This week a woman came into my work to start the process of getting a monument for her husband. He died tragically exactly one year ago.
Dennis was an iron worker and was on the job when disaster struck. Someone didn't support a heavy steel beam the way that it should have been supported and as Dennis walked just under it, the beam fell and struck him in the back of the neck. He died four days later when they took him off life support. He was 49.
Brenda has paid extra to hold onto his cell phone with his outgoing message still announcing, "This is Dennis, leave a message". She said that she knows the Lord is working in her to let go, but at this time she and the family still likes to be able to hear his voice.
We had a beautiful conversation that afternoon, the last hour of my workday. Brenda told me how she was saved at the age of eighteen. It was the day of prom and she had been invited to go to church with a friend of hers. She decided to accept her friend's invitation instead of going to her prom. A quaint little baptist church, she recalled. It was that night, when she went home, that she gave her heart to the Lord. She said that she had been a smoker and immediately threw them all away. He began immediately working in her life.
She married at a young age and had a little baby boy. A couple of years into her first marriage, her husband was killed in an auto accident. She was thankful that she had the Lord in her life. He is what got her through that.
She met and married Dennis when her son was seven years old. Dennis had two children of his own from a previous marriage. Adam and Sarah. Dennis also knew the Lord.
Tragedy struck this family six years before Dennis' own fatal accident. His son Adam was killed when he fell asleep at the wheel and struck a tree.
Brenda has had to stand by and watch three of her loved ones die. All in tragic accidents. Its more than one can bear.
That is when she said, "Its ONLY with the Lord's help that I have managed to get through it all".
What an amazing testimony she has.
She quoted Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose".
God Bless you Brenda.
4 comments:
Wow! I so admire people who can endure such tragedy (repeatedly) and still live a life so devoted to the Lord. There is no greater testimony. Man, puts me to shame.
You have no idea what I have been through for this is my 6th try to try to get this comment written. Yes SIX times now......the enemy is trying to discourage me from commenting on this subject, mmmmm for some reason it gets deleted right at the very end when I am trying to make corrections but I am DETERMINED, HEAR Me DETERMINED to do this if it takes me all night...and it just may.
I am utterly speechless over the fact that someone like Brenda could go through what she has been through and still draw strength and love of the Lord. I am ashamed to say that I can't even come close to who she is in Christ.....but I will learn, oh I pray. This testimony of hers was to be heard my many, I know this, but it was especially sent to me today. When I read the part that she recited the scripture 8:28....I almost stopped breathing. I became silent in my thoughts...Tammy had shown me that very scripture the 2nd or 3rd Sunday I had sat next to her in church. I thought it was very kind of her, but it really didn't make much sense to me. But since Hope's Death, it started to make sense....and now knowing what Brenda has been through...she is speaking his word through his scripture....I am truly stunned. I get it now...I understand it now.....oh dear Lord I am so sorry. Tammy it was you first to share it with me and now through Brenda's story (unknown to her) to really get it in my heart. God really wanted me to hear it and get it deep in my soul today.
Shari I thank you for sharing this testimony of Brenda's today....I want to learn to trust and love the Lord as she does no matter what comes my way.
Brenda I am in awe.....Romans 8:28
I now understand...I get it now
Wow! Reminds me to keep going one day at a time and to cherish that day. I was typing Tony's message for tomorrow and he is talking about the impossible mission and how it takes faith to complete that mission.. Brenda is a true test to that impossible mission and keeping the faith in our Lord.
Wow, I too sit here after reading this, speechless. I almost feel an instant bond with Brenda, a woman I have never met. My heart bleeds for her and the pain she has gone through.
But praise the Lord Jesus for his never ending Love for us. I know if it were not for Him, I wouldn't be who I am today. So, I say thanks you PRECIOUS LORD!!
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