A Gracefull Place

It’s been a topsy-turvy few weeks.  My mother-in-law had a mild heart attack, but kept having "episodes".  They were going to have to do a heart catheterization to see what was going on.  Problem with that was, her kidneys are only at 20% and the heart cath was going to further compromise them, meaning she’d be on dialysis for life afterwards.

 

 

Praise the Lord that a change in medication stopped the "episodes", so no heart cath!   She is now in a nursing home near us rehabbing and hopefully will go home in a few weeks.

 

 

Added to that, my dear and only grandmother that was left continually worsened.  She pretty much gave up after Grandpa died 6 weeks ago.  Last Wednesday she finished the course, fought the  good fight and laid her burden down in exchange for the Crown of Life.

 

 

Today was the funeral.

 

 

How do you encapsulate nearly 93 years of life in a short, one hour service?

 

 

The pastor who did it did the best job he could.  He’s known her since she and my grandpa got saved 50+ years ago.

 

 

My grandma left a legacy.   

 

 

A legacy of Christianity. 

 

 

Of Godliness.  

 

 

Of Servanthood. 

 

 

Of sweetness and caring.  I never heard her put anyone down.

 

 

Of prayer.

 

 

Oh, was she a prayer warrior!

 

 

Earth is bereft of a Godly saint.

 

 

Big shoes to fill.

 

 

I can’t do it alone.

 

 

I challenged all there–friends, family, lots of my cousins……I said we need to pick up the baton, and carry her legacy on. 

 

 

That is the most beautiful heritage a person can leave.

 

 

 

I am far richer than if she had left billions to us all.

 

 

 

I know her prayers are a BIG reason I am a Christian today.

 

 

And, like her, I don’t want my Christianity to be a "religion".  Something I put on, wear for awhile, and take off.  

 

 

But something I am.  Faith that shines through all I am and do.   For all to know that Jesus lives in the smack dab center of my heart, and all else is subject to Him and radiates from Him.

 

 

No one was around Grandma long without knowing she loved Jesus and she wanted you to, too!

 

 

May that be true of me.   May it be true of me.

 

 

May others see only Jesus in me.

 

 

In light of Eternity, all the petty little things we get our feathers ruffled about, all the things we deem so important (and really aren’t), all the stuff we think we have to have…….well, it’s just not important.

 

 

I want to take this day, these memories, this legacy, and keep it close.   I can’t let the tyranny of the urgent snatch relationships out of my hand.

 

 

Relationship with Jesus.

 

Relationship with my dear, sweet husband.

 

Relationship with my beautiful children.

 

Relationship with my extended family–may it not take another death to bring us all together!

 

Relationship with others–friends, church, even the strangers we cross paths with…..

 

 

After all that, what else matters?

 

 

I’ve decided it’s time to let go of the garbage.  No need to hang onto hurts, to "he saids, she saids", to lies and exaggerations, to the selfish things we all tend to do that hurt one another….

 

 

…let go.

 

 

Just let it all go.

 

 

Because in the end, it won’t matter.

 

 

But it will matter that I let it rob me of precious relationships.

 

 

They won’t be with us forever.

 

 

I choose to focus on the good.

 

 

I choose love which "covers a multitude of sins". 

 

 

And pray others would choose that for me, too.

 

 

Time is short.

 

 

What will you choose?

 

 

Will you please choose to forgive? To forget?  To move on? 

 

 

To love?

 

 

Please do.

 

 

 

 

Ann Voskamp has a beautiful and challenging post that is worth reading (all of hers are)–

 

fine art of subtraction: shift to see

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.