Expiration Date.....
Hi family!! It has been a little minute since I've had a chance to let you know "What I'm Feeling Today"! I know that I promised a while ago that I was going to blog about my experience in reference to "Expiration Date". In this blog I'm going to talk about what God allowed me to experience and how that very moment changed my view of life forever.
On April 9, 2016, I went home to go visit my parents to spend a little time with them because I live about one hour away from them and it had been a few weeks since I had the chance to spend some time with them. My parents, especially my dad has suffered multiple heath issues for years and to just think of the grace and mercy of God, makes tears come to my eyes. I'm actually feeling tears falling down my face now because God has been SO GOOD to my family! To look at my dad's medical history records, he should be with Jesus BUT God has another plan for his life! My mother has been my dad's care giver since about 2011 when my father suffered with a MASSIVE stroke which left him in a coma for 2 weeks. Well let me get on to what I want to share with you because I could go on and on about all of that!
Well as my parents and I was leaving to go to the store, my father went out before us (very impatient....is that a Man thing? LOL) and long story short, I went outside and saw my father laying down on the ground in a POOL of BLOOD!!! Yep, my father had fallen and with the blood thinners that he's on, he began to bleed immediately! So happen my parent's neighbors were home (they are GOD SENT you hear me) and they were able to help us get my father stabilized until the EMS and Firemen came. So my father was in ICU for about 2-3 days until he went to the Neuro Floor. While my father was in ICU, God had an assignment waiting for me and I didn't even know it.
On that Tuesday, I decided to work from home (but located at the hospital) to be near my dad and to also be a help to my mom for anything that was needed. I needed to plug up my computer to do some work so I decided to go to a smaller waiting room located in the ICU area. Now the rules for this room stated that visitors could only be in there 30 minutes at a time but how God allowed that time to be extended for a REASON but I just didn't know it then. So as I was blogging (wow...the last time that I blogged I was in the waiting room) a family came in the room with me. As I was working, I could tell that by their conversation, their loved one was in the "Transition Stage" and they were saying their good-byes. I could discern that God had something for me to do but I just didn't know yet. I called my mom and told her that I would be a while because God had me on an assignment and when it was complete, He would let me know.
So in listening to the family, I could tell that they had some issues that they were trying to deal with (as with any other family..who doesn't have issues?) and I began to pray that God would intervene and would bring peace, clarity, love and restoration to the family. You would think that God would have assigned me the deceased's wife and daughter but actually God had assigned me his sister, neice, brother in law and a nephew. God didn't allow me to have any interaction with the daughter and wife. When the time came that the gentleman made his transition from this earth, the nephew came back in the waiting room crying that he was gone. I immediately went and found a nurse to give me a kleenex box. I knew that I had to do something to help minister to them. As I waited, I saw the room that the deceased man was in and the monitor outside of his room read 0 (ZERO) for the heartbeat. NEVER had I seen that before!!! It hit me so fast and hard that I had to get myself together because I knew that I had to minister to the family. I was like God, I need for You to help Your daughter out because I have never experienced anything like this before and I need you to help me minister to this family. Please show me what to do and what to say.
That ZERO showed me that in this life, there will come a time in which our race is going to end and that the reading is going to say ZERO and that we would have met our expiration date. I was like OMG, Lord, everyone has an expiration date on their lives and we don't know what the date is, only You. Lord help me to live each day as if the expiration date was TODAY. As more family began to come in, God said okay your time is complete, they need time to grieve privately. So I began to gather my things, I told them that I would be in prayer with them and before I could even reach out to them, they reached out to ME! They embraced me and thanked me for helping them through this moment of loss. I told them that I would be in prayer for them and then the deceased's sister gave me an embroided towel (something that she had just completed) and I was truly humbled at the simple yet thoughtful gift. I have that gift on my dresser as a reminder of that precious moment that I had with the family & about expiration date!
As soon as I returned to my dad's room, I broke down in tears in which it alarmed my parents. My tears were mixed with grief for the family who just lost their loved one and also tears of gratefulness because my father was still here with me (FYI..he's doing so much better! To God Be The Glory). I couldn't stop crying and at the same time, I thanked God for trusting me with such a sensitive and precious assignment. I still think about the Bowman Family and I pray that God would give the peace, love and most of all salvation to their family.
I know that tonight's blog was very lengthy and I could go on and on, but I wanted to share with you all my heart and to see a very transparent side of me. My prayer is that God will be seen and heard through all of my postings whether on Facebook/Instagram or either through my blogs. Everyday God is showing me that He has me covered and that He's guiding me through this journey as I Encourage and Empower Individuals while Exalting Christ!
Blessings!
~LibFiles
