Every Breath

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.”)?

Love Ya,

Dad