Sunday, January 27, 2008

Tis Now, but what about later?

This morning in church, we sang a great old hymn "If ever I loved thee, my Jesus tis now" I was really worshiping and experiencing the Lord, then we got to this verse...

Ill love The in life, I will love Thee in death

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath
And say, when the death dew lies cold on my brow
If ever I loved Thee my Jesus tis now

Oh, it so moved me. I am not on death's bed nor admittedly, do I think about death often at a young age and good health. But I have known those who have died in Christ. I quickly thought of our dear friend Linda Longbrook and just cried in worship to the Lord and thankfulness for her and the life she lived. She was not perfect, but she did live a God-honoring life. And she died a God-honoring death. God did lend her breath for many healthy years and He lent her breath during the years she fought cancer. And the death dew did come and it did lie on her brow and that dew did grow cold. She died a God-honoring death, a Christ-exalting death. She loved Jesus so much in her fight and though her body lost, her soul found victory that day! May I live a God-honoring life that shows "'my Jesus I love Thee". And may I die a death like Linda - that exalts Christ and shows my intense love for Jesus as I finally see Him face to face!
Amen.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Remembering Buster

BUSTER LANIER
1997-2008


It has been an intense week at the Lanier house, especially for Dee. With the incident at his school, making up work from a snow day, and much work on the new business D&S Products, it got more emotional on Thursday when our dog, Buster died. I have to admit, I'm (Stacey) not much of a pet person, but I have grown to like dogs (most of them), prefer Boxers, and love Buster. So, this is a tribute to Buster. I'll tell you his story for those who care to read on.

Dee adopted Buster from a Boxer Rescue in 1998. He was about a year old and had been severely abused and Dee really had the heart to take this needy, emotional dog and bring him back to health. For some of you who met Buster in the early years, he seemed aggressive when he would bark and bark when anyone (especially men) would enter the house. Really he was just scared. In his old age, he grew out of that, but continued to be a very protective dog for Dee.

When Dee & I were dating and talking about marriage, he knew I wasn't much on animals, especially not in the house. So, when we got married, Dee took Buster to Mississippi to stay with his grandmother. Buster was good ol' country dog with acres of land to run in and the adventures of fighting and/or killing possum, armadillo, skunk and all kinds of other animals. He once greeted our car with a deer skull in his mouth that he had found in the woods. He was so proud and I was so disgusted!

Buster played a huge part in Mississippi during Dee's grandfather's illness. He stayed right by his side when he was taking walks on their land outside. Dee's grandmother still tells us the story when Buster kept barking and barking and wouldn't let her walk the way she wanted. She finally followed him and he led her to Grandpa who had fallen and was too weak to make it back to the house. He was better than Lassie! :) She still has his picture in a frame in her house!
We decided to bring Buster back to NC when we bought our house with a fenced-in back yard and we had Noah, our other boxer then, who was just a puppy. Buster didn't like sharing Dee with me and especially not this annoying new puppy. He beat Noah up a lot and wouldn't let him in the dog house. They finally got to be good friends, but they still fought a lot.

After we gave up Noah, Dee convinced me it was too cold and Buster was too old to be outside by himself. So Buster finally got his wish - back inside with Dee. He mostly just laid around and slept and ran away from Karis. She loved him, but I think she was overwhelming to him with all her shrieking and smacking him.

He has been sick for a while, we noticed, and we found him Thursday already gone after he obviously wasn't feeling well. Dee misses him, but he's doing ok.
Here are some pics of Buster at his finest!