MY CANCER STORY: Sunday morning thoughts....again

It is early Sunday morning again and I love to have time to myself to think and contemplate the wonderfulness of life. And since I have been given a second chance on life, I think about it a lot. This past weekend has been full of life and my sister and her family (as well as my niece Stacie) have brought new life to me again. Not just by coming and visiting me, but by the spirit of love and peace and hope that they bring with them. I never knew how much you can feel it if you are in tune. They came down and we played games (I love a party) and we had a great visit. But through it all, I felt an overpowering feeling of love and concern for both me and my wife and I have always just thought of them (Stacie included) as one of my relatives that I was certain were praying for me. Instead I believe that Heavenly Father has sent angels (I have a lot of them on both sides helping me) to teach me and prepare me as well as help Julie and I through some pretty tough times. My family has been there for me through all this. My parents came down earlier for my surgery as well. The tiny miracles that have been granted me lately (Judy taught me to call them seagulls too) are too many to consider as coincidences.

(Our usual is Golden Corral, but to be different, they decided to try Chuck a Rama instead.)

There were a lot of lessons that I have been taught this week. One is that my parents love me unconditionally and my dad has sometimes has a hard time showing it, but I know that he does and he tries to show it in his own way and this week he did better than ever. Mom is just mom and she has never had a hard time showing her love. I guess my challenge has been to show it back. I was so grateful to have them here. Another lesson I learned is that a lot people's efforts to help me in the past (and now) were not just efforts to help, the were directed, inspired, responses to promptings from the Holy Ghost and often direct answers to prayers. I also learned that I am still weak in my communications with my Heavenly Father. I find myself falling into that trap again where we call upon the Lord when we are in trouble and desperate for his help, and then when things start going better we tend to forget to express our gratitude the way we should. It isn't that I am not grateful, I simply forget to express it as often as I should. That will be my goal this week as I get ready for another chemo treatment. I want the Lord to know that I am grateful and not just waiting for the next crisis to get on my knees and say "Help me now Lord, I am in pain". My soul is overcome now with shame for my lack of consistency, but again the beauty is I keep being given second chances. I will not miss out on them.

I also wanted to thank my home teacher for doing his job admirably. I called at the last minute and he ran right over and did exactly what I wanted him too. He is a fountain of knowledge concerning the history of St. George and I love to hear the stories. So since Stacie is a history major and Judy and her family seemed interested I asked him to come over and share some stories. He came right over and did a great job. Entertained us for over an hour and I was loving it. Thanks Bro. Jennings. Demonstrated how to do home teaching right. You can report a good visit this month (along with the others).
....more thoughts and pictures later.....