Oh Good Grief!

Today was my last day in Ladies' Bible Study. Next week is the last lesson and a luncheon, but I'll be proctoring SATs at school. Today was the first day, ever, that Mom has chosen to sit by me. She arrived late and I guess her seating choices were limited! However it happened, it was nice to sit by my mama.

After we discussed our week's lesson (which I barely started *sigh*), we watched the lecture dvd as usual. At the end of the lecture, the speaker launched into a personal story of "the dangers of discontentment". (All well and good.) She described a friend who, like her, was a pastor's wife and had three children. They lived in the same town when their children were young, and kept in touch when our speaker moved away.

One day she went back to surprise her friend at church and found her very changed. Emaciated, unhappy, isolated. She kept trying to make contact until the friend wouldn't even take her calls anymore. Finally this friend left her family for another woman, then was killed in a freak accident. The speaker blamed this downward slide on choosing not to be content. (Maybe a tad simplistic, but okay.)

And then the speaker said something to the effect that it all started when her friend wore herself out taking care of her dying mother. There of course were other issues, but you know what Mom honed in on. After the dvd ended, Mom turned to me and said, "That makes me thankful that the doctor from the Woodlands told me I would go fast." Gah! I said, "Mom, it is not your responsibility to die fast; it is my responsibility to trust God!" Now, on top of everything else that goes through a person's mind as they look death in the face, Mom has to worry about me leaving my family for another woman because of her.

Good grief. (And I liked that study a lot until today.)