"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

~II Corinthians 12: 9-10

I want to tell you the story of a strong woman who has demonstrated the Lord's strength for her entire life. Through health and through illness, she has shown everyone around her how you can be strong in the Lord. Let me introduce you to Laurel and to her mother...

"I am losing my mother to irreversible illness," Laurel says as she describes her mother.

Like so many of her generation, Laurel's mother is suffering the consequences of years of smoking which compromised her heart and lungs. Laurel's mother has cardio-pulmonary disease, a life-threatening illness that has compromised her lung and heart function. Her physical body is wasting away as her quick mind calculates how she can make the most of the time that she has left.

As Laurel reflects on her mother's life, she goes back several years to her childhood when her mother was the primary caretaker for herself and her younger sister. Laurel remembers when she was about 5 years old and her father left them for another woman. And, out of necessity, her mother became a working mother at a time when most moms were home solely caring for the children and managing the household (like June Cleaver of the old "Leave It to Beaver" sitcom). As Laurel reflects on this time period, she lovingly recalls how her mother beautifully raised herself and her young sister all on her own. She handled it all: housework, homework, her job, and her daughters. Laurel also recalls that they "truly had quality time when we could be together. And when we were apart we were in the hands of friends or family members who loved us like their own." Her mother was a very strong woman who loved her daughters very much and did everything possible to care for them by herself during their childhood.

Laurel recalls, "My greatest fear was that something would happen to her, that God would take her away from us. She was the one we knew we could count on to be there! Where would we be without her?"

When Laurel first realized that her mother had life-threatening cardio-pulmonary disease, she retired from her job to make herself readily available to help her sister with her care and to spend regular quality time with her. So began her Mondays with Mom, which she treasures. And, sensing that they are losing their matriarch, the extended family, now three generations beyond Mom (and twenty-three strong with a twenty-fourth on the way), has agreed to spend as much time with her, celebrating the big and small things of life while they can. These events, birthday parties, trips to the beach, tea, and a picnic are priceless!

Another priceless gift is how her mother is reacting to her illness. While it breaks Laurel’s heart to see her mother frail and unable to breathe without oxygen, she is so encouraged to see that she is fearless in the face of death. Her mother knows the Savior and knows that He has plans for her yet. Even if these plans are beyond this time and place. And, she knows that she will be together with her daughters in eternity in His good time.

It is this model of a strong Christian woman that Laurel has seen her entire life. In her life and in her illness, she has modeled God's precious love to her daughters. And, Laurel reports that she has known Jesus through her mother for many years and is so blessed for having had that experience.

Laurel's mother is a very strong woman who knows the Lord and everyone around her can see the Lord through her life and through her illness. And, in the face of death, she is not afraid. As it says in Isaiah 41:10: