Me…
Have you ever thought about how important someone is in your life?
Have you ever lost that person before you knew how important they were to you?
Did you then look back and think about how important that someone was to you?
I lost my Grandpa when I was 16. He got very sick and died of phenomena. I didn’t realize until he was gone how great an impact he had had on my life.
My Grandpa (Pops) taught me to fish. We would go to the pond every time we were together and fish for hours. We would just sit on the side of the lake all day long. When I got too anxious, would reel in my rod and throw the line back out again, over and over, he would just shake his head and say, “Be patient Eric.”
Pops loved model trains. He would spend hours working on them. We would go to the store and he would find some random object that he could make into something for his train layout. I would sit on the stool and watch him work, and then he would reach over and put the railroad engineer’s hat on me and say, “You know what to say,” and I would yell “All Aboard” and would switch on the train and slowly let it run around the layout.
He taught me to love. I would see it in him when he would hug me, or he would take us next door and lifeguard for us so that we could swim in the neighbor’s pool, he showed it every time he would hug and kiss my Grandma.
He was a religious man. I received, after my Grandmother died about a year ago, a small leather bond book. This book was a devotional book in which my Grandpa had taken notes and written bible quotes. The book was an army issued book that my Grandpa used when he fought in War World II. He became the honorary Chaplin for his group. Anytime I went to visit we would go to church. He would sit me down next to him and often he would get up to lead parts of worship.
I think about my Grandpa often and I often forget to thank God for the role he played in my life. We often don’t think or realize that people make great impacts on our life until they are gone. It could be a friend that you lose contact with, the death of a relative, pushing away someone that we are close too because we don’t want to hear what they have to say, ignoring or taking for granted a friend that is always there for you no matter what you say or do.
Sometimes we pray during hard times for God to show us a sign or show us how he is going to help us to get through something. We often don’t realize that God puts people in our lives to help us through those tough times. That the footprints in the sand are often our friends carrying us through the bad and tough times, and that in turn is God carrying us.
Take some time this week to think about those that are around you. Think about the impact they make on your life. Thank God for putting them in your life, and the role they play. Realize that God loves you so much that he gives you others to bear your burdens with.
Then realize the impact YOU make on others!
