a fairy tale ending.  

No—because in spite of the results, (thus far), my family has been worth my life.  That is the bottom line—my family has been worth my life.  Just as God has deemed that I was worth dying for, and that you were worth dying for, my family has been worth my daily, sometimes moment by moment death to myself, as I have placed them over myself on a day by day basis.  (Have I done this perfectly?  No  In fact, if you talked to each of my children and husband, they could tell you, (if they were being honest), of all the ways I have failed to love them the way they wanted to be loved.

However, Love is not giving in to my child’s every whim.  Love is not being a doormat.  Love is not doing all the work in the home.  Love is not any of those things—it is about doing what is best for the other person—for their future character and development, for their ability to be prepared for their future life.  Therefore, my child may perceive that my actual loving act of requiring them to help with the dishes—to be an unloving act.  That’s ok.  As my mother used to say, “Someday, I’m going to have to stand before God and give an accounting for how I raised you.”  (I used to hate it when she said that, but that is true—I have to answer to God, and my child is not my God   )

There ends the thoughts from this blog–I think it is interesting that I said, God was moving me into the season of being a writer—because I now realize that when one becomes a parent, that parenting role will continue as long as I and my child are both alive.  However, it will change, and there will be an ability to do other things that before–because we chose to homeschool, I was not able to do. 

I am also well aware, that people will be tempted to look at my decisions about staying home with my children and homeschooling and think I am advocating these decisions for them. I am not–I am advocating that we all listen to God, step out in faith, and obey Him. It will look differently for each of us, according to the gifts, and faith God has given each of us.

Our God knows we are but dust, here today and gone tomorrow–and He has compassion on all us poor souls who take one step at a time, one day at a time–fumbling and making mistakes. Our God holds our hands, and He will not let us be hurled headlong on our path, but will keep picking us up. We have a good, good God who loves us beyond what we can think or imagine. He will not leave us alone in this calling of parenting, or whatever calling He has for us. He will never leave us or forsake us. So Be Encouraged!!

The Gift of Hind Sight

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Do you ever look back, and see the hand of God in your life, taking care of you, providing opportunities, guiding you and directing your path?   I call this the gift of hindsight.

 When I look back it is so clear to me, how God took care of us, but when I was living that moment, it wasn’t clear at all.  I think one of the reasons for this, is that I have my plan, and when that plan gets derailed, I feel frustration, disappointment and sometimes despair.

I’d like to share with you some of the ways God provided for us, to encourage you.  God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow– (Hebrews 13:8).  He can be counted on.  We, however, are all different from one another.  The Bible calls us the Body of Christ. (Romans 12:4,5:  Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body, we are many parts of one body, and we all belong to one another.)  In other words –We have different purposes because we make up different parts of the “Body of Christ.”  So, when I share my story, please look at what God is doing and what is true about Him.  I hope you don’t compare yourself to me or judge me—as we were made differently, for different purposes.  We are both needed, we are both necessary, we are both loved, but I may be the mouth of the body, and you may be the eye.  Would you really want to live without either one?

So, here goes—When my husband and I were young parents, God was leading us to do something we thought rather drastic.  He was leading us to trust Him for our finances, and for me to stay home with our children.  We had both graduated from college.  We had careers, yet we were going to live off one income and I was going to be the one to stay home.

 My husband really wanted to start his own Construction Company, but he didn’t think he had enough experience, so, he took a job as a Resident Hall Director at a University, (which included housing and food–making it easy for me to stay at home with our child), so that he could get another degree, making him more marketable in the professional world.  Then a year into the job, the University closed two of its dorms and my husband lost his job.  At the time, we were devastated.  We had our plan– and that plan was changed.

My husband was offered a job by a local construction company.  He was offered $6 an hour, which was a little more than minimum wage at the time.  When we prayed and asked God about what we should do, it seemed clear that this was the way God wanted us to pursue my husband’s dream of having a construction company.

We didn’t know how we were going to live on the wages, my husband would be making.  Yet God was clearly asking us to trust Him and depend on Him.  He was asking us to walk by faith.   So—we did.  It felt a bit like free falling, but as we walked with God, it became clear why He was the rock– the foundation, we could stand on.  (Matthew 7:24-27)

 Our first concern was housing—where could we afford to live?  Well, the people my husband worked for had several rentals, and they were willing to rent to us.  The apartment was a bit expensive for our current salary, but for apartments in the area, it was very reasonable, I think we paid $440 dollars a month.

Our second concern was food—we had a very small budget—I think it was $30 a week for groceries, (this was 26 years ago—but that was still low at the time.)  I learned to use 1 chicken to make three different meals—roast chicken, chicken pot pie, and chicken soup.  I made everything from scratch, because it was less expensive.  I would make up a menu for the week, write down my grocery list, and estimate how much everything was going to cost.  I would go to the store, and time and time again, the things on my list were on sale that week.  Coincidence—I don’t think so—I think that was God’s graciousness to us.

 Our third concern was clothing.  We didn’t really buy new clothes at this time, we used what we had, later however, when money wasn’t quite so tight, we would shop at discount stores, second-hand stores, and garage sales.  Our family would give us gifts of clothes and family and friends would give us hand-me-downs.   We weren’t and aren’t too proud to accept hand me downs, and we gave and give away a lot of hand-me-downs too.  God has used these support systems to help meet our needs many times, and hopefully has used us to meet others’ needs as well. 

One of the biggest gifts from God at this time of our lives was a house we could afford to own ourselves.  We had been renting since we were married, and we really wanted to have our own home.  My husband had been taking side jobs outside of his regular construction job, and we saved this money to make a down payment on a house.  However, we knew it would take an act of God to bring us a house that we could afford to live in.

Then a friend of mine told me about a house that had been given to our church.  It was over a hundred years old, and it needed everything—roof, furnace, electrical and plumbing.  It had layers and layers of wallpaper on the walls.  It had great bones: beautiful hard wood floors, 11-foot ceilings, deep base boards—truly a diamond in the rough. 

This house became our first home.  We could afford this house; we bought it for $27,000!!  It was less expensive to live in this home than it was to rent.  We had enough for the down payment and enough to reroof the house!   My husband traded labor with a plumber and electrician, so we paid nothing out of pocket for our house to be replumbed and for a new electrical service.

Then we bought a furnace for $50!!  My husband was putting a new addition on a house, and the house needed a new furnace for the extra square footage, so the owner sold us their older furnace for $50.

These are just a few ways that God graciously provided for us and blessed us!!   Within three years of my husband taking the job in construction, we started our own construction company.  We have been in business for 24 years!!

 I am glad that when I look at the past, I see God leading us, and I see us following God.  Sometimes I see us following grumbling and complaining.  Sometimes I see us following, in great pain, but still following. Sometimes, I see our disobedience and rebellion—when we thought we knew better than God did and went our own way.   Many times, I see God carrying us, because we had no strength.

I am grateful for the gift of Hindsight, that allows me to see God’s will being played out in our lives.  God tells us to look back and remember His works and His acts, (1 Chronicles 6:12),  so when we are faced with faith hurdles in the present, we remember how He helped us jump those hurdles in the past and trust Him in the present as well.

 I hope that in sharing our stories, it will encourage you in your own walk of faith, to look back at how God was faithful to lead you and provide for you, so that you can continue to follow Him in your life today.

So Be Encouraged!!

Grief

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou13 Comments

We are approaching the anniversary of my son’s passing.  My son Sean died 8 years ago.  His accident was on September 16th, and he was declared dead on September 17, 2013.

I want to talk about a difficult subject—the subject of coming along side someone in grief.

When Sean died, others sought to come along side of us and help us—and there was a great outpouring of service and love and help.

But there was also silence from those we “expected” help from.  My mom told me a story, that helped me understand.  You see, my mom’s sister lost 2 of her children and her husband within a 6-month space of time.  My mom said that at times she was so overwhelmed in her own grief that it was hard to help her sister in her grief.  She did help her sister—but it wasn’t easy.

This has helped me to understand that I and my husband and children weren’t the only ones who were grieving when Sean died.  Others needed grace in their grieving as well. They may have been grieving Sean or they may have been grieving something else going on in their own lives.

Also, I came to realize that no one—not my husband, not my other children, not my extended family, no friend—could ever meet my deepest needs—only God could do that.  

That is not to say that others do not have a role to play in helping others who are grieving.

Right now, there is a family who has lost their dad.  Another friend and I have been trying to organize others to help them.  This friend frequently tells me with great passion: “We are apart of the body of Christ, we are His hands and His feet, and God wants us to move and help others.”

She is absolutely right. 

My mom and my Aunt, (who lost her family members), came most frequently to help with–well everything. Other family members also came to help.

After Sean died, a neighbor down the street from us, a sister in Christ, organized meals for us for 2 months—and people from all the churches in my town signed up to bring us a meal.

People came right after Sean died and cleaned our house.

A couple friend, (in the Pastorate), meet with us for over a year, once a week, and provided grief counseling, and friendship.

My best friends took my children on excursions and spent time with me.

All amazing things.

I also experienced rejection, conflicts, loss of friendship, and silence from others.

In reading others’ blogs—the good, the bad and the ugly are all typical and normal things to experience to those who have lost a loved one.

Grief—suffering—these are difficult, difficult things.  Grace, kindness and gentleness with oneself and with others are needed during these times.  Mostly, and above all else—God’s sustaining spirit is what is needed and is available to each of us, for the asking.

One of the worst things for my spirit, was to hang onto bitterness and unforgiveness.  God has frequently pried my hands off these ugly things I was hanging onto and told me with grace and gentleness that He had something better for me to hang onto—Him!! 

In saying this—I do not want to minimize the hurt that is felt by the grieving party, over the lack of caring they may be experiencing.  I understand the hurt.  I too, have felt the hurt.

Rather, I want to give a way for the hurt party to understand that they are not alone—others have walked the same path and have found freedom from the hurt in forgiveness and in the presence of God.

If you are grieving right now, I am praying for you!!  I would appreciate your prayers for my family and myself.  Thank you!

Guilt

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou7 Comments

This week I ran into an old friend.  I reminded her that years ago, she told me that she had a dream, where God talked to her and said, “Katie is a good mother.”   I told her that I clung to that statement after Sean died, as sometimes I felt like such a failure as a mom.  We both started crying.

Feeling like a failure as a parent– is something with which so many of us are struck.  We all have things that we truly regret and wish we had done differently.  I know that there are certain areas of my life that God has asked me to turn over to Him, but I have struggled doing that.  Why?  Because these things are idols—they give me a sense of security, or significance or comfort.  I turn to them, instead of God.  I don’t want to give them up, because I lack the faith to believe that God will really provide for me or fill me with significance or comfort me.

  I remember when the passages of Matthew 6 really struck me—Jesus was telling His followers—not to worry about food, or clothing or shelter—as our Heavenly Father knows we need all these things—but to seek first God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be added onto us. 

 I thought—wow, Jesus, you really must be from Heaven, you really must be God, as everyone I know is worried about those things, everyone I know is seeking after those things, including me.  You are looking at things from God’s perspective.  You are trying to give us God’s perspective.  The perspective that says—”Don’t worry, I’ve got this, just listen to Me, do what I am calling you to do and I will take care of you.”

Here’s the thing—when I trusted Jesus to be my Savior, He came into my life, and I was adopted as a child of God.  3rd Chapter of John   I will always be God’s daughter, “our relationship” as Father and Daughter will continue throughout eternity.  However, when I “sin”, it effects our fellowship—it separates our communication.

 We see this in our own relationship with our children, my sons and daughters will always be my sons and daughters, but sin will hinder or stop our communication with each other.  I will always love them, nothing can stop me from loving them, but things can stop us from really talking to each other, and they may not “feel” the love I have for them consequently.

So how do we deal with the guilt, when we know, we haven’t been listening to God, and we haven’t been following Him—we haven’t been obeying Him.

This is going to sound simple—it is simple—but it is so hard to implement—why?  Because it means letting go of our idols and clinging unto God and agreeing with God about those idols.

Confessing—means to agree with God.  That’s it—it just means to agree with Him, to stop justifying, stop defending our actions—just agree.  I like to defend and justify and continue my actions.  It is so hard for me to agree. It is so hard for me to yield.

However, scripture says, “ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

Sometimes when I agree with God, I “feel” forgiven, and sometimes I do not.  Sometimes there is such a sense of relief and sometimes there is not.   Whether I “feel” forgiven or not, God’s word says—when we confess, God is faithful, God is just—He does forgive us—as in things are right between us now– our fellowship is restored.  Our relationship – He is my Dad, I am His daughter was never in danger—when I accepted Jesus all my sins, past, present and future were forgiven, but our fellowship was being hindered.

God’s word says, I am forgiven, and you are forgiven, therefore we take God at His Word, not our feelings, and we cling to God’s Word as truer than anything—truer than our feelings, truer than our circumstances.

I am learning to trust God’s Word over my feelings.  When I do, I can look at the “feeling” of guilt and judge whether it is legitimate or not.  If I have confessed and yielded my life to God—than the “feeling” of guilt is false, it is not legitimate.   If I have sinned and not confessed, than the feeling of guilt is legitimate and is a tool to point me to God, who is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me.

Either way, I let guilt point me to God.  I let His Word, His Spirit and His other children speak truth in my life.  I find that if I let guilt point me to God, God will deal with the guilt—if it is a false guilt, or if it is the voice of “the accuser of the brethren”.    I know that the enemy of my soul wants to use guilt to drive me away from God, so if I instead, let it drive me to God—it has the opposite result of what the enemy wanted to have.  Yay!!

Don’t be afraid to let another trusted believer know what you are struggling with—they can often help you discern truth and help you in your struggle to hear God’s voice and receive His wisdom.  My husband is a great discerner of truth, and he helps me immensely.  He encourages me and tells me how I am succeeding as a mom, and with me, he fights the enemy who would love for me to feel hopeless and like a loser.

Mostly, my husband reminds me that we are in the middle of the chapters of our lives.  The story isn’t over.  He reminds me that God is in control and God loves our children more than we do.  God’s love and mercy and forgiveness have no end!!

If that isn’t encouraging, I don’t know what is!!

**Picture is my husband and I surrounded by our nieces and nephews at our wedding reception.

Be Anxious For Nothing……

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou2 Comments

I am sitting in my living room right now, while my grandchildren play on the floor, and my son and daughter work in the kitchen preparing a birthday dinner for my husband.   I am writing, because anxious thoughts are pressing against me, due to the uncertain times we are all living in, and I find myself needing to focus my mind on the LORD.

Perhaps, you are finding yourself fighting anxious thoughts as well, if so, I hope these scriptures will help you focus your mind and calm your thoughts—I am hoping the same thing for myself.

Philippians 4:6   Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.

4:7  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix you thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

4:9  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing.  Then the God of peace will be with you.

I frequently battle anxious thoughts so I frequently think about these verses.  I love that scripture encourages me to pray about everything!!!!   That means—God wants me to bring everything and anything to Him that I am concerned about–  Nothing is too small or too big.    And what will be the result of my prayer—the result is peace.  Peace.  Peace. 

For those of us dealing with anxiety, and sleepless nights—Peace sounds amazing!!   The Peace that God has to give us, exceeds anything we can understand.   I have experienced that peace from God when there was no reason to experience that peace. 

I experienced it when my son died, (I wrote about this in The Gift of Grace), I experienced this Peace when I was told I had to have surgery on my eye for a detached retina, (I wrote about this in—Yes, Jesus loves you).   These were a few dramatic occasions when I have supernaturally experienced God’s Peace and Presence.  I recount those times again, to remind myself that if God was with me then—– He is with me today.

Scripture goes on to tell us to Fix our thoughts on what is true, and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.  We are to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

There is a children’s song, and the words to it go, “Be careful little eyes, what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, for the Father up above is watching you with love, so be careful little eyes what you see.”

Just as we are careful with what our children see and hear—wanting to protect them and preserve their innocence—our Heavenly Father wants to protect our minds and preserve our holiness.   He knows that what we focus on will affect our emotions and our peace. 

Today, was a day of many sweet moments with our children and grandchildren.  It was so easy to think about things that were pure and lovely and right and admirable—all I had to do was look into one of my loved one’s faces and catch their smiles, and my mind and body were flooded with feel good endorphins. 

God knows what He is talking about, when He tells us how to have Peace!!

So, my friend, I pray that you and I will take His advice—and receive His Peace, Presence and Encouragement!!

Worried?–no? Praying–Yes!!

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou2 Comments

Well… my birthday has come and gone—and newsflash—I actually had a lovely day!!  I am not sure why after years of having terrible melancholy on my birthday, this year, it was a sweet and enjoyable day.  As I explained in the blog, titled, “The Beat goes on.”, since I can remember, I have felt terribly sad on my birthday, and I don’t know why.  In fact, I just expect to feel badly—but this year although I expected to feel badly–  I did not!!!, and I can only attribute this to the fact that I let you’all know I was feeling sad, and you’all prayed for me; you fought this spiritual battle with me, and for this, I am grateful, so, very, very grateful, and so is my family. 

  I must say, that you prayed for me before—when I wasn’t sleeping, and I shared that with you’all in my blog, “The Gift of Sleep, has been taken away.” and then in my blog, ” I am sleeping again, Thank you God!!,” I was able to tell you’all that I was indeed sleeping again— because you were praying for me.!!

  Wow—who knew that this would be the benefit of writing this blog to me!!  I thought I was just stepping out in faith and being obedient to what God was telling me to do—but God knew that He would also be using this blog in my life—to help me in fighting  spiritual battles.

I hope you will share on my blog areas you need prayer, as I think this could be one of the most encouraging and transforming elements of this blog—all of us praying for each other.

I ask you to pray for my family and myself as we come up to one of the most difficult seasons of the year for us.  We lost our beloved son, (and for my children—their brother), seven years ago this coming September 17th.  Sean was hit by a vehicle while riding his bike on September 16th, and declared dead on the 17th.

This is a season with great pain and suffering, not just for me and my family, but for our entire nation–for many, many reasons. I am praying that our circumstances draw us to the Lover of our souls and that we find what we have all been thirsting and hungering after in Him. May we love one another as we are filled with His love. May our country be changed because of that love.

I found this video that gives examples of the transforming power of God. I found it to be so, so encouraging, and hope it encourages you as well.

We have so much to pray for and about.  I encourage all of us to go before the throne of God to find help in our time of need.  Let us set aside time everyday to humble ourselves before His Mighty Hand and pray!!  And Let Us Be Encouraged!!

And the Beat goes on…..

Published on by katiesencouragementforyou10 Comments

And the Beat goes on…..

La de da de de, la de da de da…..

For those of you too young to recognize this, it is a line from an old Sonny and Cher song.  It sums up life—it keeps going on, in spite of tragedies and traumas all around us.

It does not stop for anything—not even for pandemics, not for losing precious loved ones, not for anything.

Life keeps going on…

There is something to be said for that—for knowing that the Sun will come out tomorrow, that one season will follow the next season, that there will be a high tide and a low tide.  There will be consistency among all the uncertainties of life.

The Beat goes on… la de da de di, la de da de da….

The One who created those consistencies is also consistent –in fact He tells us that, “I am the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”  “ I am the rock.”  “He who listens to me and believes my words is like the man who built his house on the rock, and when the storms of life come, that house will not fall.”

La de da de de, la de da de da….Yes, the Beat goes on….

I am writing this mostly for myself—to encourage myself—I need to rely on the Rock.  I need to listen to His words.  I need to take comfort from the Lord. 

I am coming up to two very difficult things in my life—my birthday, and the loss of my son Sean.

Since I was really young, I have had a hard time around my birthday.   I don’t know why.  I do know that my mother almost lost her life when I was born.  I do know that my son died a few weeks after my birthday.  Needless to say, when my birthday comes close, I feel terribly sad—and I have felt this way since I can remember.

7 years ago, I still had my son on my birthday.  I was still terribly sad. 

I used to try to make myself feel better on my birthday, but now I just accept the sadness, knowing it will pass.  My spirit is grieving, and I let it grieve.  But in the back of my mind, I am remembering, that life will go on, no matter what…..

Yes, the Beat goes on……

So Be Encouraged!!

P.S. The featured picture is of my grandson kissing my newborn granddaughter, proof that life does indeed–go on. 🙂 At times, life goes on very sweetly, indeed. 🙂