Sunshine Beautiful

Outside it was a gray, wet, and very windy day yesterday. Yet, in my heart, it was sunshine beautiful, because I am getting daily reminders of God's love and comfort. He reminds in so many ways, not only of His constant presence, but also of the lessons that my mother taught me during the last year of her life.

Growing up, I remember that my mother was both stubborn and impatient, but in her later years, she really mellowed a lot. By doing that, she taught me that there is hope for her stubborn, impatient daughter!

In the last year of her life, it seemed at times, as if the Lord and my mother were teaming up to show me a better way of life. She had mellowed to the point that very little ruffled her, and when something did upset her, she would say, "I can't allow things to upset me, I just have to pray about it and leave it to the Lord."

It was the little, every day things, that showed me how much my mother had allowed the Lord to make changes in her life. We mended some serious rifts during her last year, and grew closer than we had ever been. Maybe it was the "mending of the fences" that made me more attentive to what she had to say. Yet, it wasn't so much what she said, as what she did. She constantly looked to the Lord for her strength, and by her actions, she helped to strengthen my spiritual walk. I told her that one time, and her response was that she couldn't have made the changes without the Lord's help.

After having a massive stroke a year before her death, she felt very blessed to still be alive. Every day she gave credit to the Lord for another day of life. She almost died again four months later, but the Lord blessed once again. My mother often told me that she didn't know why she was still here on this earth. She figured it was either because the Lord had something He wanted her to do, or that she still had lessons to learn. Whichever it was, she was grateful for each and every day.

I'm thinking maybe He had lessons for ME to learn . . .

Hear my instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it. Proverbs 8:33