Honoring My Grandma

Christmas week was tough, but God brought us through it. Now that a few days have passed I want to take a minute and honor my Grandma and tell the world why I love my Grandma so much. I originally wrote the following for the Missourit Street Church of Christ bulletin (Jan 7, 2007) slightly edited for the different context.

As the family gathered over Christmas week to honor and remember my Grandma several things stuck out to me. First, my Grandma was a person who deeply loved her family. This was demonstrated in many ways. She made it a point to be at anything that was important to her family. She was at both my graduation from college and graduate school and at my wedding to Amy. She did the same for my sisters. I heard other family members talk about their special events that she made it a point to be at. She also showed her love by sending us cards on our special days—birthdays, anniversaries, etc. She never missed one. In fact, my Grandma would mail over 1000 cards per year—all at her own expense.

Second, was her Christ-like character. She never complained. No one in the family ever remembers her complaining about anything. Even in her last days when she was in pain all she would say was, “God is in control.” When we were children running around her house, Grandma would never get on to us—Grandpa, that’s another story—but not Grandma. In fact, several of us made a decision while at Grandma’s celebrating her life that we were going to strive to follow her example more by not being complainers.

Why else did I love my Grandma. Well, simply because she was my Grandma! I will miss her. I will miss her enthusiasm for life and her humor. (Remind me to tell you the Y2K and “Happy New Ear” stories sometime.) I will miss her at all the important events in my life in the future. I will miss seeing Christ through her. However, I know that she is now with Christ, and I look forward to the day when I will see her again.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for me and my family over the past two weeks.