Carol’s memorial and celebration service
December 23rd, 2006 at 3:39 am (Church)
This guest blog is brought to you tonight by Christy.
Today was our dear sister Carol’s celebration service. She went to be with her Lord on Monday after battling stage 4 liver cancer for 6 months. It was a time as pastor Holt said of rejoicing at her going home to be with the Lord and a time of grieving because we will not see her again this side of heaven. There was a wonderful time of testimony to the transforming power of God’s saving grace in her life. The Holy Spirit led the service with lots of sharing from numerous people that Carol had an impact on. I think the main thing that stuck out in my mind was how honoring to the Lord the whole service was.
We received a wonderful portrait of Carol through knowing her and the testimonies of those she impacted. Carol came to know the Lord later in life and after years of running the household handed over the reigns to her husband. This was not easy to do for she was a very strong woman who was quite capable I’m sure. Once confronted with the Lord’s pattern for women she humbly sought to surrender to His will and deny her own will. Her husband Bob shared about her desire to be conformed to the woman God wanted her to be and her desire to share with younger women. Carol home schooled their three children, two of whom went on to attend West Point just as their father and grandfathers had done.
As their son Brett shared, his mom really sought to live excellently for the Lord and passed that on to her children, never letting them get away with doing things other than excellently. He also shared a time when his mom said that she would never let go of him even though he wanted to go the other way. He was able to lay next to his mom several weeks ago and tell her that she had fought hard for them, and although not able to say much at that point she whispered out “yes, I fought hard.”
Carol had a wonderful time of training her daughter Mandy for her future as a wife and mother. Mandy shared that she sometimes wondered why she was still at home, what the Lord’s plan was. She now sees that she was at home to learn and grow close to her mom, she only had 5 years with her from when she graduated high school. She shared that she hoped that she could be half the wife and mother as her mom was. Chad shared the never-ending love his mother had for all of them and her strong spirit. It was touching what each shared regarding how special she was.
The thing I take away is what kind of testimony will I have? Will I hear “well done my good and faithful servant” as I’m sure that Carol heard? She certainly did a lot in the time the Lord gave her on earth. I want to leave a sweet fragrant aroma of Christ to those around me, my husband, children and others that the Lord puts in my path. Our time here on earth is indeed short in comparison to eternity, even if we are given 80 years.
Pastor Holt shared a wonderful story of a couple down the street from him missing out on getting the house they now live in (which is a wonderful house to home church in!). The couple told him that they really liked that house on the cul-de-sac and hoped someday it would be theirs but missed out on buying it, why? Because he said they later told him they waited too long. Will we miss out on the mansion that the Lord has prepared because we waited too long? Whatever our age I pray we commit to Him our lives by repenting of our sins and living totally for Him.
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