{"id":1990,"date":"2011-10-27T01:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1990"},"modified":"2011-10-26T18:45:55","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T22:45:55","slug":"special-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/special-heart.html","title":{"rendered":"Special Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an email I received today from Bev Linder of Special Heart. \u00a0Brad is her oldest child. \u00a0He had multiple physical disabilities. \u00a0He died recently.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dear friends,<\/div>\n
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The following is one of the blogs on my website.\u00a0 Many of you who receive this mailing may not be aware of my blog.\u00a0 To view more blogs\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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When I was home schooling Brad, I would sometimes go out of the house for a while and leave him doing his schoolwork.\u00a0 He would invariably call me, and about 95% of the time, his first words were, “When will you be home, Mom?” \u00a0My answer varied–sometimes I had a bunch to do yet; sometimes, I had only one or two more errands; and some days I would say, “Guess what, Brad.\u00a0 I’m driving into our driveway right now and should be walking through the door any minute!”\u00a0Now Brad is in heaven…<\/div>\n

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…and while I was out today, I looked at my cell phone and I could almost hear him saying, “When will you be home, Mom?”\u00a0 It struck me that Brad really is still waiting for me to come home, only now it is our eternal Home.\u00a0 I believe with all my heart that our loved ones in heaven still love us and look forward to being with us just as much as we look forward to being with them.<\/div>\n
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The difference now is that I don’t know when I will be Home.\u00a0 I may still have much to do on this earth; or maybe I only have a few things that God wants me to accomplish; or maybe I am just about to walk through that door!<\/div>\n
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And just like when I would leave Brad home when I did my errands, although he is looking forward to seeing me and others that he loves, he is not sitting around idly. When he was here, he was busy doing his school work.\u00a0 Now, he is busy in heaven.\u00a0 2 Corinthians 5:9 says, “Therefore we have as our ambition whether at home or absent (whether in heaven or still on earth) to be pleasing to Him.”\u00a0 I have the same ambition as my son (and other loved ones in heaven)–to be pleasing to Christ in my service.<\/div>\n
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And I’ll be Home, soon Brad…not sure how soon, but soon!<\/div>\n
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\"\"Bev Linder<\/div>\n
contact me at:<\/div>\n
bev@special-heart.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an email I received today from Bev Linder of Special Heart. \u00a0Brad is her oldest child. \u00a0He had multiple physical disabilities. \u00a0He died recently. Dear friends, The following is one of the blogs on my website.\u00a0 Many of you who receive this mailing may not be aware of my blog.\u00a0 To view more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,3,40,287,186,49,16],"tags":[131,21,688,699,715,701,694,689,6,132],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-christianity","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-faiths","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","tag-bev-linder","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-special-heart"],"yoast_head":"\nSpecial Heart - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/special-heart.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Special Heart - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is an email I received today from Bev Linder of Special Heart. \u00a0Brad is her oldest child. \u00a0He had multiple physical disabilities. \u00a0He died recently. Dear friends, The following is one of the blogs on my website.\u00a0 Many of you who receive this mailing may not be aware of my blog.\u00a0 To view more…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/special-heart.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-27T05:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-26T22:45:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/Bev-Linder.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. 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