With all that is going on in our culture, our country, and the world, it is so easy to become discouraged and wonder how anything one individual can do will make any difference at all.  A very dear friend sent me a reminder today of a sentiment so basic that it actually gave me pause and a new perspective for the day.    Here it is…

This reminds me of the old story of the boy and his dad walking along the beach after a big hurricane. The beach was covered with starfish. The young boy periodically would bend down, pick up a starfish and toss it into the ocean. As he continued to do this his dad said, “The beach is covered with starfish; tossing a few into the ocean will not make a difference.” The boy bent down, picked up another star fish, tossed it into the ocean and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

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Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness.
December 22nd, Streams in the Desert.

As Mother’s Day approached this year I realized that it was occurring on the exact 5 year anniversary of Rhys’ death in Iraq.  As Michael said Happy Mother’s Day the night before, I grumbled, “What is so happy about it?”

We ask the question and if we are truly seeking, God promptly answers us.

I got up on the morning of Mother’s Day to prepare some goodies for a small brunch gathering.  While in the kitchen, Michael came down with a printed sheet of paper flapping in his hand.  “Look at this,” he said with that knowing bit of twinkle in his eyes.  The paper held a printed message of an e-mail he had received.   The message was one of greetings and request.  The greeting was from one of Rhys’ teammates from the deployment in Iraq.  The request was to send a very Happy Mother’s Day to me.  The note went on to say what a pleasure it was to have known Rhys.

That note was the beginning of what I think was the best Mother’s Day ever or at least since Rhys was killed. (more…)

Today on the radio I heard a question. If there was a person with whom you could spend one more Christmas, who would it be? For me, and I’m sure for Michael as well, it would be with our son Rhys.

What would we do? How would it be? (more…)