grace and strength

I enjoy reading blogs. Sometimes I end up reading the blogs of complete strangers just by clicking on link to link to link...

That happened tonight. I eventually read of a young mother who died of cancer yesterday. Honestly, I couldn't read the whole thing. It made my heart hurt too much. I clicked it closed, praying as I did that God would give her friends and family the grace they would need for the days, weeks, months, and years ahead.

I started thinking about the weeks and months after my dad died when people would say, "How can you go on? How are you coping?" I didn't really know how I was...I just was. I heard somewhere along the way the notion that God gives us the grace and strength we will need for the stuff that will be in our path, so if the stuff is in someone else's path, we can't figure out how they are coping because God didn't give us the grace and strength for that stuff. That makes sense to me...it helps me when I can't figure out how kids will go on after their mom died of cancer yesterday.

It makes me wonder what grace and strength God is growing in my boys. What will be in their paths? Will they know great joys? deep pain? Will they realize that God has given them the grace and strength they need? I'm counting on it. I know He is faithful. I've seen what He can do. I believe He will carry on the work he has started in these three.