Four weeks ago today.

It’s been four weeks- almost a whole month.

In some ways, these days have crept along and in others, they’ve went by much too fast.

We’ve been working to clean out Mama’s home. We’re almost done.

I’ve been on the phone with an attorney, an accountant, and her creditors working our way through these details so that everything is closed out in perfect order- just the way my mom would have wanted it left.

We are still crying each day- I think Ben by far, has had the hardest time this week.

He wanted to play one more game of chess with her- and he very much cherished trips to the corner produce stand (Mama loved fresh tomatoes from the local farmers!).

I hurt for him, and with him. Some days just seem too hard.

That said, the Lord has offered His mercy, His compassion, and His love in the most wonderful and unexpected ways….

a sweet note from my precious great aunt, a long phone call from my mama’s best friend (just to tell me she loves me), lunch with one of her old friends, emails and hugs from my own friends, etc., etc.

I am watching the hands and feet of Christ, I know I am– how magnificent to watch the body of Christ at work.

I feel humbled and unworthy for the love being poured out on us each day.

I also see God working in amazing ways- using our experience to help others- even while this experience is so fresh.

One of my dear friends is experiencing a similar situation with her own precious mom. It’s hard to watch her suffering…it’s so close and so raw. I ache for her.

Standing in the Walmart check out line, I noticed the cashier had an ace bandage around her arm- I asked if she had hurt herself. She went on to tell me she had bre*st cancer and was being treated after having her bre*sts and lymph nodes removed. SHE IS ONLY 33 YEARS OLD. I started crying and told her I had just lost my mama to uterine cancer. She started crying and told me I was being too hard on myself that it had only been a few weeks and I was going to have to give myself more time…that it takes a while to be OK after losing your mom. I told her I would be praying for her. She told me she would be praying the Lord would give me peace.

I felt God in Walmart that day. (Her name was Olivia. Please be praying for her and her family.)

Yesterday, I went to the power company to pay Mama’s power bill. I explained that she had passed and I needed to have the bill taken out of her name. I presented the clerk at the window with her death certificate and finished my transaction.

When I was done, a woman walked over to me from three windows down. She didn’t know what had happened to my mom, only that she had passed. She said she was so sorry for our loss.

She went on to explain that her mom had just left her a phone message- she had surgery for bre*st cancer and it had become infected. They were having to do emergency surgery this morning at 5:30.

She then gave me a business card and asked me to be praying for her…as I looked down, I realized she was a real estate agent- oh, wow. Just what I was needing. I was going home that afternoon to start looking for an agent to list my mom’s house.

Would you like to guess where most of her homes are located?? In the exact area where my mom lives- only she was an hour away paying her bill in person at the Alabama Power building more on our side of town.

Coincidence? Absolutely not.

Please be praying for this family. I know her mom is in surgery, even as I type.

The Lord is good.

I will praise Him when things are good, and when things are not seeming so good to me knowing they ALWAYS work for good.

This is on of our most recent memory verses…..

Phillipian 4:4

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”

 

In recent weeks, as I’ve faced challenges, the Lord speaks to me in these verses….

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

 

….and then there are these verses.  Even when we may not see the Lord working, He is there.  HE IS ALWAYS THERE.

Phillipians 4:15-18

“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Praise God from whom all blessings flow….those seen and not seen.

Do you have a specific prayer request I might remember just for you??

With my love,

Tracy