ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mission Trip Silent Auction Begins online on May 9th. You can go to www.hansenauctiongroup.com/auctions/detail/bw63343 Auction runs till May 19th at 6 pm.
Adopt-A-Highway May 15 at 8 am. All are welcome as we do our part to clean up Hwy 170. Please wear pants and bring work gloves.
Graduate Recognition Sunday is Sunday, May 23rd, at the 9 am worship service.
Ultimate Crew! Wednesday, May 26th, 3:30 pm till 5:00 pm for all 3rd-6th graders. Snacks, games, music, and more! All your favorite things about the Crew!
Wednesday Worship moves to 6:30 pm starting in June.
Vacation Bible School June 14-18. You can register for Vacation Bible School now online at: https://lutherparksummer.campbrainregistration.com Please put in TrinityDayCamp.
Sign up for VBS snacks! You can sign-up in the Narthex or email PB if you are willing to provide snacks for VBS. You can donate whatever you want for 50 kids.
Don’t forget that you can support Trinity through the GivePlus app OR using the donate form on our website. Download the free app, search for Trinity Lutheran Boyceville, and go from there!
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
Today is Mother’s Day, a day in which we celebrate our mothers or mother like figures in our lives. It is a day in which families get together, loving kids go to church with their Mom, where wonderful buffets are consumed, flowers and cards are given, and the mother and mother-like figures in our lives are rightly honored, celebrated, and appreciated.
I must admit, however, that Mother’s Day is not necessarily a day of joy for me. It isn’t because I didn’t love my Mom. My Mom was awesome and she did has an impact on me daily. Same is true for my mother-in-law Carol, who was the best mother-in-law a guy could ask for. One of the reasons Mother’s Day isn’t as joyful as it could be is because these two amazing women are no longer here and Mother’s Day reminds me how much I miss them. I always think of those I know who have lost their Mom and how this holiday can be difficult. But if I’m being honest, for the past 28 years, which is much longer than my Mom has been gone, Mother’s Day has always had a veneer of sadness.
May 8th, 1993 was the day before Mother’s Day. It also happened to be the day of my junior prom. That morning, I headed to the hospital to see my Dad who was there having received a terminal cancer diagnosis. I came to spend a few hours with him, talk sports, tell him about the baseball game from the night before, and then go home and get ready for prom. It had been a couple of days since I had seen him and I was not prepared for what I would encounter. My Dad was yellow. Yellow, due to the jaundice that was setting in as the cancer had spread to his liver from his pancreas. He was incredibly weak. I mean, weak. I had never really seen my Dad weak, this tower of strength I had known my whole life, and it really shook me. Even worse, he couldn’t really talk or make sense. There was already fluid coming to his lungs from the cancer and he was breathing heavy and not making much sense. After about 20 minutes or so, I just couldn’t take it. I was going to lose it and I didn’t want to cry in front of my Dad, so I said by and left the room.
As I walked down the hall, I could hear him trying to call to me, and to my shame I was ignoring it. I was almost at the elevator when I nurse grabbed me and told me to go back in there. At that time, tears were already coming for while in that room I finally knew the truth: my Dad wasn’t coming back from this. He was going to die. I composed myself and went back into the room. My Dad looked at me in the eye and with a lot of effort, got out the following words: “Did you get your Mom a Mother’s Day card?” That is what he urgently wanted to tell me. Did I get my Mom a Mother’s Day card. I said I had and he relaxed and I left. 48 hours he would be dead.
So the last words my Dad ever said to me what whether I got my Mom a Mother’s Day card. We would find in his drawer after he died Mother’s Day and birthday cards for my Mom (whose birthday was on May 5th). Ever since then, I can’t separate that moment from Mother’s Day. It will always have a twinge of sadness. It will always be difficult, even when my Mom was alive. Yet, in that moment, I realized that my Dad was giving me my last lesson, teaching me one last thing. Life is about caring for the people you love. It is about putting them first and not yourself. I believe that my Dad knew his time was very short. Even though he fought to the end, I think he knew. And he wanted to make sure to remind me that you need to care for the others in your life. That they come first.
So Mother’s Day always has sadness attached to it for me. I hope on Mother’s Day you will do two things. I hope that you will give thanks for your mother and for the mother like figures in your life, past and present. I will remember my Mom, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers, the Mom’s I’ve had in the congregation that have passed like Lois Oakland and Mary Slind and those who still take care of me. I also hope that you will send a prayer for those who will be hurting on this day. For those that are grieving or who maybe didn’t have positive mother figures in their lives. Most importantly, I hope that you will remember to care for those you love, not just on the holidays, but every day, and living as best you can to our Savior’s command to love one another. May God bless you today and always.
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