Wednesday's Wise Words

This week I have had one thought on my mind quite a bit.  When I lived in Troy, I led a group of girls at my church.  When I first started working with them, they were in the 7th grade.  I left them when they were starting their junior year.  Needless to say, working so closely with such an amazing group of girls for so long, we are all extremely close despite our age difference.  The girls are now seniors in high school, getting ready for their big prom this weekend and then graduation in just about three weeks.  They are precious girls and I love them all like they are my sisters.

One of the girls lost her father this past Thursday night.  He went in the hospital two weeks ago for hernia surgery and just had complication after complication after that and got progressively worse.  When he passed away on Thursday night, Em immediately texted me (we'd been in contact through all of this).  I had been telling her that if she needed or wanted me to come home, all she had to do was ask and I'd be there as quickly as I could drive.  Well, after she texted me to tell me her father had died, she asked if I'd come home.  I couldn't say no.  I left Thursday night from Jackson around 11:30 and made it to Troy around 4 a.m. Friday.  I spent a lot of my weekend with Em and her sister and their mom.

I say all of this to say a couple of things that qualify for Wednesday's Wise Words.

1.  Honor your father and mother.  This is one of the hardest of God's Commandments for me to follow.  I so often feel like I know more than my parents or know what is better for me than they do.  It is hard to respect them a lot of times because of this attitude.  However, I have to remember that the Lord instructs us as children to obey our parents and to follow their teachings.  I am blessed to have been raised in a Christian home where my parents taught me right from wrong, good from evil, and to love the Lord with all of my heart.  My parents' teachings came from the Bible and for this I am incredibly fortunate and even more grateful.  I just have to remember to honor them and to live in a way that glorifies God so that others can see that I was raised by amazing parents who passed this trait on to me.  My new goal is to live so that I can satisfy God's command in Proverbs 23:25:  "May your father and mother be glad, may she who gave you birth rejoice!"

2.  Share your love.  I am not a 'touchy-feely' person.  I am not one to express my feelings.  For some reason, I have always been one to keep those kinds of things on the inside.  Sure, I love my family and friends in a way that I could not express with words, but it is often very hard for me to say this.  However, after seeing (again) how quickly things can change and how, in a blink of an eye, someone can be taken from this world and from my life, I am reminded that I need to get over that.  It is so important to share our feelings with those we love and care for.  As we've always been told, we are not promised tomorrow.  We are not ourselves promised another day on this earth, but neither are those we care for.  We need to take every opportunity we have and make the most of it by saying "I love you" and showing those we care for just how much we love them.

That's all that I have for today, except to tell all of you that if you are reading my blog, you are someone special to me.  No matter whether we are as close today as we were at some point in the past or whether we talk regularly or not, you are my friend.  I love you and I am grateful God has placed you in my life, for whatever season.  Thank you for being there for me.