For My Parents. . .

I didn't understand how hard and challenging it is to be a parent until I became a parent myself. We all have selective memory and it's easy to think we were easy children and therefore parenting is easy, but once I came home with my baby I really understood the sacrifices made by my parents, the energy that they have expended for my benefit, the things they have suffered for me, because of me. Knowing these things now I can really appreciate and be thankful for my parents. I am grateful for the love they gave me and the way they lived their lives and demonstrated Jesus to me. They also introduced Jesus to me and so because of them I have the faith I have. My parents have been through so much, and yet they have never wavered in their faith. I remember when my Mom went through a really dark time in her life. She had bells palsy which causes half of your face to be paralyzed. She had trouble sleeping, trouble eating and confined herself to her room. Often she would have to go for treatment which involved shocks to the paralyzed part of her face. During this time she was lonely and confused as they both were working so hard in the ministry. She was away from home, from her family and friends, from her usual support systems and she was away from proper hospitals and answers and so she turned to the Bible. She spent three months reading through the Psalms. Eventually of course she got better and she would often tell me how much peace and comfort she derived from the Psalms. She encouraged me to read them when I went through my own dark space. It is this kind of daily living with the Lord that demonstrated to me constantly how important Jesus is and how important His word is, and that is how I have faith and so I am very grateful for that. I'm grateful that they made the sacrifice they made and listened to call of Jesus on their lives and went overseas. It was their willingness to give up the lifestyle here and listen to Jesus' voice that gave me the unique childhood I did have. Their sacrifice opened up a world of delight to me. It gave me the country that I love and experiences I would never have been able to have had we not been overseas. Their obedience gave me the blessing of the land that I love, that I consider my homeland. My father especially gave me a love for books. As far as I can remember there were always books everywhere and there he and mom were always reading and that gave me a great curiosity for books and knowledge. I wanted to learn to read as soon as I could and I did and then read anything and everything I could get my hands on. His love for books inspired me and then gave me my own passion for books, for learning, for words. Words and how to string them together are my passion and so again I'm grateful. They also demonstrated for me what true love is. They have always made their relationship sacred. They love each other like you wouldn't believe and they have never let anyone or anything come between that. They have their fights but they always work it through, they always took time to be together separate from us. They taught all of us how important it was to work things out, to work together to make your relationship good. They teased each other, were gentle with each other and loved each other deeply. They made me yearn for a relationship like theirs, made me see how important it was to have that one person in your life that always had your back, always looked out for you and always got you. They gave me a yearning for relationship, for a marriage that could work it out and could last. There's one evening in particular I remember having dinner, and my Dad started staring wistfully at my Mom and then said 'you are so beautiful' I remember feeling so blessed to be raised in a house where my parents saw each other as the be all and end all, I remember feeling so blessed that they loved each other so deeply. I was blessed and I hope to pass on this blessing to my children. I am really blessed to have the parents I have had, to have their love and support, and guidance.