Your Life has meaning

I can think of people in my life that have had some struggles.
When we struggle, when we’re going through the struggle we can definitely questions the meaning our life may have. I’m here to tell you that you may question the meaning of your life at times, but you never know what impact you have on the lives of those around you. The very simplest kindness that you offer can have a huge impact on the other person.

 

My dad, who has diabetes, has had to have multiple surgeries due to ulcerations. He does everything that he is supposed to do. He eats well, exercises, and checks his blood sugar. I know he’s frustrated. He is tired of sitting around. Really y’all, all he wants to do is get out on his tractor, named Abigail, and ride around the yard.

A person may ask- how can my life have any meaning when I can’t get up and do the things that I have always done. Well, I can tell you, my dad’s life has a lot of meaning to me. I do not even like to consider what path my life would have taken if he had not been there for me. And he is an encourager. He lifts people up. It can be easy in this life to lose faith, but this is a gift of his- to lift people up and remind them of their place, their position, their home in Jesus.  The bible says, Acts 17:28 New International Version (NIV)
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[b]

My grandmother has had to slow down a lot over the last several years. It has been so very hard for me to watch. She was always busy, always working. I can remember visiting her after my first daughter was born. Each time I came to visit she would make some kind of yummy lunch. It was usually fried chicken. My grandmother is a great southern cook. That was some great fried chicken. She always insisted that I take a plate home to my husband, Jay. When I was a child I went home ‘sick’ from school on occasion and I can remember Grandma coming to pick me up and taking care of me.
These days Grandma can’t get into the kitchen and fry chicken. But it wasn’t the chicken- it was the way she always loved me. Her life has meaning to me.

I spent some time recently with an aunt of mine. She has struggled with a long illness that has changed her life. She no longer can go and do as she once did. She has had to adjust her life and activities and that’s hard.
Sometimes we question our contribution. It just doesn’t seem enough. We aren’t giving enough, not doing enough. I think it is a lot easier for others to see the best in you. This aunt has been a great encouragement to me. She has told me over the years of how she is proud of me, how she loves me. When I was baptized, a few years ago as an adult, she was there to cheer me on, to support me and to tell me how proud of me she was. She came to me one day at church and gave me a gift. She told me she wanted me to have something that I could passed down to my children. I cried. Her thoughtfulness touched me. It was a small gesture, but so very, very special to me. She gave me a coffee cup for Christmases ago and said that when I drink out of that cup it will be like we are drinking coffee together. A small gesture, but so very, very special to me.
I’ve questioned my life’s meaning at times. I think that is human nature.  But God does have a plan for you.  He made you for a purpose, on purpose.  Even knowing the struggles you would have and how your faith might falter.  He takes the bad stuff in our life and turns it into good.  We cannot always see that because we cannot see the picture- we can only see from our small perspective.  Your life has meaning.

Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (NIV)