Guest 3: Living Creeds

Kent again.  Following her return from NYC and her surgery on March 22nd, her next months were a blur of almost daily tests, treatments, and trials.  As I touched on before, perhaps the most difficult part of the process involved the cocktails of treatment drugs and the drugs used to counteract the negative side-effects of the first drugs  Fighting the fog was a daily battle for her, and I admired her determination to stay sharp.  Some days, though, it was a losing battle, which provided many humorous moments caused by inappropriately mixed-up speech - funny to her later, but frustrating and embarrassing at the time.  Kim called it 'lack of filter'.  She was good at finding funniness in her foibles, and she kept us in stitches as we would sit around and relive the offending moments.

Some of our family creeds come to mind after my last thought, most of them grounded in scriptural truths.  Kim's journey has proved they are not just talk, but are profitable for life. 

'Attitude is everything' - it's not what you do in life that matters, it's the motivation in your heart and the attitude you carry that count.  She nailed this down, always doing her best to be encouraging to others, cheerful, and not to complain. 

'The end does not justify the means' - it's not whether you finished, but how you played the game.  The little details along the way do count; the attitudes and the motives are important.  Integrity matters...except in Settlers of Catan or Scrabble, naturally.  By all means, pass cards under the table with your toes, or make up nonsense words to push for the win.  Crush the 8-year-old!  Right, Kim?   Ahem, despite her philosophy about family games, she fought the good fight, and finished with respect.

'It builds character.'  Our kids groan at this one.  We emphasized this for a whole year once, and they heard it too often.  Romans 5:3-5 all the way.  Kimberly took this to heart right from the start and daily lived it out.  She is an example of what I hope someday to become.  She was constantly looking for the silver lining, for the personal lesson, the opportunity for growth, and the way to be an encouragement to someone else, within each negative challenge.  And she found it because she searched for it.  It is easy for me to say that she is not the same as she was, but better now.  As Starfield aptly penned, there is Beauty in the Broken: ' So everything is beautiful. / Even when the tears are falling / I don't need a miracle to believe.'