Why I “Count it all Joy” Wednesday

Welcome to Why I Count It All Joy Wednesday!! To join in on all the JOY, grab my button, make your own JOY list, it doesn’t have to be long, one thing, one hundred things, it doesn’t matter, just find your JOY and come back and link up so you can share it with us.  Remember JOY is contagious!!

Written on Tuesday morning:

This morning after dropping Dan off at the airport, I returned home knowing it was going to be a busy day!!  We had school to do, I have Ella for the day, we were going to visit my Aunt Vicki again, the boys have basketball practice until 7, and then dinner to make so I can feed the kids!!  I had also decided to do my JOY post early, schedule it, and maybe even some other posts to get ahead knowing I would be hard pressed to get them done in the next few days!!

Unfortunately, I came home, started school with the boys and received that dreaded phone call!!  Aunt Vicki passed away this morning in her sleep!!  As I sat here crying, I was trying to find that JOY I speak so highly of!!  She is only 57 years old, way too young to die.  She has two small grandkids who need a grandma, I would have been lost without mine.  She hasn’t even gotten to retire yet.  She’s the second YOUNGEST sister, not the oldest.  They were planning a mom/daughter trip for “The Sisters” and their daughters and she was going to have to be one of the stand ins for my mom so my sister and I wouldn’t be without a mom.  All these things were going through my head and as much as I wanted to see JOY in this, I was having a hard time.

I made all the necessary phone calls and heard all the normal responses, “I’m so sorry”, “I wish I had gotten over there to see her”, “She’s in a better place now”, etc...

The funny thing is that’s where I found my JOY!!  

I’m so sad and sorry she’s gone - sorry for me and for her family, but I am so filled with JOY that I know where she is!!  She lived a life for Jesus and was proud of it.

I don’t have to say “I wish I had gotten over there to see her” - I am filled with JOY that I was just there with her!!

I am so filled with JOY that even though she is gone at such a young age, she spent those years doing hair, being a wife, raising kids, loving her grandbabies, and all the other things us ladies do, but with one goal in mind - to end up in Heaven, loving on Jesus and making sure the people she did life with will end up there too.

I am so filled with JOY that her long and painful battle with cancer is over.  Maybe we all lost her to cancer, but the truth is, she won the battle and is now looking into the face of her complete Healer!!

I am so filled with JOY that while I am sitting here crying, she is singing praises straight to the King of Kings!!

I am filled with JOY that she is walking down the streets with my mom, just like they did when they were kids, only now the streets are made of gold!!

I am so filled with JOY that even though Dan left on a business trip this morning and he is not here with me, he will be home Friday.  I had a feeling he would be gone when she passed, but so glad it was this trip and not the long one to China!!

So although I am really sad, I am filled with JOY that I am still here loving Jesus, my family, and my friends, and one of these days I will be with all those I love that have gone on before me. But until then I have about a million giggling, brownie making, story telling, midnight snacking, Jesus talking, all around great time sleepovers at Aunt Vicki’s house memories that will always be mine!!

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.  Psalm 116:15

Counting it all JOY!!