Shadows mean there must be light....

Fb post Dec 13;
 Thank you all for your sweet and comforting condolences. We know so many of you grieve with us. Please remember our daughters Kyra and Abby. Such pain, such a burden. Pray that the Lord would give us wisdom to turn their focus on the only hope we have ...The Lord alone can help them sustain this burden. May it all be for His glory. If it is for His glory then her death is not in vain. Long night ahead. Thank you for your prayers. Dana


  For the first time in my life, when I think of the verse referring to the 'Valley of the shadow of death'...I realize, that in order for there to be a shadow..there must be some light. Right? Otherwise it would be complete darkness and we would not be able to find our way.


Fb post Dec 14:  A broken and contrite heart You will not despise O Lord.


  So many sweet responses we got to that; Douglas Bond (another author you must seek out!) wrote;
Prayed in the night watches for you all and thought of what Samuel Rutherford wrote to grieving parents:
Ye have lost a child -- nay, she is not lost to you, who is found to Christ; she is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star, which going out of our sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere.


  And another from Jason Matayas (Seeds for Generations);Brett and Dana - we are heartbroken from the news of your loss. Please know that Shannon and I, and our children are praying for you in your time of grief. May the abundant joy and peace of Jesus our Savior fill you and your home today and in the weeks to come.


  Many sweet friends Dr. Gina Loudon and Zina Hackworth posted....Then, my
dear Jonica Hope started the gofund me memorial fund first thing and I foolishly wondered...what do we need money for? I found out.
  What I want to take time to show you now, is how the Lord is gracious. How He was so kind to bring comfort to a hurting mothers heart. Empty arms are painful.
  Thankfully Douglas Bond tagged me in a comment and brought my attention to what Pastor Wayne Rogers posted on his line in regards to our daughter Charity. I was so comforted and moved by his post that I somehow had the courage and ability to read the following in its entirety at the funeral.


  "Samuel Rutherford wrote to a Christian Gentlewoman in 1628, on the death of a daughter.

“Remember of what age your daughter was and that just so long was your lease of her. Seeing that her term was come and your lease had run out you can no more justly quarrel against your great Superior for taking his own than ...a poor farmer can complain that his master taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired.

Do not think her lost when she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty: Think her not absent who is in such a friend’s house. Is she lost to you who is found to Christ? If she were with a dear friend, although you would never see her again, your care for her would be small. Oh, now is she not with a dear friend and gone higher upon a certain hope that you shall in the resurrection see her again when you may be sure that she shall neither be sick or consumed in body.

Consider what the Lord is doing: your daughter is plucked out of the fire and she rests from her labors. Be wise then and as I trust you love the Lord, pass by your daughter and kiss the Lord’s rod. Run your race with patience, let God have His own, and ask of him, instead of your daughter, the daughter of faith which is patience.”
   My favorite part is the last sentence...kiss the Lords rod. Hebrews 12:11 " Now no chastening (discipline) seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Will we consider what the Lord is doing? Will we be wise? By the grace of God we purpose to be. Lord help us.....