December 19th, 2011/A post from Aaron

So many of you often inquire about my son Aaron and how he is doing. From a mother's heart that means so much to me and I want to thank you. I asked Aaron if he wouldn't mind sharing his heart a little bit. 


This is what he shared:

My perspective on life is so incredibly different from a year ago. I value people differently, I recognize what it means to really see others through and beyond their trials. I find myself having formed so many new relationships with people who have genuinely seen me through some of the hardest times of my life. I cannot thank God enough that I’m ending the year miles away from where it began. 

I guess what’s so amazing is that all of those blessings weren’t the ones I expected. I have fallen into a family at Celebration Church that has supported and embraced me and helped cultivate the gifts that God has given me in order to serve His kingdom. I have met people who will forever change my life, even after having learned from them for just a season. I have seen people show me what it means to sacrifice your desires for the will of God, and I have learned to suffer well through an incredibly trying year. 

I recently talked with a friend who lost her father a couple months ago, and we both agreed that the most difficult thing is realizing how to deal with the fact that life--friends, school, obligations--move on completely unaffected in so many ways by the very thing that has changed your life indefinitely. Birthdays, Father’s Day, starting senior Year, Thanksgiving, and Christmas have and will come this year, and they will of course be another day to press into what matters most.

I cannot say that putting up Christmas lights outside was the same without my dad. And moments like these--the small things of great personal value--are the ones that affect me in ways I can’t explain. Each time I encounter one of those moments, it’s one of maturity, growth, and a recognition of how different things are and will be. These are tough moments, even almost a year later.   I can count on one hand those friends who have stayed close and lifted me up each time I felt low this year, and they are blessings I can hardly consider myself worthy of.

But I should never think that I am to be perfected in this life, completely finished in the eyes of my Heavenly Father. I read a thought recently that said we should always be in an attitude of asking God to make new over, and over, and over, and over... 

This is the prayer I want to learn and believe in. I know I have been through so much at a young age, but I believe that I am not designed to be halted here. One grows in faith not to merely endure the testing fire, but to come out with the courage to be refined again. 

I don’t know where I’ll be, or honestly where I even want to be, 6 months from now. I just know that I want it to be another step forward in translating pain into progress in my relationship with Jesus, and serving in a way that matters. 

Looking forward to another year of unexpected blessings. 

-Aaron