I Love You So Much... Always, Jesus.

Hey Friend,

Reminder:  Don't forget to enter the April drawing to win a  FREE Professional Teeth Whitening Kit ($149) (see the ps. at end)...

The clock read 2:42 and I couldn't sleep.  I switched positions several times, but comfort didn't come.  My son was on my mind and I just couldn't shut it off.  A bunch of words came into my head, but I knew I couldn't text all that because it would be overwhelming.  And so, I just got up.  I sat in the darkness and prayed. 

These are the words that came to me and so I texted them, to my son, at 3:20 in the early morning darkness lit only by my laptop screen. 

Life is hard.  No one is perfect.  Therefore; Easter.  I love you so much... always, Mom.

From there, God started calling people to mind.  One of my good friends had texted me, in response to my apology for not being more in touch...

"Hi my friend,

I knew you had not fallen off the face of the earth.  I did get concerned that the rapture came and you went and I got left behind!!!  LOL."

My friend lives alone, she deals with continual pain, yet she encourages me with her compassion and her great sense of humor.  She has worked as a teacher for many years and longs for the day that she can retire and do the crafting that she loves. 

Her limited family can be passive aggressive a lot of the time and just the other day she had to write up a report and submit it to DSS.  One of her kindergartners in her class had come in with a black eye and told her about being hit with a belt.  It was not the first incident nor the first child.

Life is hard.  No one is perfect.  Therefore; Easter.  I love you so much...Jesus.

Another friend, for whom finding sleep is a continual battle, is drained from worrying about her son.  He is dealing with depression and though living with depression is hell, watching someone you love have to struggle, and feeling helpless as you stand on the sidelines is hell too.  

Nothing will suck the life right out of you more than having mental illness, than watching those you love suffer.  Wasn't motherhood supposed to become easier as our babies grew into young adults?  Not really...their problems just take on adult-sized dimensions.  And, a mother's heart is always a mother's heart.

Life is hard.  No one is perfect.  Therefore; Easter.  I love you so much...Jesus.

She couldn't believe it when she heard through the grapevine that the mistress her husband had left her for was expecting a baby.  Inexplicably she was drawn to the pictures posted on Facebook.  The other woman, belly swollen, standing in front of her beautiful new house looking radiant.

Meanwhile, my friend, shoulders the burden of single motherhood.  She is there for the heartbreaks and hormones, the outbursts and tears wrought from being abandoned by their dad. She lies awake at night wondering how the bills will get paid.  Sometimes she doesn't know how she gets through her days.  

Life is hard.  No one is perfect.  Therefore; Easter.  I love you so much...Jesus.

The list could go on and on....the friend who has had to adjust to a new "normal" since viral meningitis gave her the awful diagnosis or "Chronic Migraineur."  

Another, who who will have to endure another Mother's Day - the day his wife committed suicide two years ago- alone with his daughter.

The cousin who had finally made it to Broadway only to hit black ice coming home one Sunday and is now paralyzed from the chest down.

Life is hard.  No one is perfect.  Therefore; Easter.  I love you so much...Jesus. 

I've written on wrestling with God over the "Why's."  I've written about allowing for the mystery of God when pondering the "Why's."  I've written on focusing on what we DO KNOW when what "IS" doesn't make sense. 

Today I write on these four simple phrases:

Life is hard.  

John 16:33 New International Version (NIV)

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

No one is perfect.

Romans 3:23 New International Version (NIV)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Therefore; Easter.

John 3:17 New International Version (NIV)

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

I love you so much...

John 3:16 King James Version (KJV)

16 For God (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

always, Jesus.

Luke 23:43 New International Version (NIV)

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

To the thief beside him who sinned, endured suffering and torture, shared in the suffering of Christ, died, BUT BELIEVED IN JESUS, Jesus gives him the blessing that today and always he will be with Him in paradise. 

Jesus gives us new life in Him here on earth, everyday, so that we can have the grace to make it through the hard.  Joy can and does coexist with suffering.

But I truly believe that Easter is about Eternity.  Jesus gives us a peace that transcends all understanding while we live here on earth, but He will give us a peace that will never ever be disturbed or shaken when we are with Him forever in paradise. I'm celebrating that today.

Clinging to His peace in this lifetime.  Claiming His peace for Eternity.

Be blessed.....

ps.  Smile Brilliant Update:  Here I am "Before" Smile Brilliant Teeth Whitening System (for more about it read last week's post).  I am giving away a Smile Brilliant Whitening Kit for Sensitive Teeth.  (Value $149.)  If you'd like to be entered in the drawing.  Just say "I'd like to Smile Brilliant" in the Comments and you'll be entered.  Drawing held beginning of April. 

 BEFORE