I have always been a fan of Garth Brooks, and always liked the song “I Will Sail my Vessel.” I always found so much truth in the lyrics and was inspired to always do my best even when the tide would change. As we all know, life truly is a journey and we never know what tomorrow brings. This reality has hit my home very hard in recent months, and it has hit other homes in our church as well. I was blessed to attend the funeral of Barbara Brown this past Saturday and meet some of her family. In listening to her family members talk about her life, all she had done, and her love for Christ it became apparent I had missed out on really getting to know a truly awesome person. She lived her life to the fullest and made each moment count. It makes you sit back and reflect on your own life and wonder if you are truly living your life the way God wants you to. We have the ability to reach out and touch many people, but are we doing this or are we focusing too much on ourselves? I am guilty of focusing on myself. I have a really hard time dropping my agenda even though I know someone needs my help. After all, I worked really hard on putting my schedule together and I need to make sure it gets finished! This past week we had several people in our congregation drop their schedules to help prepare for this funeral. These people that I am speaking of are members of our congregation. They just dropped everything to help ensure that everything that needed to get taken care of got taken care of to help out a family who is in need and hurting. I was truly inspired and touched by this and once again felt blessed to be a part of such an awesome church family! The love, compassion, and caring that our church shows for those who need help is truly amazing! 1 John 4:19 says: “We love because he first loved us.” I feel that love at Good Shepherd. Thank you for showing your love this past week and helping with the funeral!

-Becky Aragon, GSLC President