A beautiful life




I know Mother's Day is a mixed bag for a lot of you.

It's a time for reflection and happy hugs.
It's also a time of disappointment and pain.

This year mother's day has caused me to reflect.


Most of you know, that our parents died when they were very young.
And we were all too young when they died.


It was a terrible tragedy all the way around.

But, perhaps because of my youth or my faith, it was clear to me
I had a choice to make.

I could either curl up and die, or I could shake my fist and hate God,
or I could honor our parents memory and live.



You see, they loved life.
They love each of us.

So much.

They were devoted, loving parents.

They had fun and they had hard times and they lived kind of large, in a Midwestern, sort of way.

But they had big love.

And it was passed down.

They taught us to get along with one another and 34 years later. We get along. We adore one another.

They taught us to love our children. By their example. And we all do. Crazy love.

They also taught us, by default, that life is brief. Much too brief for some.

So I learned early on to treasure my days.
I more seriously had to think about God and heaven.
Was it true?

And I knew giving up was out of the question.

It would not honor God and it would hurt our parents.

Cause what do parents want for their children?

Parent's want their children to have a beautiful life. That's what.

How could I deny them that?

That was my 16 year old reasoning....and my 16 year old choice.

And it was a good choice.


Our parents gave us such a beautiful start.

And I have naturally wanted to give that to our children.

A beautiful start to a beautiful life.


I love that my parents were who they were. I am so thankful for them.

It will never be okay that they died so young.

But I am thankful for their beautiful example and my beautiful life.





Encourage one another,
Donna