February 7, 2009 at the Dallas Children's Museum
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Today marks the six month anniversary since Jimmy’s death. I am still in shock that how in a matter of minutes, your life can be completely changed. I’ve always heard the saying that “The Lord will never give you more than you can handle,” and I know that I’ve said that phrase to others dealing with tough times. There have been so many times in this journey that I have said, “Why on earth did the Lord think I could handle this?” My sweet friend Ginger, who is such an amazing Christian, pointed out to me recently that the saying “the Lord will never give you more than you can handle” just isn’t Biblical. It doesn’t say that anywhere in the Bible. The Lord promises that we will not be tempted more than we can handle, and He will always give us a way out, but it doesn’t say that He won’t give us more strife/grief/pain than we can handle. A light bulb went off in my head when she said that, and I realized that the Lord DOES give us more than we can handle. He does it so we will learn to cast our worries and burdens upon Him so he can handle it for us. There is NO WAY I could have handled Jimmy’s death in my own strength. In my own strength, I shudder to think of where I'd be - not functioning as a human or dead. The Lord has carried me through this each and every step of the way. He has given me peace, rest and hope even though the walls of my world seem to be crashing down around me. Thank you Ginger for pointing that out to me. As I reflect on so many big events (my birthday, our 12th anniversary, Braxton's 5th birthday, etc), it made me realize that in my own strength, I can bear nothing. But with the Lord’s strength, “I can do all things!” Phillipians 4:13
Friday, August 7, 2009
Six Months
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Music
7 comments:
You are an AMAZING woman and you inspire me!
Tricia - I loved this post! So true and so amazing of you. Thank you for sharing how God is carrying you through this time. Praying for you.
Tricia--still praying for you and praising God for working in your life in such a profound and tangible way! God is good!
thank you
Tricia, I have such mixed emotions when I see that you have a new post out there for the reading. I am so amazed and inspired by your character and perspective, but it is painful too, and always opens a terrible sadness in me. I cannot fathom your pain, when I know that the pain I feel can only be a shadow of yours. I CANNOT wrap my head around why he's gone...that is my "more than I can handle"...that you post a picture of him on his last day on earth and he looks so "Jimmy"...not sick, not about to be gone.
When we pray at night with the girls and I hear Jeff and I using "Lord" as our word that we sprinkle in after every sentence and remember that Jimmy's was "Father God." "Father God, we want to thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight and we ask, Father God, that you will bless our time together. And, Father God...." LOL
It makes me smile and it breaks my heart all over again every time I think about him, which is often. I am still just so sorry, Tricia...for us all.
Laurie, I am so sorry for all of us, too. I think that I will have to be in heaven before I can completely understand why on earth God did what He did. We all miss Jimmy terribly and it is so hard to wrap our brains around him truly being gone. There is such a huge void on this earth without him. Not just in my life, but I know in the lives of SO many. The picture I posted makes me smile and breaks my heart all at the same time. I hope that I too am smiling and having a good time on the day that the Lord calls me home. Thank you for sharing your memory of "Father God." I could hear Jimmy praying as I read your post. Such a precious memory. I love you, girl!
WOW...Laurie's comments are so amazing and exactly what I was feeling too. At first I get excited when I see you have a new post and then I get sick to my stomach..literally.
I am amazed and inspired by you. I am SO grateful you have wonderful women in your life, like Ginger and Laurie, who can always seem to provide the right word at the right time. Something the Lord didn't bless me with unfortunately.
I love you and pray for you and those sweet boys every day. Just keep putting one foot in the front of the other and you WILL get through this.
Looking forward to sharing some laughs and memories with you at the retreat next month!!!!
Jill Hoenig
Post a Comment