Coming Soon: Resurrection Sunday

Celebration is on the Horizon

Monday, February 27, 2017

With the promise of Spring comes the reminder that Easter is just around the corner.

I’m pleased to announce that the next few weeks of my blog will be dedicated totally to Lent – the 40 days leading up to Resurrection Sunday. I find it hard to believe that the day after tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, or the first day of Lent. I must be getting old because time is going by way too fast!

In 2007, my mother wrote a Lenten Devotional Guide for her church in Homosassa, Florida. Her introduction will be published on my blog tomorrow and then Wednesday will begin the 40-day devotional.

I think it is important for you to know what was happening in my mother’s life at the time she wrote this little book.

My wonderful, sweet father celebrated his 80^th birthday in November 2005. His life had started to change a few years before that and he continued to decline for another 18 months. A significant heart attack, some infections, dementia, and kidney failure took their toll on him and on his primary caregiver, my mother. As mother penned this Lenten booklet, she was dealing with what would turn out to be my father’s last Easter. He died just a few weeks later in May 2007.

As you read mother’s introduction and each of her entries for the next 40 days, I dare say it will be difficult for you to discern that she was struggling with this monumental event in her life. She was so focused on the Lord who strengthened her through it all. My prayer is that her example will inspire us all to keep our eyes trained on our Father and not to get lost in the difficulties we face each day.

With God at our helm, we can weather any storm on this sea of life.

May these next few weeks prepare us all for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Lord, thank you for my parents. Daddy showed me beyond a shadow of a doubt what unconditional love was all about. He taught me that there was One who loved me more than he did – You. How thankful I am that I can begin to conceptualize who You are because of who he was. And mother truly loved this quirky third child. She celebrated and encouraged me like no other. Thank you for the opportunity I now have to share mother’s words with my friends. Use them for your glory, O Lord!