What is true love?  This beautiful song sums it up completely, and the basis for it is 1 Corinthians 13, often called the “Love Chapter.”

NEWS FROM THE HOME SITE:

This has been a good week filled with many blessings. There have been many spiritual blessings every day that assures me (us) that God is taking care of us and loves us unfailingly!

I was invited to an end-of-school party the last day of school in one of the special ed classes I have subbed in many times this school year.  I love those kids!

And this has also been a week of freebies and winning items for our family:

• I won a package of 3 ring pops from Happy Mom of 5.
• We went to a store where a radio station (KLTY) was on location having drawings for prizes.  Our son won a CD and then ten minutes later, I won a CD by Brandon Heath who has some really great songs.
  
• We were walking away after winning the CD’s and we heard they were having one last drawing so we turned around.  They called my name AGAIN and I won 4 tickets to the new movie, Marmaduke, that just came out in theaters this week.
• After winning the CD’s and movie tickets, we left to go get our free sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A (hope you made your reservation a week or so ago to get a free spicy chicken sandwich)  We were going to buy fries to go with them, but the boy waiting on us said that we got fries and drinks free, too.  Awesome!
• Yesterday, we took advantage of Bank of America’s “Museums on Us!” (which occurs the first weekend of every month), and we went to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science.  Since each one of us had our own Bank of America card in our name, all three of us got in free.  Tickets are $10 a piece, so we saved $30 on tickets.  We thoroughly enjoyed the museum!  (I’ll write more about this later…dinosaur exhibit was fantastic)

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Sometimes as humans we may feel like our life is a mess, or we might feel alone, or maybe we’ve let opportunities slip by or made mistakes that we regret, maybe we feel that circumstances are just too much to bear.   Times are hard for a lot of people right now and sometimes life just gets us down and there doesn’t seem to be much hope…but there is hope!

This is an especially touching event in the life of Jesus and one of his dear friends.   It warms my heart to read about how Jesus (God’s only Son) lived on this earth in a human body just like ours and experienced the same things we experience such as love and grief.   He had a dear friend named Lazarus who had two sisters, Mary and Martha.  Jesus loved this family very much, like we love good friends who are like family to us.  Well,  Lazarus died and the Bible tells us that Jesus cried with Mary and others.

When a friend of mine died from cancer leaving behind a three year old daughter and two sons, the oldest son being 13 and the age of our daughter at the time, it was really sad.   She and I would have our best visits during swimming lessons for our kids, and I really missed her.   Jesus understood my grief and sadness because he lost a friend, as told to us in the Bible in the book of  John, chapter 11:

²Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset ³⁴and asked, “Where have you put his body?”

They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”

³⁵Jesus started crying, ³⁶and the people said, “See how much he loved Lazarus.

Note:  Scripture from BibleGateway.com using the Contemporary English Version  (usually I use the NIV Version)

This is not the end of the story!    When Jesus went to the place where Lazarus was buried, Martha told Jesus that Lazarus had been dead for four days and his body had started to smell.   Jesus told Martha, “Didn’t I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?”  And so Jesus called to Lazarus, and Lazarus walked out of the burial cave with the burial strips of cloth still on his body.  Maybe some of the people there were freaking out, we don’t know.  But those who had faith knew the power of God.

The people at that event in history definitely saw the glory of God!  And what does this mean for us today?  Jesus sympathizes with us when someone we love dies.  He’s been there!  He knows the sorrow and the pain of losing someone dear.  It also means that we live in a world where God is in control.  And even though he is the creator of the world and whole universe and everything in existence, He is also the God who loves us and cares about each one of us when we experience sorrow or sadness.  Jesus told Martha, “…if you have faith,”  and if we have faith then we will see God working in our lives!

Jenny’s very last update:

“Jenny Bizaillion (age 31) passed from this world at 3:38pm today.
She was a beautiful, wonderful friend, perfect mom, devoted sister, loyal daughter, and best wife a person could ever have.

From the Bible:  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?   But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

A few of you may know about Jenny, a 31 year old wife and mother who is fighting for her life right now.  People literally all over the world are praying this week.  On a Facebook site set up for her, “Praying for Jenny Bizaillion,” there are over 6,600 members to date who are praying for her as well as thousands of others.

Jenny entered the hospital 17 days ago with the flu which had turned into pneumonia which quickly turned to Sepsis, a bacterial infection spread throughout her whole body.  She has not only been battling for her life, her legs had to be amputated below the knees four days ago, and now Sepsis bacteria has entered her brain causing her to have seizures the past couple of days.

Throughout all of this, her family is staying close by and keeping their faith with the knowledge that “God is mighty to save.”   The only reason that Jenny has lived and made it this far is because of God answering the many prayers on her behalf.  Just a couple of days after being in the hospital, a doctor admitted he didn’t know why Jenny had improved but to “keep doing what you’re doing!”  In other words…pray!  Many of the prayers on her Facebook site, including mine, mention that through all of this, the glory goes to God!  God is the one who has brought Jenny this far, and whatever the outcome He will still be glorified!

Psalm 147:3-5  “He (God) heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.  Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.”

Lori, from A Cowboy’s Wife, writes about “The Hole in My Heart,” and shares about a friend who just had a miscarriage and about her own four miscarriages.   It was an emotionally painful experience to lose a baby!

There are some things that always remain in a mother’s heart, and one of those things is the love she has for her child.  Whether losing an unborn baby, a young child, or an adult son or daughter, the love a mother has for her child is so strong and will never die.  (“Love never dies,”  1 Corinthians 13: 8, The Message version)

My mother had at least one miscarriage before I was born.  She passed away and I can’t ask her if she had more than one miscarriage, and her younger brother and sister don’t remember.  (My uncle said those were things you just didn’t talk about back then.)   I remember dreaming about having an older brother when I was young.  Oh, how I wished I had a brother or sister!

After my mother passed away and I was going through her purse, I found some papers in a zippered compartment.  One of those papers was a receipt for a D&C after a miscarriage seven years before I was born.  That was for her miscarriage of a child dear to her, and she must have carried that receipt with her, hidden in her purse, all the rest of her living days because her love for that unborn child never died!   I realized then that yes, I did have a brother or sister.  I believe that life starts at conception (go to Biblegateway.com, type in Psalm 139:13-18, choose your favorite version…maybe “The Message” or the “New International Version,” then “Search the Bible”) so I did have a sibling and maybe it was a brother.

I have several friends who have have lost adult children, and I can’t imagine the pain they have gone through.  But I do know that God is the God of all comfort, and He has comforted them in the way that only He can.  Their faith in God has gotten them through!

Maybe you’ve lost a baby or a child or someone close to you has experienced that loss.  If you have something you would like to share, please leave a comment.  Your experience might help someone who is going through a hard time right now.

It was such a blessing to be with family during the holidays.  Our son was home from college, and we had a great time being together.

We have many blessings!  We’re so thankful for both of our children, son-in-law, grandbabies, my mother-in-law, and our friends.  God has blessed us and is taking care of my husband and I through our job search.  My most precious blessing, though, is my relationship with God.  Jesus is not only my Savior, he is my best friend!