heartbreak... thankfulness...

JANUARY 26, 2012

heartbreak

So where does thankfulness fit in here? It breaks my heart to hear my mother in law tell me she wants to die. She wants to WORK. To do the dishes, wash the clothes. Hang them on the line. To cook dinner, to serve us… when now we can only serve her.

I can see MY thankfuls. Yet their brightness is dimmed when I see her fading from us. So these thanks are all of ours; there IS much to be thankful for; Lord give me wisdom to help her see the thankfulness instead of the sorrow… I know that we can be thankful we have had her this long (96 is a long lifetime!)

We can be thankful that she still has the majority of her mental alertness

we can be thankful that she can mostly dress herself, feed herself.

 we can be thankful that she still remembers us most of the time.

 we can be thankful that she can still live at home.

And so, the thankfulness can mingle with the anguish, the sorrow. Thankfulness is not always a jumping-up-and-down sort of thing. Sometimes it is a weary day’s ending.