"Thomas Epting was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 4...and again at the age of 7. After winning those two battles, he was diagnosed in May of last year (at the age of 15) with five aggressively malignant, inoperable brain tumors. About a month before he died, his mother, Amy, was taking him to the hospital for another heavy round of chemotherapy. Amy asked Thomas the following question:
"Thomas, what do you think...do you think that I need to be able to thank God for the tumors themselves, or just be able to thank Him for His provisions in and through the tumors? Do I just need to thank God for what He is doing in your life with the tumors or is my heart supposed to be at a place of thankfulness praise for the actual tumors themselves?"
Thomas's reply to his mom was this: "Mom, you think too much! You are wasting time on rabbit trails. The bottom line is this: God sent His Son to die for me! If God never did anything else for me ever...if He never answered another prayer of mine...if He doesn't heal me...if I have brain tumors and suffer...no matter what happens to me ever...if He never, ever did another thing for me again but that...His sending Jesus for me...that is enough for me to praise Him continually, daily, as long as I live! So Mom, just focus on that... praise Him for sending Jesus and quit worrying about the tumors!"
Thomas's #1 prayer request during his battle with cancer was NOT that he be healed, but that God would be glorified through it all! Thomas was so thankful about what God had already done for him that life’s fundamental objective was constantly in clear focus. God help me to be that kind of steward of the life that God has given me!"
a quote from the "web-journal" of a dear family friend battling brain cancer...
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