Grief has become once again a part of our family’s heart condition. The fact that I have a master’s degree in counseling and have done some counseling with those going through the grief process does not ease the feelings of loss I feel. Over the last few days, I have returned to my books and studies on the issues of grief. It is my way of dealing with my personal grief. 

“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Ps. 103:1-2) It has been said that it is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one. I believe this is true. I have found too often in life that loud hosannas more easily come forth from a comfortable, blessed, relatively trouble-free existence than from the soul that is struggling to find the way through valleys of despair, pain, and hopelessness. 

“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.” After all, only the Father knows.

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them…” (Jeremiah 15:16a)

Once there was a boy who wanted to become a chef. He admired pots and pans as a toddler, studied ingredients and recipes as a boy, and mastered double boilers and woks while still a teenager.