o death where is thy sting?

happy monday, friends.

are you ready to start a new week?

ready or not, here it comes. :)

today, our family attended the funeral of our preacher's mother.

can i just say that we have the best preacher and his family, ever!?

we are so blessed to have him as the shepherd of our flock and we love all of his family dearly.

but of course, i'm partial.  

i always get a little nervous about going to funerals because i know i'm going to cry.

i'm a tenderhearted softy and i just.can't.help.it.

i  don't like crying in public. 

my eyes become a salty, wet mess of puffiness and it lasts for days. or so it seems.

this was no exception.

it was a beautiful memorial for a lovely woman.

her son{our pastor} performed the service.

 all of her grandchildren gathered to sing beautiful hymns in her memory.

she would have loved it.

she adored her family and all i kept thinking of was how this is exactly what she would have wanted.

although we weep and mourn the loss of a loved one, 

this service was ultimately one of rejoicing and joyous 

hope.

arleen was a tough 'ol farm wife.

a north dakota girl who married a farmer, as she told me many times, 

and followed him to wisconsin for a brand new life.

a hard worker.

mother of three.

grandmother to many.

most importantly, a child of the Risen King, as simply stated in her journal from the 70's.

as our pastor, her son, tearfully shared the tender entry of when she came to the point in her life where she knew that nothing she did or could ever do would be good enough to earn her way to Heaven, we rejoiced.

she knew that religion, going to church, and good works simply weren't enough.

only trusting in the shed blood of Jesus and His finished work on the cross.

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Romans 10:9-10

as a mother, wife, grandmother, daughter, sister, friend and much more,

 she was not defined by any of these roles in her life.

she was defined by her relationship with Him.

she became a new creature and she proclaimed it without reservation.

this was her healthy hope.

 "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is 

thy victory?"

I Corinthians 15:55

this is the banner that we can wave high today.

arleen is not in any more pain.

she  is completely new, more alive than ever.

perfect, you could say, with confidence.

our pastor wisely reminds us that we are living in the land of the dying,

 but if we have accepted Christ, we are going to the land of the living!

now that is something to celebrate.

we will miss you, arleen, and we look forward to our glorious reunion.

i hope you have a lovely week.

thank you so much for stopping by today.

xo,