Whew! What a Week!

I have been on an emotional roller coaster ride all week. I guess it started when Sue Price passed away, then Grandpa Mac and Aunt Audrey went in the hospital. (Grandpa Mac is doing better/They still have not found out what's wrong with Aunt Audrey.) Then, I got the news that my former pastor, Pastor Fred, may be leaving this world. He's not doing good. That just broke my heart and put me into a fog. He taught me more about the Bible and God's love than anybody I had ever known before. I grew up in church, but he really taught me things that no other preacher had before. I had grown up thinking God was out to get me if I did anything wrong. I never knew how much He really loved me until Pastor Fred revealed it to me and to all who ever went to his church. He taught me above all to love my fellow man and to forgive no matter what they did to me. He taught me to forgive before they ever did anything to hurt me. Cause if you don't forgive those who have hurt you, you just continually give them the power to hurt you again. And, it says in the Bible that God won't forgive you if you don't forgive those who trespass against you. You just don't know how much happier you can be until you learn to walk in total forgiveness. Sure, it's hard, but believe me, it can be done. Anyway, Pastor Fred may be seeing Jesus very soon. It will be wonderful for him, but hard for those he leaves behind. The more I started thinking about how glorious it was going to be for him, I started getting my joy back. I would never ask God to leave him here in the state that he's in, when he can be whole again and have his memory back. Right now, he doesn't know anybody or even remember that he preached. That has got to be hard on his family. Alzheimers is a horrible disease.

This week has been very busy at work, too. The new timekeeping system seemed to be extremely slow this week, so it put me behind. I worked late just to keep up. And then, all the supervisors were out of town, so I had to rely on other people to help me get the timesheets right. We were calling people on the radio and chasing them down in the hallways just to find out where they were when I didn't have a timesheet. Today, I didn't even go to lunch cause I was afraid I would have to work late. But, praise the Lord, I was able to leave an hour earlier than usual (took my lunch at the end of the day).

I'm not ready for Christmas yet. I just can't get in the mood to go shopping. And it's hard when you have so many people to buy for and not enough money to go around. I think that's why I have such a hard time this time of year. I've never really liked the commercialization of Christmas because it causes such a hardship on families who think they have to go in debt to buy Christmas presents. In today's economy, a lot of kids will probably be doing without. And that is so sad. Let's not forget the real reason for the season - Christ's birth. He's all we should be focusing on.

Well, I'm getting so sleepy I can't type or even think straight, so I better go to bed. Goodnight and God bless..................