the brokenhearted

Life has been quite a whirlwind these last couple of weeks/weekends. Not necessarily in a good way either.

About three weeks ago I was sent news from a college friend/classmate that one of our teachers from college had passed away. She was my favorite teacher. One of my favorite people in life. She taught 95% of my Psychology classes while I was earning my degree. I would have her classes back to back for four to five hours every two or three days. I spent nearly all of my college days and hours in her class. The majority of my Psychology degree was under her instruction.

The reason I believe the crazy things I do, are because of that woman. She was a mentor, listener, counselor, and a woman of great faith. She was never shy to say that I was her favorite and in her eyes I could almost do no wrong. The most "wrong" I ever did was text message too much in class. We held the same views, opinions, beliefs in certain theories and theorist. My friend (and fellow Psych. classmate) Kelly, always laughed and said that the reason I liked Dr. Simmons so well is because we were like the same person. This may or may not be true ;)

Of all the hours that I spent in her classroom, under Dr. Simmons instruction, one thing so vividly sticks out in my mind. One thing she always said was, "Hate the sin. Love the sinner. Until we can learn to separate the sin from the sinner, we will never reach people for Christ." She taught us so much, yet what I remember is that she most importantly wanted us to learn to love people. All people.

That was all three weeks ago. Then two weekends ago, Labor Day weekend, my husband's cousin passed away tragically. We will never know exactly what happened to Ja, but what we do know is that as the preacher said at Ja's funeral, "Can you really think of anyone more ready to go?" I only met Ja one time. He was a nice, polite, young man. From what I know, he was a wonderful husband who loved his wife more than he loved himself. He was an outstanding father to his beautiful little girl. But most importantly he was a child of God who he passionately loved and lived for. Oh how my heart aches, for his wife and daughter. My heart aches for his little girls future of never getting the chance to really know her daddy.  His death has left so many questions and so many broken hearts. No one has the right thing to say. No one knows the right thing to do because nothing that is said or done will make his wife, parents, and brothers feel any better. I can't even imagine how any of them feel. Yet, I pray I will never have to know. Situations like this make you want to squeeze your child a little tighter at night and never forget to tell your spouse how much you love them.

I found this quote and I've scowered the internet trying to find who said it or if it is written in a book or poem somewhere. I can't find who said this, but I love it nontheless:
"Sometimes God calms the storm, but sometimes He lets the storm rage and He calms His child"

This quote reminds me that in all things and in all situations, God is there. We may think we are all alone. We may wonder why something is happening. We may question his plan for our life.
But in all things God will be glorified.

As the days, weeks, months, and years pass & we lose loved ones - Heaven seems to get a little bit sweeter every day.

(her eyes were closed- it was very bright outside!!)

"The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

- Psalms 34: 17 & 18

With these crazy last 3 weeks I'll leave you with this crazy picture of me and Hadge: