Take a Moment; Give Thanks

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. – Psalm 107:1

I met someone from Sierra Leone recently who moved here when he was a child. He mentioned reading the book A Long Way Gone, a memoir by Ishmael Beah. Based on my research, it seems the book is about a Sierra Leonean child soldier who fought in a war for three years and all the atrocities he and other child soldiers witnessed. I am hoping to get the book so I can read it for myself. I have been fore-warned that it is a very sad book. I told my new friend that even though no-one wants to experience it, sadness is necessary in life because without it no-one will appreciate nor understand the true meaning of joy as opposed to happiness which is a very transient feeling. He mentioned that he was just grateful and that he could have been any of those young soldiers.

As I drove home a couple of days ago, I learnt that a woman I knew at some level passed away after battling with cancer. I was especially affected by her death – not because I knew her very well or could be considered a friend but because like me she had two daughters, ages 10 and 8 that she was raising on her own. My heart went out to the children. What are they to do without their mother? I asked God why? Why take the only person that was caring for them? They had a biological father as all children do but she was the only real parent they knew. Who will help with school homework and projects now?

I caught a rare glimpse of my eldest daughter's spirit when she saw the woman's daughters at a Halloween event last night. She asked to go over to them and I agreed. I watched as she hugged both of them and they shared a joke that made all three laugh. I watched in amazement as she gave them a goodbye hug and made her way back to me. I asked her what she said to them. She said "Nothing really, I just wanted them to know that I loved them". I wowed at her sense of compassion at a relatively young age. This morning she thanked me for taking her out last night (even though I could only manage 40 minutes!). She mentioned that she is proud of me because I am strong. I was touched but not surprised. I talk to her all the time - everything I write on this blog she has heard me say. If you are a parent, teach your children - it really makes a difference on who they will become.

So I took some time this morning to again thank God. I pray he spares my life – not because I am afraid to die; to be absent from the body is to be present with the Father. But who will watch my daughters with the same diligence that I do? Who will they trust when they have been repeatedly let down by empty promises? Who will take care of them if not me?

We should all be grateful for our lives – that our lives are spared, that we are not sick or dying from a stubborn disease that refuses to succumb to any type of cure. We all need to take time and hold our children, our friends and our family. We need to talk to others who have not yet known the Lord on how they can secure a future inheritance that physical death cannot take away. We all need to gripe a little less and love a lot more while making a strong commitment to enjoy today as tomorrow may never come.