Breaking Open the Flask

 I’ve been in “reconstruction” for 131 days since losing my bestie and her husband. In today’s reading from Nehemiah 6, for me the realization of the 52 days to rebuild the wall symbolizes my grief journey. Not my first great loss by any means but because of those previous losses, I knew this journey would have to take it’s own course as the others had some 16 years ago.  I cling to this one short and simple phrase in the NLT: “…the enemies lost all confidence!” They were frightened and humiliated because This work was a work of The God whom they did Not trust.  In the darkness of grief, it is not unusual for the enemy to attack with all vengeance; I’ve had my share. YET because my friends were saved, I’ve been comforted in this truth: “God is Sovereign from the Beginning” => my bestie and her husband are perfect and complete, lacking nothing in Heaven w/ Jesus. Therefore, I t is in God alone, I find My comfort. Though my heart is lost without our coffee chats, water workouts and th

 Nehemiah 5:4-5, “And others said,‘We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes.  We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.’ ” (NLT) Selling my kids… could I even do that?!!! It only takes a split second before I ask myself a bigger Q: What might I have “sold” my children off to?! Devices!! Knowingly??? NO!!! We couldn’t KNOW what we didn’t KNOW! It was JUST a flip phone; an “Emergency Contact” BUT what it quickly became… a source of pornography!!! We had no idea until we heard about a couple of kids arrested!!! JH boys & JH girls sharing “innocent” photos on flip phones. And back then, parents could only monitor phone #’s! 🙄 Nowadays, I quiver to think what young eyes left unatt

 Happy 1st Birthday in Heaven, Dear One! 🩵🎂🎉🥳🎈🩵Oh, I can see your face clearly and hear your infectious giggle, Sheri 🩵💞💝💞🩵 What it must be like to dwell in the House of The Lord!! What it must be like to sing there!!! “What a Mighty God we serve, angels bow before the Mighty One we serve! Lord, You’re Mighty! Lord You’re Mighty! You are Awesome, Awesome!” Carpooling to our MK meetings together is really where our friendship began nearly 20 years ago. You were the perfect “partner in crime.” One who could fill my heart with joy while distracting me from deep grief after So Much Loss! One who could make me laugh again. You’d go anywhere with me to keep me above the struggle 💓 and it was always a party to be with you! 🥳 We’d be singing to the top of our lungs back and forth everywhere we went, back then! And I was in heaven when you got that Lexus with the sunroof that I had never had! You’d open up that roof, our voices rising to the Heavens, “My God is Awesome, Awesome, He