Weeks after the passing of their eldest daughter, Pastors Ed and Lisa Young share the heartbreaking details of their daughter's struggle and their continued trust in God after all that happened.
This Sunday, Pastor Ed Young delivered an emotional message following the passing of his eldest daughter LeeBeth, The Christian Post reported.
It is with great sadness that I write these words. Last night, our precious and cherished daughter LeeBeth passed away....
Posted by Ed Young on Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Together with his wife, Lisa, Pastor Ed Young spoke at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas to share that the passing of their 34-year old daughter has been a pain like no other but that God's grace has seen them through everything.
"I would say in these 30 plus years of ministry and leading at Fellowship Church, we probably have never been as weak and as vulnerable as we are right now. We've experienced difficulty and we've walked through pain, but not like this, and only by God's grace are we doing it."
Recalling the heartbreaking details that led to the demise of their daughter, Pastor Ed and his wife described their eldest as someone who loved the LORD. According to them, LeeBeth was an "original creative thinker" and was blessed with the gift of discernment. However, she also suffered from anxiety and depression which only got worse as she got older.
About five to six years ago, LeeBeth called her mom to tell her that she thought she might be an alcoholic following a "tumultuous" relationship.
"That rocked us ... because LeeBeth had never been a drinker, or someone who partied" Pastor Ed recalled.
LeeBeth suffered a seizure where she ended in the ICU. Another incident led her to rehab where she had to see a therapist and did counseling together with her parents.
With the COVID pandemic, LeeBeth did her ministry duties at home which her parents "knew intuitively would be a struggle."
But three weeks before her passing, her parents noticed her to be "acting a little bit different."
Before she died, LeeBeth was still able to do FaceTime with her mother. However, Lisa thought that something was off after talking to her daughter which led her to call Ed. Lisa herself was in South Carolina that time visiting her mother.
Lisa shared the heartbreaking details of the moment.
"I called Ed and I said, 'Honey, LeeBeth's not good.' He goes, 'What do you mean?' And I said, 'It's just not good, you need to go.' And so he did and he found her," Lisa shared.
Pastor Ed found his daughter and immediately took her to her therapist. LeeBeth then told her father that she wants to live and get better.
"I want to live, I want to be better. I want to get over this. I want to do what's right," LeeBeth said.
That same evening, Pastor Ed put his daughter in the room next to his office since she did not want to go to the hospital. After sitting down with his daughter and comforting her, he went to his office which is just next door to work on his sermon.
A short while later, he heard a noise and ran to his daughter's room who was then having another seizure.
"When I saw her, I thought she was gone right there," he shared.
Due to COVID-19, LeeBeth's family was unable to be with her at the hospital so they FaceTimed her singing songs of praise until she took her last breath.
Ed recalled, "The doctor came in and I'll never forget what he said... 'We can't do anything else.'"
In all sincerity, Young admitted how other people can "drink like a fish" and walk around as "healthy as a horse" even when they consume drugs and yet their LeeBeth suffered three episodes from binge drinking and was gone.
But as they put it, God is still on the throne and they find comfort that LeeBeth accepted Christ at a tender age of four. Now, the couple will do the work of God with "greater urgency" because "we are so close to eternity."
"God is faithful... One moment, LeeBeth was alive the next moment, she's in eternity," Pastor Ed said.
