Brenda Rodgers

Category: Traditions and Holidays

  • Now I Get It :: Thoughts on a Second Mother’s Day

    I had driven five hours that day to be there with her.  John and I had only been home from our 43 day hospital stay for a few days, and I was off to see another part of my heart laying there, sick, dying. This time it was my mom.

    Now I Get It (more…)

  • Thoughts on a First Mother’s Day

    To the world next year will be my first Mother’s Day.

    But there is a four-month-big child inside of me who I will mother for eternity whether our eyes ever meet here or not.

    So today is my first Mother’s Day.

    Thoughts on a First Mother's Day

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  • Because Love Came Down at Christmas

    Running is something that I do.  Sometimes for fun but most of the time for necessity.  Every runner has stories of unfortunate moments that only occur when you’re a few miles out from home.  They never happen when you’re almost home.  

    The same is true for me. 
    Because Love Came Down at Christmas

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  • Dear Mom,

    I remember Mother’s Day last year like I just sealed your card and dropped it in the mail this morning.  I did not get to see you on the actual day, so I enclosed a picture of your gift.  You went on and on about how much you loved it.

    It is hard for me to accept that I am celebrating this Mother’s Day without you. 

    I feel like an orphan.

    Not a day goes by that scenes from my life with you do not penetrate my mind.  They are random and unpredictable.  They come at the most unexpecting times with no connection to my present activity or place.  They are my mental home movies that I have no control over.

    Sometimes they leave me smiling.  Sometimes they leave me sad.  Sometimes they leave me shameful.

    Since you have left this earth I have asked the question,“Is it possible to purely appreciate someone while they are still here?” 

    I do not know the answer.  I know, though, that since the last time I saw you I have grown to appreciate you more than I ever did before. I hate that.

    I want you back so that I can appreciate you more.

    You taught me that in every life circumstance there is a lesson.  This is the lesson you have left me.  Most of the time I still do not get it right.  I do not know if I ever will until I am glorified with you in Heaven.

    But for now I continue striving towards appreciating the people I love, holding on to each moment, and relishing in the time I have with them.

    Thank you, Mom, for each of the home movies I still have of you, and for the lessons you have taught me. I wait with eager anticipation to spend an eternity of Mother’s Days with you in  Heaven.

    I love you,
    Brenda

    “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
    Ruth 2:12

  • Hope

    Today is the first day of Advent.  For four weeks we will prepare for Jesus’s birthday.  It is easy to prepare the house, buy the presents, and do the baking.  It is much harder to prepare my heart so that I truly understand the significance of what we will celebrate at the end of the month.

    As I opened our Advent devotional tonight to read and pray with John, I was reminded that this first week of Advent is centered around Hope – the very thing that my life has been centered around for the past six months.

    For several months Hope is all that I have had to hold onto.  Without it there would have been no reason to get up every morning.  To lay down my Hope would have been to give up my life.
    However, God continued to remind me daily of the Hope I had in Him.  I had Hope that he would provide for my daily needs and my temporal needs by giving me my husband’s life.  I had Hope that my mom was with Him in Heaven and that I would spend eternity with her.
    That led to my Hope that is beyond this earth – Hope that all of the injustice, sadness, and oppression that I witness each day will one day be no more.  Hope that Jesus will return to save me – us – from the grip that death of life has on this world.
    Tonight John and I read the following words from Jesus, and He reminded us once again of our Hope in Him.
    “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?   When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” John 14:1-4
    I meditate on my eternal life much more now than I ever have in the past.  It gives me peace.  It is my Hope.  Because after all of the heartbreak that I have experienced and will continue to experience throughout this life, to not dwell on God’s gift of Hope to me would be to give up – to deny His words – to not accept His Hope. 
    This first week of Advent I thank God for His Hope through His Son, Jesus.