Elizabeth thought about God, the Lord and Savior she’d spent a lifetime worshiping. Being a believer meant there’d be times like this; wasn’t that what she’d learned over the years? Times when nothing made sense and all she could do was dig her fingernails into her faith and hold on for dear life.
You can’t move on while you’re clinging to a fantasy.
He needs the Lord, but I think right now God scares him.” Jim exhaled hard. “As if he knows God’s chasing him, and he’s determined to run until he hits a brick wall.
Life can be hard on people who want to make a difference for God.
With Ashley it had never been her poor choices as a young adult that made things hardest for all of them. It had been the way she cut herself off from the family, believing herself to be the black sheep.
Somehow dying was like that. A sense of nervousness and finality and sorrow because for a season, they wouldn’t be together.
Her plan was to be so comforted by the host of blessings she’d been given that when she reached the current day she’d be able to fall asleep.
No one deserves anything good we have in life. Because all good things are gifts from God.
Justice and grace were hard concepts for anyone, especially for a person young in her faith.
God had been faithful time and time and time again. That was the type of God the Baxters served. No, they didn’t always get the answers they wanted. But they always got the right answers, even now with her cancer.
She and Peter had been through counseling, and they understood that parents can only do so much to protect their children and that ultimately they belong to God first.
Every word she says, every step she makes, I’m reminded of the truth – that God still works miracles among us today.
Forgiveness was not a feeling, it was a choice.
There’s nothing like watching your children grow up, watching them become the people God created them to be.
Proof that life would go on – no matter what devastating news had come into their lives that week.
Together they would sift through the details of their children’s lives, rejoicing over the positives and reflecting on the areas that needed more prayer. They would laugh at the funny things the grandchildren said and comment about how fast they were growing up. Elizabeth would remind him that all of life went far too fast, and John would agree. The evening would fade, the sun would set, and they’d have the night to share each other’s company.
For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
It would be a year next Monday, a year since she’d left them. More and more he found himself reliving her final weeks, that crazy emotional roller coaster when the best and worst of times came together in a kaleidoscope of dark shadows and brilliant colors.
God, this one is Yours, too, no matter what he’s done. Show him the way to forgiveness. Please.
When Elizabeth was alive he had felt young and vibrant, perfectly intent on living another thirty years by her side. But these days he felt slow, tired, as if half his heart had stopped beating right along with hers.