Visiting a Cemetery

A friend of mine from MI, who studies genealogy as a hobby, found that some relatives of hers are buried in a cemetery here in PA and asked if I would go and take pictures of the gravestones for her. My first thoughts were that it was kind of a weird request, sounds creepy just to go wandering around a cemetery, and how hard it would be to actually find the grave stones! But today beng the day after Memorial Day seemed like the best day of any to give it a try and it turned out to be a great experience. The park was decorated more than I presume is usual because they held a Memorial Day service, plenty of flags and fresh flowers brightened up the nicely kept green lawn. A lady in the office and a gardener helped us find the plots and we did some crayon rubbings of a couple beautiful features on some of the gravestones. My daughter asked if my friend's relatives were sleeping there, and of course this prompted a good discussion about death- how we all will die, only God knows how long we have to live, and that God wants us to love Him and love others as much as possible before that happens. This visit inspired my reading for some meditation time today, I bet you can guess in what book- Ecclesiastes! Here are my chapter titles and some of the main verses that stuck out to me:

The Word:
The Vanity of Life, The Grief of Wisdom, The Vanity of Pleasure, The End of the Wise and the Fool, Everything Has It's Time, Injustice Seems to Prevail, The Vanity of Selfish Toil, The Value of a Friend, Popularity Passes Away, Fear God, Keep Your Vows, The Canity of Gain and Honor, The Value of Practical Wisdom, Obey Authorities for God's Sake, Death Comes to All, Wisdom Superior to Folly, The Value of Diligence, Seek God Early in Life....."Go and eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heartl For God has already accepted your works." Ch. 9:7 "Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun...Whatever your hand finds to do, do it wtih your might" 9: 9-10

Even just these titles help my persepctive shift to where it should be- on the eternal, while valuing each day as a gift and joy to live in the knowledge and love of our Savior.

Prayer:
When I feel like grumbling about temper tantrums, spills, dirt, miscommunication, God please help me to remember that life is really too short not to love!

Food Story: I really felt the pull of temptation again already today to just stop and get an amazing McDonald's diet coke, or eat the chips and cookie left over from yesterday's bbq. Again I know it's not about denying myself for my own righteousness, but seriously life is too short to care SO much about eating unhealthy (albeit delicious) foods, I am more excited to spend so much time listening for an praying on the things of God, as if this were my last day living :)