Grandma and the Cake

An enlightening story from the internet

A little boy is telling his Grandma how “everything” is going wrong. School, family problems, severe health problems, etc.

Meanwhile, Grandma is baking a cake. She asks her grandson if he would like a snack, which of course he does.

“Here, have some cooking oil.”

“Yuck” says the boy.

“How about a couple of raw eggs?”

“Gross, Grandma!”

“Would you like some flour, then? Or maybe baking soda?”

“Grandma, those are all yucky!”

Grandma replies: “Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But, when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! God works the same way. Many times we wonder why he would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!”

Life is full of all sorts of “yucky” ingredients. The many things that happen to us all contribute to who we are and who we are constantly becoming. And even in grief, something good can come out on the other side if you will just trust yourself and the process of grief.

It is so difficult to see that anything good can or could ever come from the death of someone you love, but many wonderful gifts have been left to you by your loved one if you can only trust the process, move with it and hold onto the memories.

You might ask, how or what good at all can come from all of this pain? I just want my loved one back? Since that is not possible, what can you do to honor their life and hold on to their memories. If you search for the answers to those questions, you will find the gifts they are leaving you.

For you see, many of the major national support groups have been formed out of the pain of grief; The Compassionate Friends, Parents of Murdered Children, Survivors of Suicide, Mother’s Against Drunk Drivers, Students Against Drugs and on and on. People chose to take their pain and turn it into action to honor the life and make the death of their loved ones have meaning. In doing so, they found the legacy they had been left.

Many scholarship funds, memorial tributes in the form of buildings, libraries, research centers and the such have been the result of putting all the ingredients of life together, the good, the bad and the ugly and making something better out of it.

You can choose to mold your future out of the events of your past. It is a conscience effort on your part to survive, to live and to continue to love your loved one in a new and different way. The past and the pain is not controlling you, you are controlling it. You are letting Hope live again in you.