Questions

Today I came home to find my husband sobbing. He continues to hear Deborah calling him. He feels someone touching him, and there is nobody there. Other people in our home are having similar experiences. She would often call out, "Dad, Dad" with her robust, thundering voice. Nobody would miss that call.

Now we are gasping for any sense of sensibilities, all out of our reach. What is normal, after four months of passage of time? A pastor's wife who has always seen angels, since her youth, tells me that she has crossed the bridge, and the messenger, the angel, told her that Jesus grieves with our anguish. She saw three other angels too, totaling four, like the girls saw shortly after Deborah's death.

A bulk of papers arrived from Fraser Health, two months later than what they said it would take. I have no emotional strength to gaze upon it, except for the fact that one of my girls reported that a family counselor who came to our home from the EPI program had made the observation that I was obese, and that I collaborated too much with one of my girls in their presence. Wow, if only they focused on getting Deborah well, instead of my pleasantly plump curves. They should be ashamed of themselves. Do they not know that stress also leads to weight gain? Do they not know that people don't stand a chance to be thin.  That corn syrup used  to sweeten all foods because it is so cheap, is indigestible? It is even put in our bread.  People who are heavier are not simply heavier from overeating. Have they not seen a movie on you tube called.."The men who made us fat" part 1 and part 2? Have they borne four children, had sick husbands and children, and lost their job due to outsourcing and lived in one of the most expensive place in the world??
Give me a break, you professional folks who think you are on a mountain top.  Clean the inside of your own cups before you attempt to clean the outside of someone else' s cup. The polished outwardly appearance is only a facade. I say, embrace your curves ladies, and be real and healthy. Most of the ladies at the church I attend are curvy, and do they ever look nice. They are nice on the outside and the inside, which is a rarity.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English 1 Timothy 4:8
For exercise of the body profits a little for this time, but righteousness profits in everything, and it has the promise of life for this time and of the future.

Parallel Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
4:6-10 Outward acts of self-denial profit little. What will it avail us to mortify the body, if we do not mortify sin? No diligence in mere outward things could be of much use. The gain of godliness lies much in the promise; and the promises to godly people relate partly to the life that now is, but especially to the life which is to come: though we lose for Christ, we shall not lose by him. If Christ be thus the Saviour of all men, then much more will he be the Rewarder of those who seek and serve him; he will provide well for those whom he has made new creatures.

My lifelong exercise has been to serve my family and my community. If anyone has issues with that, they can take it up with God.