Life Lesson from Mema....

So this year has been a real eye opener in more ways than one. Of course I've had my moments of bawling my eyes out and getting angry at life's events. We've had our cases of MRSA, broken arms and a loss of job. We've moved from a church and home we loved to a city of many unknowns. Despite the sad emotions and wondering what will happen next, God has reminded me time and time again of what I do have. My husband, our son, our health, our God and today spent with each other. Yesterday that simple, but important lesson was driven home to me once again.
Dean and I had lunch with my grandmother. We got her grocery list the night before, the next day went to H-E-B and picked up lunch and the groceries. My "mema" (as we call her) is amazing. She has lived a life of love, loss and disease. She can't leave home because of her many health issues. She has lost two husbands, a child, her mother and father, many siblings and close friends. She is blunt and a bit abrasive at times, but cries at every Christmas and birthday gift given to her. Her methods of tending to a wound, soothing a sick baby and cooking may all be looked down upon in today's world, but she knows her stuff and don't you dare dispute it.
We had finished lunch and were trying to solve the world's problems while Dean played with her diecast cars on the floor. In our conversation, she said something that struck a cord in my weary heart. Her words were, "If we don't have anything else, we have today. Tomorrow never really gets here, but today will always be." Mema then went on to explain how in her first marriage to my biological grandfather, Ray, many told her not to marry him because he wouldn't live three years. Ray had a serious heart problem which eventually led to a heart attach that killed him. Mema said that she didn't care if they had three months or three days...they had today and that was all that matters. After 33 years of marriage and three children, Ray went home to be with Christ. Mema has told me before,as we would look through her jewelry, that Ray was always surprising her with some gift...which is how she received most of her precious jewels.
Isn't that what Jesus so gently tries to get us to understand when he teaches us to pray, "give us this day, our daily bread"? Not this weeks or next months, but today. If we do trust him, and take that step of faith to not worry about our trials and tribulations but to cast them on him one day at a time, our today turns into years of joy and amazing treasures all gained by getting to rely on and know our Lord. He gives us many lessons in our life's that if we don't slow down and take it day by day, we'll miss something the Creator of all things is trying to tell us. I don't want want a second.
I may not have a lot of earthly goods, but I have so much my heart feels like it will explode. Life is but a vapor and I intend to breathe it all in....

- Misti