Hard Days

Some days are just hard days. Do you ever just want to runaway from life? Today is such a day for me. Yesterday would have been my neice Kelsey's 17th birthday. I came to Dallas on Tuesday to be with my sister and the rest of my family. We planted a pink crepe myrtle in their yard to be a reminder of life... as it blooms pink every spring. Sometimes my heart hurts so much the only way to get through the day is to remember Who is my sustaining strength. I try to remember the God of the mountain top victories is also the one who holds my hand through "the valley of the shadow of death." Some days it is hard to "count it all joy when you encounter various trials...". It is still a journey to rest in this command. Today it is hard to count.

Old friends or better yet friends from the past...

Tommorrow my husband and I travel down memory lane to a reunion of some our college friends in Nacogdoches. OK, not this far back, but I don't have any of my college day pictures in digital format....so use your imagination. One of our friends from college and seminary is Michele Easley (who is now president of Moody Bible College). He and his wife will be there for the weekend to speak at Grace Bible Church (the church we went to while in college). It will be interesting to see what God has done in the lives of our friends. Each of our journey's since college will have been different, but in some ways I'm sure the same. Many of us will have married and have a family. Many of us will be ministering in one form or another. Many of us will look older (if not wiser...wait, how do you look wiser?) I digress. We should have a great day, visiting, remembering, laughing... I'll let you know how it goes.

Memories of Kelsey

On October 3rd at 5:30 in the morning my 16 year old niece Kelsey went to be with the Lord. She glorified the Lord in her life and has through her death. Many lives have been changed since the Lord took her to be with Him. She is where I long to be. As Paul says, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." Kelsey has gained what I long for: to see my Lord face to face. To worship at His feet. Lives have been changed. Mine has been changed. I have had to re-focus. I have had to look closely at my priorities. I have had to balance the "peace that passes all understanding" with the human emotion of the grief that I feel as I miss Kelsey. She was a joyful, funny, dramatic, talented musician who loved the Lord and loved life. My life will never be the same. My family has felt the many, many prayers offered the past 12 days. They have sustained us. Thank you to all of my friends that have been faithful to pray for me and my family.