Cherish

We recently had a close friend, Jill Attebery, pass away. Why is death so hard to deal with? We know she is in heaven with her heavenly Father and He is saying to her, "Well done my faithful servant." But it still does not take the sting away of her not being on earth.

To read more about her, go to:
www.theblessedbairdbunch.blogspot.com

She was a believer who lived her life to glorify God and lived out the gospel with her every moment. The funeral was a true testimony to this. Different people read excerpts from her journal and bible and I was truly in awe of her heart and desire to know God more. Not to look holy, not to be knowledgeable about God, but to personally know God within her deepest being. She cried out to Him in desperate times, in joyful times, and in times of confusion. She had 3 parts to her prayer life: her personal relationship to God, her husband and her relationship with her family, and the people she discipled and influenced. Her marks in her bible made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes. She would make notes to herself like in Romans 9 "Understand God is sovereign before moving on" or in Psalms "He is my refuge, don't ever forget this".

She made a huge impact on Tim's life growing up. When he was in high school, she really taught him God is grace and love and we have nothing, but God still chooses to lavish His truth upon us. After Tim came back from Romania on a short term mission trip, she was the first person he wanted to share with about what God revealed to him and how God used him in Romania. She was so excited and told him, "God is going to make you a missionary. I know this is what God is going to do and that is what I am praying for you." Well, it was true. God is using Tim to be a missionary in Dallas and eventually in Austin. God has placed on our hearts to be missionaries wherever we are.

I did not know her as well as Tim or as long, but she made a huge impact in my life as well. She sang "Own Me" by Ginny Owens in our wedding. On her own without her husband, she flew in from Arkansas Friday night for rehearsal, stayed in a hotel by herself, sang at our wedding, and hung out the whole night with people she had never met. We did not get a chance to spend a lot of time with her because during the wedding time things were so crazy. But she never complained and was always so encouraging to the both of us. She was a BIG reader and and was always buying people books to read. (this was told at the funeral) Well guess what, I was one of the recepients of those books. A few weeks after our wedding, she mailed me a book called "Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney with a 2 page letter she wrote to me the night of our wedding. The letter said she wanted to disciple me from afar and encourage me in my journey of marriage. The first time I met her was at our wedding, but I felt like she was a close friend.

Her husband Scott really showed me how in marriage you reflect your spouse. When we spoke to Scott at the funeral, the first words that came out of his mouth were, "I am so sorry I was unable to make it to your wedding." (He is a pastor and was unable to make it). He totally took the focus off himself and put it on us. This displayed to me such selflessness. He told us what a great time Jill had at our wedding and what an honor it was for her to be a apart of our wedding. She has no idea what an honor it was to us for her to be a part of our wedding. Scott told Tim, "Jill was really proud of you." This meant the world to Tim and to me.

Please pray for her husband Scott and their 10 week old baby, Bryce. They are amazing people with an amazing love for the Lord. They know God is sovereign and good and this is the only thing they have to rest in.

You can go to www.keltys.org to see the Memorial Service they had for Jill in Lufkin, TX.