thankful {day 19...in the midst of grief}

I was preparing another thankful post for today, but it needs to wait.  Today became a day that will be etched in our hearts & minds forever.

Today, my beautiful, ornery, loving father-in-law left this earth.

This is a day it is hard to feel thankful, but these things I know & pray they are the things that bring comfort in days to come:

I am thankful to have called this man family.

I am thankful for the example he gave for loving others, & the legacy he has left in the way his children & grandchildren seek to love others.

I am thankful that many family members, including our older children, had the opportunity to be together with him to say goodbye.

I am thankful that I "listened" to the inner voice that nudged me to drop in yesterday on my way home from being out of town.  I am so, so, so thankful that I told him I loved him.

I am thankful that he is no longer struggling to breathe.

I am thankful that he loved the Lord.

While it is hard to feel thankful in the midst of grief, I am thankful for these things.  I can only hope at the end of my days, there are those that are thankful that I have lived & impacted their lives the way he has done for so many.

His lord said unto him, "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

~ Matthew 25:21

I would be blessed by your prayers for our family as we travel this unfamiliar road in the days ahead.