A neat Thought

Forever is composed of nows. Emily Dickinson

     I saw this on a blog I ready. The blogger allowed those reading to share this anyway we wanted.  I love the message. Just wanted to share this with all of you.

Wait for the LORD

“For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.”

Psalm 37:9 (NIV)

When we see evil men flourish in their endeavors, we wonder why they advance and strong believers flounder. What we forget is that what we see is not the full picture. We see only what’s in front of us. We don’t know what will come to them or to us in the future. Our pastor recently gave an illustration about this. “We watch a parade. We can only see what happens right before us; what we don’t see is the beginning or the end.” I remember accompanying my husband to the Indianapolis 500 race shortly after we were married. We sat in the infield in one of the corners of the track. All we could see was what happened in that short span of space.

God’s Word tells us to ‘wait for the LORD’ (Psalm 27:14, NIV) by waiting we might learn we don’t really want that job that someone else got. Maybe, we can’t really do what needs to be done. God might have something else in mind for us.

When we wait on the LORD, we allow Him to be in control.  

REFINED by FIRE

         

A Journey of Greif and Grace 

By Mary Potter Kenyon

Mrs. Kenyon allows her readers into her personal journey of grief. She started this trip when she lost her mother. The grief intensified when she lost her husband, a Cancer survivor, to a heart attack. Her walk through grief became very complex when she lost her 8 year old grandson to a rare form of Cancer.

Mary bares hear soul when she tells of the anguish of losing her dear David, after almost 34 years of marriage. Their experience with David’s Cancer had brought them closer together than they had been in sometime.

Because she had three daughters still at home, Mary had to choose to grieve quietly, crying when no one was around.

Her grandson, Jacob, was first diagnosed when he was a small child. At this time David was going through Cancer treatments. Mary couldn’t ‘be there’ for her daughter and her son-in-law. Jacob's Cancer came back shortly before David died. Mary couldn't help care for her other granchildren due to her being emotionally unhealthy. Jacob battled Cancer for 2 ½ years.

After David had experienced chest pains for a few days, their oldest son convinced Mary and David to get to an ER. David had surgery to correct what had causes the heart attack. On the way home from the hospital, David told her how bad he felt for Jacob. He voiced the idea that if he was taken away and Jacob could stay here, it would be all right by him. Two days later, Mary found the love of her life dead in his recliner.

In spite of all the difficult times Mary faced, God was with her, teaching her about Himself. She eventually started Bible studies to help people going through their own grief processes to learn more about how God is there for them.

I would recommend this book, for pastors, for any grief counselor, anyone who does visitation, anyone who has been or is going through the loss of a loved one.

Mary Potter Kenyon has also written Chemo-therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage. A book telling how she and David found ways to brighten their marriage. And Coupon Crazy. A book that helps people stretch their funds in this tough economy.

I read about this book in a Yahoo Group I

Belong to and her Facebook Author’s page. She was seeking reviewers to assist in the launching of this book. All she asked me to do was read it.     

      

Interview: Meet Mary Potter Kenyon

Today we have the honor of having Mary Potter Kenyon with us. Let’s greet her. I find her to be a a very interesting woman/.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I live in Manchester, Iowa, with three of my eight children. In December of 2013 I became the Director of the Winthrop Public Library.

Your new book is being released shortly before the holiday season begins, and you mention several times the difficulty of facing holidays without your spouse in your book. Was the timing of this release part of a marketing strategy?

No, it was purely coincidental, though if you read my book, you know I don’t really believe in coincidences. Traditionally, Thanksgiving has marked the beginning of the “holiday season” but the first holiday I faced after the death of my husband was Easter. When my eight-year-old daughter decorated her usual “Daddy” egg, writing his name on it with a wax crayon, just as she always had, I lost it. I had to leave my sister’s house where we were decorating eggs. I headed straight to the cemetery and my husband’s grave. Holidays and anniversaries are particularly difficult for those who are grieving. The absence of the loved one is felt even more keenly on such days.

What else have you written?

I’ve written for newspapers, magazines and anthologies for over twenty-five years and currently write a weekly couponing column for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald newspaper. An essay of mine exploring the relationship between grief and creativity was featured in the January/February issue of “Poet & Writer’s” magazine and I had several devotions published in the 2013 NIV “Hope in the Mourning” Zondervan grief Bible. My books “Coupon Crazy: The Science, the Savings, and the Stories Behind America’s Extreme Obsession” and “Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage” were published by Familius in 2013 and early 2014.

You’ve started doing public speaking on this topic. Tell us about that.

I spoke about finding hope in the darkness of loss at a church in Coralville in April and the response to that speech was humbling. So many people needed to hear the message I share in my own journey of grief, that there is hope in the dark path of loss. “Refined By Fire” is as much about faith as it is about grief. I stumbled and fell on the path of darkness called grief, but the words of other authors who had gone down the road before me lifted me, as did the Bible, prayer, and even studying the science of grief. Surely we humans are designed to withstand loss, because we will all face it at some point in our lives. Like the authors whose words I read: C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, and Joan Didion, my book can help someone who is grieving. I also feel honored to be able to speak about my beloved David and grandson Jacob, to share their story in my book and public speaking.

Thank you for stopping by. I look forward to reading more of your works.