TYAGFEAAA

Blessings

There are many paths to a positive attitude in life with lots of forks and roadblocks along the way. One of the most basic is to acknowledge that life is indeed a gift from a greater power that has shown His love for us in many ways. It involves taking inventory of all the blessings we’ve received in life every day and giving thanks to the ultimate Source. That can be difficult for many. When folks were recently asked to define how much money they considered would quality them as rich, they all had a different amount in mind, but many responded with an amount that was double their present wealth. Someone who has spent a satisfied lifetime looking at the half full glass and thanking our Creator for their blessings knows the path to positive living.

There was an inspiring article in the news this week about a granddaughter’s quest regarding her grandmother who passed away twenty years ago from brain cancer. In the two weeks prior to her passing, the woman had lost her ability to speak, so she had written on index cards with seemingly coded letters that no one could interpret. The family could never understand what the woman’s final communication meant, so the granddaughter recently posted the letters on the internet, asking for help. One of these cards contained 78 letters:

“OFWAIHHBTNTKCTWBDIEAIIIHGUTDODBAFUOTAWFTTTAUALUNITBDUFEFTITKTPATGFEAE. TYAGFEAAA”.

The first 69 letters on the card began with “OF-WAIH-HBTN” and she ended with these 9 letters, “TY-AG-FE-AAA”.

Strangers immediately began asking questions about the young woman’s grandmother including her relationship with God. Before very long, someone out there who knew The Lord’s Prayer had broken the code. The dying woman could apparently no longer write complete words in her final hours, but she was somehow still able to record the beginning letters of her thoughts. That first long string of 69 letters did in fact represent The Lord’s Prayer which the woman most assuredly had recited to her Heavenly Father hundreds of times. It’s a comforting prayer of praise and requests. And the final 9 letters were recognized as representing a phrase of thanksgiving that she must have used to end her prayer. She ended her life with the same positive attitude and words that had sustained her throughout her time of “thanks living”—The Lord’s Prayer followed by “Thank you, Almighty God, for everything. Amen, Amen, Amen.”