Burdens and Blessings

                 It seems to me most of us live lives made up of burdens and blessings. Burdens we struggle to overcome and blessings that make our lives worth living. So often the burdens and blessings are so intertwined we have trouble separating one from another. This is so true of family. The love of family is something we all cherish and the burden of helping family most of us will shoulder and carry in our life time.
              I see so much of this paradox with my customers. The burden of ailing parents and the blessing of taking the time to be with them versus the burden of guilt for those that can’t take the time. Having the burden of a sick child and the blessing of seeing that child’s courage and commitment to recover and lead a normal life. Or the terrible burden of losing a child.
None of us will get through this life with out burdens and blessings.
             The blessings of youth and good health are something many of us took for granted when we were young. Old age and dying was something that happened to old people not us. It is quite amazing how we are programmed to think we will live forever when we are young. Life is all about enjoying the good times and surviving the bad as best you can. I tell people if you are at a point in your life that all your loved ones are healthy and things are going well enjoy it. Embrace it and give thanks for it. Tomorrow that could change. That is just Life. Burdens and Blessings it comes with both.
           What is life all about? Is it as simple as enjoying the good times and surviving the bad? There are many opinions and many faiths that attempt to provide us with answers. There is one thing I know for sure. The only thing you can take with you is Love. All those material things we enjoy stay behind. I can tell you it is seldom you see a hearse with a u-haul. Love is the only currency in Heaven. The love you receive from others is the greatest blessing you will receive in your life. Love is a powerful thing. Remember
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
          Of all the things in this world that convinces me that God is real it’s not the stars, not the amazing colours, the flowers, the trees, the ocean, the animals or the miracle of life itself. It is the existence and power of LOVE. That emotion I have no control over. That emotion that makes my heart ache and the tears well up in my eyes. That emotion that makes someone risk their lives to help another. That emotion that makes one country help another in times of disaster. You bear the burdens of family because of Love and you reap the blessings of family because of  Love. Love is the most powerful thing you will experience in your life time and the Love of God is the greatest blessing of all.

Larry