Rediscovering Encouragement

Too many years of archived photos and notes and memorabilia from generations of my family and of my husband’s, plus the fifty+ years of our marriage and now our daughter’s family, must eventually be sorted and purged and reorganized. Yikes! This is my current project and challenge.  It is interesting to say the least! Boxes of photos, bins of stored memories, unknown items which must have been kept for some reason, wonderful mementos and souvenirs which catch at my heart, documents and notes of important family history – oh what an adventure in my own time capsule.  At least a  portion of the archives can now be given away or must be disposed of due to age. A few items have been rediscovered with a jolt of surprise for the sentiment attached, and tears roll as melancholy washes over me. Encouragement is the overriding result, which shouldn’t surprise me but does for a moment. Yesterday the encouragement came with a beautiful bookmarker decorated with butterflies and the words  “Life is full of obstacles, so just trust in Him and He will carry you through”, and a business-sized card with “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt.11:28).  Those words have carried countless friends and family members through many trials and blessings for generations, so I can be assured that those words are enough for me as well.