8 Years.......May 10,2018......

      Lord Jesus, I can't believe it has been 8 years! These years have taken so very long and yet have flown by! How is it the grief is still so fresh? The great hurt and pain in our hearts....still there...and yet we live on! Even though our precious son, Tyler is gone on ahead of us! You, Lord, have never left us for a moment!
     Today I received flowers again from the Navy SEALS for Mother's Day. Why do flowers always bring such pain and tears now? I should smile and yet I just cry at the sight of them. I am always so very thankful for these special warriors, our SEALS, and the wonderful people who take great care to honor Tyler by sending flowers to me. My heart smiles as I pretend that Tyler sent them himself! Mother's Day is one of the hardest days of the year for me now. I am two moms, the happy and the sad. Revelation 21:4 One day He, God will wipe away all our tears!
      Yet as always,  I am looking forward so very much to seeing our Jerica this weekend, her beautiful smile is the thing that lifts my sadness and makes me happy as a Mother! I am so blessed to be her mom! Jerica deserves more than half a mom, I am so very proud to be hers and so thankful to God that she is mine! The Mother's Day for Tyler is sad and the Mother's Day for Jerica is joyful! I have been blessed in life to have been given others to love and Mother as well, our Sumer came into my life in 1981, and little Ava, her angel baby, both gifts from our Lord to me! Ron and I love our 3 girls, our Tyler in Heaven and together we rejoice in our gifts! I thank God for blessing me to be the Mother of such precious children!
      Oh how my heart breaks for other Mothers who have lost a child now. I feel their pain, and I understand now so much better how my Mother's heart ached for her little baby girl, Peggy, that died before I was born. She watched as my baby brother Johnny(2011) died of cancer and she lost her grandson, Tyler (2010) as well before the Lord Jesus called her home to Heaven.  Oh how Mother's Day must have grown increasingly painful for her ! Psalm 147:3 Her broken heart is now healed!
      We need to always try and be sensitive to others and the hard roads they walk among us. We don't know what God has called them to endure in this life many times. When we are out celebrating there are always pe|ople around us who are hurting in some way. Let us keep our hearts open to love them in Jesus. Remember when we are given pain and sorrow, we are also comforted by our Lord, the comfort He gives us is to be given by us, to others, and not just kept for ourselves! 2Corinthians 1:4
      We have seen so much joy in these years as well as pain and grief.
 Our precious little girl, Jerica is all grown up, living her life & enjoying her career! She has met & married the love of her life, Joe! As of November 11, 2017 Jerica is now Mrs. Joe Murdock! The wedding was so beautiful! She & Joe planned every detail to celebrate their love for one another & their families & friends! They have both lost their brothers & honored them both in special ways on this important day. I pray that they will have a long & wonderful, adventurous & loving life together! That Jesus will be the Lord of their marriage & their only hope & strength in times of trouble.  J&J!  (& is their symbol for their marriage & for their wedding!!) 
     Our Lord Jesus has been the Rock that has held us together and carried all of us through these 8 years of loss!   Ron and I are still praying for our Navy SEALS and all of our military! Are you? Please keep them in your prayers! Set your cell phone to alarm at 6pm that's 1800 hours and lift them up to Jesus! HOOYAH Tyler Woodle!
     Another very special gift from our Lord Jesus, Tyler's very close friends, family to us all, Harry and Ashley Meiners, announced the birth of their new baby boy! His name is Tyler Auden (means old friend) Meiners! Oh how great a love these wonderful people have for our Tyler! His life is carried on!
    God is so very kind to us in life! He has such a great love for His children that out of great pain, He always brings great joy!  May God bless you on this Mother's.  
 Day! In Jesus, Kathi, Tyler's mom!

Memorial Day...is everyday!

Another Memorial Day has come and gone on our calendars.....and yet........ for families that have lost loved ones in the military, it never ends!   As a nation we set aside one day per year for remembrance of our loved ones. Oh but that is never enough...every day the ones left behind remember and mourn the loss!
    Do we as a nation so easily forget or at least put these precious souls in the back of our minds? What about the four Americans who lost their lives while the nation and its leaders slept last year in Benghazi? What about all the people who are dieing every day while serving or training in the military to keep us safe and free? What about the men and women who take their own lives everyday in our country because they can no longer live with what they have had to do to keep us free, or what they saw while keeping us free, or the many friends they lost in war, or because of our attitude toward them when they return to us from war, or with the loss of their own limbs and strength? ?
    So many young men and women we lose every day and we as a country set aside one day to remember! Thank God for that one day, never let it pass without remembering all of the people, throughout all of the years that we, America, have enjoyed being a free nation, who lost their lives for us! THANK YOU ALL!   
     Now let us all promise to spend some time everyday in prayer for the safety of the ones serving now and some time thinking about those we have lost and truly being a grateful nation again!  Memorial Day is every day! Thank these brave people every time you meet them, they are our guardians! Today I met an older gentleman who had a WW 2 hat on , he told me he proudly served in the South Pacific during the war. I was blessed to be able to thank a living WW 2 Vet! There are not that many left! I thank God for our military and I thank God to have had a son in the US Navy SEALS and for his 2 Papaws who served in the US Army in WW2! Hooyah! Still praying at 1800 hours every day! Thanks guys!

Footprints on my heart.....

         A little boy walking in front of me left a precious little footprint in the sand on the steps to the beach. This little boy triggered a precious memory of another little boy at the beach so very long ago! My Tyler! These little sandy footprints soon get blown away on the beach but, oh, the ones I remember are forever on my heart! I had to take a picture of this little print, it made me smile just thinking of my little boy's footprints! His smile, his laughter, his loving heart and sweetness!   There is another set of footprints that I think of as well, they are from an  old poem called, "Footprints in the Sand" I think. This poem is about 2 sets of prints in the sand, representing Jesus walking beside us in life. Then when things get really hard to bear in life, like losing your baby, there is only one set of footprints in the sand. This poem talks about how we think that when things get hard, sometimes Jesus leaves us alone to walk through it, but how very wrong we are in this thinking! I can testify that these times are truly when Jesus carries us through life! Praise God for those precious footprints! He daily bears our burdens and carries our sorrows, we just need to rest our head on His strong and loving shoulders......

Psalm 22:1 Why?

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"    Psalm 22:1      Jesus' words, sometimes our words, too!
       April 15, 2013 Morning devotional from Charles Spurgeon, "Morning and Evening"

      No other place so well shows the griefs of Christ as Calvary, and no other moment at Calvary is so full of agony as that in which His cry rends the air____" My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" At this moment, physical weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and disgrace though which He had to pass. To make His grief culminate with emphasis, He suffered spiritual agony surpassing all expression, resulting from the departure of His Father's presence. This was the black midnight of His horror. It was then that He descended the abyss of suffering. No man can enter into the full meaning of these words. Some of us think at times that we could cry, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" There are seasons when the brightness of our Father's smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness, but let us remember that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking of us, but in Christ's case it was a real forsaking. In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief. In His case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season. Since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of the Savior have been when He exclaimed, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" 


   *This is what we all feel at times when bad things happen in our lives, some feel forsaken for a moment, then turn to the God Who loves them. Speaking the words, "I love You and I trust You, Lord Jesus, even in this time. You will be my comfort, my peace, and my strength even in this. Help me O Father to stay close to You."   Some people turn from God in anger, mistakenly believing that He would cause them hurt and pain on purpose. BUT God........Loves us even now more than ever and longs to be close to us, He does not forsake His children, He holds them close. As a parent I know that sometimes in our children's lives we have to hold them close when they do not want to be held. They rage against our arms, kicking and screaming against the loving arms that hold them no matter what! This is what we do as children of Almighty God at times, yet He holds us with strong and loving arms! 
         One year ago on April 15, 2012 some dear friends of ours lost their 21 year old son to a car accident, they grieve as we do.  In February 2012 my dearest friend Marsha went to be with the Lord, her loved ones grieve as we do. In October 2011 my sweet brother Johnny went to be with the Lord, we all grieve. On February 16, 2010 we lost our precious son, Tyler, when he went to be with our Lord, we still grieve. On April 15, 2013 Boston lost 3 people and many more were injured beyond belief, their loved ones grieve, America grieves with them. BUT God has not forsaken His own, He holds them close, He longs to comfort them and us with His great love, even if we sometimes kick and scream!  We do not grieve as those who have no hope! Our great hope and comfort is in our God!!  He has not and He will not forsake His children, even for a moment! Hold on to this!

Merry? Happy???? Excuse Me!!

Merry Christmas, in this life what does merry really mean?
       Webster says it means,   delightful, giving pleasure, lightheartedness......
So for Christmas when we wish someone, or they wish us a Merry Christmas, it means to have a delightful, pleasureful and lighthearted time at Christmas.....But.... there are those of us who struggle with this season......people who are sick, in pain, grieving, sad, lonely, homeless, all sorts of struggles........what do we say to them? Sometimes is seems almost cruel to wish a Merry (lighthearted, delightful,...) Christmas to someone who struggles in life just to get through the day! What do we say to them?   I think of the old carol, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, What does this song mean? Have we

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

lost the meaning of Christmas completely? Is it about being Merry? Look at the words.......This is one of the oldest Christmas carols, going back to the 15th century.....
                                    This year I wish you comfort and joy in Jesus Christ our Lord! He came to give us Life in Him, Comfort and Joy will hold us as Merry never could in this life!

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     Also how about Happy New Year......... what is happiness anyway and where do we get it? Happy is a word that has to do with our circumstances in life. Sometimes as well, people are in circumstances in life that are hard, they are painful. What good does it do to wish them, happiness ?  Oh that we would wish each other, encourage each other with the word Joy this year! Joy comes from deep within our souls, given to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  God speaks of Joy throughout His Word! He gives us Joy unspeakable in Him! He says the Joy of the Lord is our strength! He commands us to be filled with Joy! Joy comes from Him alone! Not this world, not our circumstances in life here and now! Joy is a true gift of God Himself!   This year, 2013, I wish you all Joy! Comfort and Joy! May we all find ourselves wrapped in His Joy this year!
                         He came for this reason, that we might receive the gift of the true Christmas. New Life in Jesus Christ! He holds this precious package, wrapped in love, out to us all! Open your heart to receive it this year if you have not done so before and truly live in 2013! No matter what comes your way! What a way to start a new year!
                            Tyler is now experiencing true Joy in the presence of our Lord Jesus!  Tidings of Comfort and Joy to you from Tyler's mom while we are here! 

Why He came....

this is the real story of Christmas........this also makes me smile when I think of how our Lord Jesus rescued our precious son Tyler.......this will be our 3rd Christmas without our Tyler.....always a time of excruciating sadness mixed with the joy of Christ's birth....But...this is our Tyler's 3rd Christmas with Jesus! What we only know in part, he sees and enjoys in entirety!


            "He comes down, down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity, down to the very roots and sea bed of the humanity which He Himself created. But He goes down to come up again and bring ruined sinners up with Him....one may think of a diver*, first reducing Himself to nakedness, then glancing in midair, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water, into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay, and then up again, back to color and light, His lungs almost bursting till......
   Suddenly He breaks the surface again,
                                                  holding in His hands
                                                               the dripping precious thing
                                                                                     that
                                                                     He went down to recover!''
                                            
                                 this is Christmas! Jesus came for us!
                                                    He came to rescue our Tyler from this place!
                                                               He will be back to rescue all of His children!
                                                REJOICE!! REJOICE!! EMMANUEL!!

   thank you C.S. Lewis for this beautiful word picture of our Lord!

another Thanksgiving!

     Well another Thanksgiving Day has come and gone since our sweet Tyler left us. I miss him so much and so many others do as well, yet we cannot live in the past. Our Tyler is celebrating every holiday with Jesus now! For that I am most thankful and I will see him again one day!
      We have so very much to be thankful for,  our God is faithful, He covers us with His wings of love and carries us through each day of this life! We are only passing through this world on the way to meet our Maker, this is not our home. If only we all could live in this mind set each and every day, then and only then would we truly know peace.
     Sometimes we place too much emphasis on a day like, Thanksgiving. The media would have us believe that it is so very important to be with lots of family and friends on this day. That our life would be complete if we have a huge family dinner together with everyone on this day. Well I believe that Thanksgiving is something that should live in our hearts everyday of the year and that our Lord Jesus is the only One Who really makes everyday special in this life. I love my precious family, all of them, but I know that I am truly never alone even when I am not with them,  He is my peace, my comfort, my only help in times of trouble!
     So wherever you are today, and were on Thanksgiving Day, remember that it is only one day of your life that you should be thankful for! You did not miss out on anything if your were not with a huge family, the God of the Universe was and is with you! Now that's something to be thankful for!
     Today and always, be extra thankful for our military, our SEALS, and all of our troops. They spend many special days away from their families, friends, loved ones,  just to keep us safe at home. We get turkey and all the trimmings in peace and they get cold, damp grounds, fear, pain, worry, loneliness, along with having to do things they sometimes can not live with, just for us to be free and safe! And we think we have problems!  Thank them, and pray for them, send cards and packages to bring some comfort far from home this year! Enjoy your freedom!
         Giving thanks always, in Jesus!!  HOOYAH!  Thanks for the special phone calls from our guys on Thanksgiving! Tyler's brothers! Now that's family!