yesterday would have been my mother's 54th birthday ... and it was a great day! we told a few stories, talked with my dad, and even had red velvet cupcakes with pink cream cheese frosting (b/c mom would do something sweet and fun like that!). i felt so at peace and had no regrets, no feelings of despair or anger toward God for having taken her in the middle of her life, the prime of mine when i am just becoming an adult and growing into a mature and special relationship with my mother. don't misunderstand, i do miss her deeply and wish she could be here to share special little moments together, but i don't mourn her passing. i have come to trust the Lord so much now that i know if it were best for her to stay she would have stayed - that in her passing we are all strengthened ... or we are given the opportunity to have strengthening experiences with the Lord. i have been blessed with a greater understanding of the plan of salvation ... the plan of happiness ... the plan of redemption than i ever had before. the eyes of my understanding have been opened because my heart was softened, even broken. i am motivated more now than ever before to be diligent in obeying the word of the Lord and in making and keeping covenants with Him because i want to be eternally united with my sweet mother (and all my family) in the next life. there is nothing the Lord couldn't ask of me that i wouldn't do because i have come to know that when He says something He will follow through on his word, it will never become void.
so all in all, yesterday was a great spiritual day for me and a happy reminder of how wonderful a life my sweet mother led and all the good she acomplished on the Lord's errand in the short 49 years she had in this life. may i too be as wonderful as she is.
