*The rest of the story…

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Hours before our son left this earth, he called me asking a question. He always had a question. 🙂  He told me he had met a friend at school that was from another country. He did not believe this young man would be able to get home to his family for the holidays. I told him he was welcome to invite him to spend the holidays with us. He insisted there must be a way to raise funds, to buy him a plane ticket, to be home with his own family. He told me, he felt it would be difficult, to be away from family for so long. I assured him we could find a way to help and together, we would figure it out soon. Soon never happened. Exactly six hours later he was hit by a car crossing the street and I never spoke with him again.

In speaking with other grieving parents, I have found that many are searching for a new driven purpose in life. These parents are in motion to find something greater to work towards, myself included. Why you ask? It has been my experience that the loss of a child puts an urgency on doing things that our children may have done had he or she lived for years as expected.  We begin to live intentionally.

Our son loved helping others. He went out of his way to surprise people with acts of kindness and sometimes, just downright funny things, to help people laugh. When the non-profit “Chosen to Shine” was created, the purpose, was to let young adults see the bigger picture on how one could serve others. We also see how we can all shine for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, realizing, one cannot see the light if there is no darkness. Chosen to shine has had opportunity to serve local needs, as well as serve in a third world country this past month. Experiencing with others, what serving can accomplish, is a wonderful gift in itself.

Today, someone shared with me, that when we are giving and paying it forward, God and our children are smiling down, knowing and seeing love. I do not know if our children can truly see us, but if they can, I certainly pray they see love and kindness. We will always carry our children’s spirit within us. Life is about choices. Please choose life, to be color blind and love others in all circumstances.

MamaC

The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. 
He must turn away from evil and do good;
He must seek peace and pursue it. 
For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
And His ears attend to their prayer,
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.  1 Peter 3:10-12

*Paul Harvey was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC News Networks. He was famous for his, “the rest of the story” segments from the 1950’s through the 1990’s. I grew up fondly listening to his voice and stories. He began speaking with “Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey, stand by for news!” Of course, he added his own twist to the news. He would often tell of someone that did something ridiculous or offensive and said, “He would want us to mention his name” followed by silence.

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