My friend, Stephanie Bradley, has joined the kingdom of heaven after a long and hard-fought battle with cancer. She was, and will continue to be, a wonderful spirit. I believe with all of my heart that God put her on this Earth to accomplish something. She apparently has fulfilled her duties and has been called home to Him. I'm not entirely certain what her purpose was in life, and I'm sure that we're not supposed to know....after all, that's what blind Faith is all about. But I do know what Stephanie meant to me:
She isn't the reason that I quit smoking, but she was my motivation. We found out that her oral cancer had metastasized to her lungs in April of this year, and my last cigarette was on April 24th. I had already made the decision to quit, but had not yet committed to a date or made a plan of how I was going to accomplish this goal. Once Stephanie heard that I had decided to quit, she reached out to me and offered her support. This is a woman who has never touched a single cigarette in her life, now suffering from cancer that has spread to her lungs, giving me encouragement! Wow!!! How could I continue to play Russian roulette with my health when Stephanie had done nothing to harm her body and was now suffering from such a horrible infliction? This was the turning point in my life where I decided that the addiction to cigarettes was not going to control me any longer. Thank you, Stephanie, for being a constant reminder and a source of encouragement during my journey to quit smoking.
Other than being a great friend and a source of joy, Stephanie also brought my relationship with God back into the forefront of my life. Watching the way that she and Warner handled the situation with which they were dealt made me realize that I wanted that same strength and peace in my own life. It was amazing to see them in action. Although I cannot imagine how hard it was for them to put a smile on their faces, they did it each and every day. I never once heard a single negative comment about their situation. I took a step back and looked at my own life and how I have a tendency to make the smallest thing into a major deal. Is this really who I want to be? The answer was no. I wondered how it was that these two were able to make it through these past 2 years without just completely falling apart at the seams. I mean, I can be brought to tears sometimes just by coming home from work and realizing that the sink is full of dishes and that I forgot to start the dishwasher the night before! That seems extremely petty when you’re constantly faced with the positive attitudes of close friends who are going through such an ordeal. I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point along the way, I realized that Warner and Stephanie had something that I didn’t at the time; an inner peace and otherworldly strength that can come from none other than a close personal relationship with Him. Once I had this epiphany, I made a vow to myself and my family that we would re-prioritize our lives around God and make Him the forefront of our daily lives. I wish I could say now that I have done this completely and without effort, but I can not. Often times the best and most rewarding things in life are not attained easily. But I can say this; I will strive each and every day to become a better person and servant of the Lord, and I have Stephanie Bradley to thank for that.
We will miss you dearly my friend, but I am comforted to know that you will no longer suffer as you have. You are now safe in His arms; rest in peace.
Here’s to constantly being a work in progress,
God Bless,
The Quitter
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