Happy Birthday Mom!

“We give thanks to God always for you…”– 1 Thess. 1:2 We lost our precious mom a few weeks ago. We had moved her from the town she loved, Fort Worth, to Branson, barely six months ago. Living at the house in Fort Worth became too difficult for her. Though her spirit was strong and encouraged while she was here in Branson, her health continued to decline. She died just a few weeks short of her 90th birthday, which we’ll celebrate tomorrow, February 20th. What better birthday present than to be in the arms of the Lord! But I am missing her today. They say, in grieving, that eventually “the sting turns into sweet.” I’m still stinging these days. It will just take time and being patient and waiting has never been a strong suit of mine. The truth is, she’s doing great. We’re the ones who are missing her. I keep thinking of what I could have done. I keep thinking of ways I could have loved her more. I keep thinking of her frailty and pain. I keep wondering if I could have made her life better. But I also find myself focusing less on what “could have been” and more on what “was.” What “was” was awesome. The Staples family lived a wonderful life of adventure. From Georgia to Ohio to Washington D.C. to Germany to Texas to Alabama and finally, back to Texas, my parents assured that we experienced the world. My mom and dad gave us the “OK” to risk and search. I cried as we watched the new movie “La La Land.” I was reminded of the precious gift my parents gave to us boys: permission to pursue our dreams. My mom allowed us boys to “give it a go.” “Better to be starving pursuing our dream than to be fat and bored settling for life.” As one older man once told me, “How sad to get to the end of your life, look back, and discover you have lived out someone else’s dream.” If you looked at the resume of the four Staples boys, it would definitely include some failures. My former mentor and boss, Richard Beach, used to encourage me to “risk.” “If something didn’t work out”, he’d say, “Chalk it up to R and D” (Research and Development). What he meant was that it was OK to risk and fail, because somewhere in the failures come the huge successes. My mom’s greatest legacy is her boys. She selflessly gave all for her kids. Her sons and now her nine grandkids, carry on the legacy. Some might say she was too consumed with us. In the end, she didn’t have garden club plaques but she had love. The greatest investment she could have made was locked in and passed on. I’m already missing all those fun things about her, but mostly I’m missing her smile at a pretty sunset, her compliment of a job well done, her encouragement on a hard day, her stories about her childhood, her stories about my Dad. In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul said, “I’ve fought the good fight, I’ve finished the race, I’ve kept the faith.” Mom’s race is over and she finished well. She fought a great fight. We will miss her, but all is well. We love you mom. Oh, and happy birthday! By Eric Joseph Staples © www.lifeaid101.com