When the doctors took Dad off of the respirator they said he would go quickly. It was really hard
watching my Dad pass away.
One of the signs the nurses told us about would be the change in his breathing. It would become shallower and have longer pauses in between each
breath. So, I would sit there watching him, counting his breaths and the seconds
in between each breath. At one point the pauses got as long as 30 seconds, and
I thought “This is it. Dad is going.” But he didn’t go that quickly. As you
know he lasted another 11 days. For 11 days I would just watch and count.
While this was going on I was telling your Mom about me
counting his breaths and the changes in it. She was saddened by it of course,
but then she said something to me that I will always remember. She talked about instead of counting every breath, we should make every breath count. It’s simple,
but very profound. The Lord doesn’t want us to just sit there and count every
breath and waste those moments, He wants every breath to count ...for Him
(Psalm 150:6, “Let everything that has breath praise The Lord! Praise The Lord!”).
Are you counting every breath (Daniel 5:23, “But you have
not glorified the God who has in his control your very breath and all your
ways!”), or are you making every breath count (Eph. 5:15-16, “Therefore be very
careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every
opportunity, because the days are evil.”)?
Dad
