I sure do appreciate this post, Zach. I'm new to the forum and I've enjoyed your posts, but this one has really hit me right in the heart. A year ago on January 15th was the on year anniversary of my grandfather's passing. He was the only good earthly father I had ever known. I lived with him and my grandmother from the time I was 14 yrs old until I lived on my own. He died very suddenly. He wasn't sick or on any perscriptions. He just died. I know that's what he always wanted, not to ever suffer or be a burden on his family in suffering. God gave him just what he wanted. But you see Zach, my problem became ME (sound familiar?) because that's not what I was ready for and it wasn't what I wanted. I spent the last year grieving as the world does like there is no hope like it says in I Thess 4:13. I stopped exercising and gained weight. I cried a lot. But God got a hold of my heart during Christmas time. I got to the point that I would have done anything to keep the holidays from coming. I was hating Christmas and gifts and all the stuff that comes with that. However, on Dec 21 I was reading my devotional out of the Daily Light and it said, "The days of your mourning shall end" from Isaiah 60:20. I know it's just one line in that verse, but it jumped out at me and it almost felt like it could have hit me in the face, but really, it hit my heart. I knew it was time to come back to the land of the living. Just before my grandfather passed away, we had moved back to the town where he lives (our hometown) just six months before he went to be with the Lord. Not only that, it was the first year I was no longer a stay home mom because my daughters were both in school all day. I started working and I started college as well. There were so many life changes during that whole time, but through it all, God was so faithful, especially when I wasn't. God took my sorrow and turned it into incredible joy.