A life worth living

I’ve spent the last few days with my family remembering the life of my grandmother Ruth Mildred Brubaker/Burgess/Rife and it has been wonderful. A couple weeks ago I shared with IMPACT (the middle school ministry of New Covenant Bible Church) about the idea of suffering. Pastor Bob Westfall (the sr Pastor of NCBC) had preached about suffering called The Unlikely Path to Joy and I wanted to follow up with the middle schoolers. I didn’t start with the idea that I would share about my grandmother but by the time I was ready to bring the lesson to the kids I knew my grandmothers life was going to be used to help the middle schoolers understand suffering. She didn’t suffer in any "negative" way but she suffered through the loss of two husbands (both died before her), a child, and many family and friends she cared for deeply. Grandma was simple but wonderful. She cared and loved in a way that only a grandma could. As I shared with the kids my grandmother’s life the idea that God allows suffering to help them grow, to help them be patient and wait on God, and to help them know that we have a hope and joy that is so much greater than the suffering we go through really stood out to the kids. That - and I’m sure many other stories - made my grandmother’s life worth living for.