Bear One Another's Burdens

This past week the Bishop of our ward passed away after an 18 month battle with brain cancer. It's a heart wrenching story. He was 46 years old, married for 22 years to a beautiful woman, has 5 valiant and faithful boys ages 19, 18, 15, 11, and 8, and one of them (the 19 year old) is serving a mission in Canada. He was a handsome, athletic orthopaedic surgeon and one of the kindest men you would ever meet. We all prayed for a miraculous healing. We believed this family truly deserved it. However on Tuesday, we realized it was not the Lord's will for this man to be healed. We attended his funeral today. It is comforting to know that he can now rest from his mortal suffering, free from the tumor that impeded his thinking and memory and be with his mother again who was also taken by this same disease. It is comforting to know that he will see his wife and children again and be able to live with them forever. As mortals, mere toddlers in the realm of eternity, we often forget how short in duration our mortal probation is. Yes, his wife will have to endure the rest of her earthly tenure physically void of her eternal sweetheart and sad as it might be, she and their children will be ok. They have a Heavenly Father who loves them and who will hear their prayers, Jesus Christ who has felt their heartache, a Holy Spirit to comfort them, and a ward family to bear their burdens. They will be strengthened and blessed through this trial. Although the loss is sad for all who knew him, we can still be of good cheer and rejoice in knowing this is not the end. He still lives, just in another place called Paradise.

May we all hug our loved ones a little tighter today and tell them we love them. We never know when our time will be to return home. I love you, honey. Don't forget to sing "Scatter Sunshine" at my funeral.

On a lighter note:
We also had the opportunity to attend a birthday party for a good friend of mine's and a friend of our children's 5 year old. It was an all inclusive party with cake, presents, party favors and puppet show. Now for some reason my kids absolutely loved the puppet show. It surprised me because as a child I despised them. I don't know why, but they ranked about equal with clowns. I always left the room during the Land of Make Believe segment on Mr. Rogers. I remember once on vacation with my family we attended a puppet show. I was much younger than my brother and sister so I think my parents planned the event as a courtesy to me. I don't remember much because I was like 5 or something, but I do remember being disinterested and I think my family didn't see the point in staying any longer. I remember them telling me to act like I was sick and my dad carried me out of the theater as I lay limp in his arms. Ever since then, I have avoided puppet shows. For some reason my kids loved it, although Wendy was little wary. They actually interacted with the 50 something year old lady who acted out the parts of an elf who made a variety of shoes for an old blind lady. They pet the stuffed Bambi deer and nameless kitten in the straw hat. The party was this morning and being a weekday I would've taken the kids by myself, but today because my husband took the morning off to attend the funeral, he was able to attend the party with me. Today he bore my burden and watched the puppet show at my side.