Aunt Donna,  How beautifully written....  As on outsider looking in, this is what I want to say about all this.  You will leave Daniel with the secure knowledge that he had a mother who loved and cherished him for every day of her life.  You will leave Daniel with the knowledge of our Lord and Savior and what an upbringing in Him should be.  You will leave Daniel a piece of yourself in everything that he says or does for the rest of his life because you have been an active part of his life.  You will leave him more of yourself (whether it be material or not) than you could ever possibly know.  Daniel is a strong man because he was raised that way.  It will show through in his life, his family, and his very being for as long as he may shall live.  All because of you (and Uncle Bo of course)

Do you know what? My mother in law and father in law were dirt poor. She always envied those of us who had some and more besides. She always said when she died no one would want anything they had because they were poor and she thought she didn't have anything of value. Maybe to an auctioneer it was worthless. But you and she would be surprised to learn that there were little things that we all wanted. Things she used everyday. Special memories held within those things. Let me tell you of one. She had this old bean pot she used for a cookie jar. Every single time we visited her, there were freshly baked cookies in it. Always our favorite ones. When our kids were little, she made cookies with them and we would walk in and see their excitement to be able to give us cookies they made with Gramma and Grampa. As my mother in law was moving from the home she lived in for thirty something years into a small elderly apartment complex, my younger daughter asked for the cookie jar to be willed to her. My mother in law said "Oh sure honey". So, when she died of cancer January 25th of 2006, we took that cookie jar home along with some other precious things. My brother in law was looking for it, thinking for sure she would have left it for him. So when we told him that mom had willed it to our youngin a couple years before, he was ok with it, but we could tell he really wanted it. Last Christmas we really wanted to get gifts that had meaning. We knew my brother in law could use a cookie jar and we searched and searched for just the right one. Wouldn't you know? Online we found the exact bean pot that we took home from grammas. When we got it in the mail, I washed them both up, made sure I could tell which one was which and when my youngin got home we asked her to pick out the one gramma had. She picked the wrong one. So we kept the right one, made the cookies that were my brother in laws favorites from the recipe my mother in law gave us and put them in the bean pot. We wrapped it up and gave it to him for Christmas (of course the cookies were freshly made and it was wrapped just before we left for his house). That couldn't have been a greater gift. He still thanks us today for that bean pot. Even though he didn't get the one his mother had, he still felt the same about the one we gave him. So, don't think there's nothing treasurable for your children when you pass. YOU made what you have special and he will treasure the memory of you in what is left. God bless ~~janet

Hey Donna,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on your comments about my post on Apathy. They were right on target and much appreciated. The past several weeks have been just crazy. As an Army Chaplain, we have a lot of units leaving for early summer deployment.. so I got behind. Didn't want you to think you were not appreciated. You are !

If you don't mind, please keep Joshua in your prayers as he "winds down" for graduation on May 10th. He will be returning to Liberty in the fall for Seminary also. I would appreciate it.

Phil

@jimwilloughby - 

You are a sweetie!  But then, I'm sure you already knew that!  

@xangpastor - I will continue to remember him in my prayers.  He graduates the same day as my son (May 10th). 

I also have a prayer request for YOU...  My best friend's two older sons are both in Iraq right now. Their names are John and Joshua...  both are Marines and very godly young men.  It has to be hard having one son over there (this is Joshua's second deployment), but I just cannot imagine having two over there at one time.  God is good though, and He has been faithful in giving them the grace to not be overcome with worry.  If you can, just lift their whole family up in prayer when you can.  This is our pastor's family. Thanks.

@msmarie0106 - such praise as that might get you a free iris.