Friends for a Lifetime

Friends. What a precious, precious gift they are to us. Have you ever had one of those friends that when you meet, you just click right away? Even though you don’t know everything about them, you just feel like you’re known them forever? And you know that no matter the distance that may someday separate you, you will still remain close in your hearts? Even if you don’t see each other for a long time, when you are together again you just take up where you left off and it’s like old times?

Well, I have been very blessed to say YES to those questions. I have more than one friend like that actually, but I’m thinking of one dear friend in particular today. We clicked right away and now she has to move. Over 9 hours away! Sniff! Sniff! Even though there is sadness in my heart because of their family moving, there is joy as well. I say this because I know the new job opportunity for her husband is a blessing from God. I have to be joyful when they are obedient to God’s will in their lives. I want nothing less for them than God’s best.

This friend is one of the most caring, strong, kind, and godliest women (I could go on) I’ve ever met. She is such an example to me and everyone around her. Her witness and counsel have been strong and true, and given in loving kindness. And I am so grateful for that. “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.” Prov. 27:9 (NASB)

As the world sees her, she is beautiful. But what is most important is that she is beautiful on the inside. Indeed, her outer beauty cannot be denied…..she is so tall and graceful. Whereas, ....well, I am not. I am more of medium height and frequently an accident waiting to happen. =) But none of that matters. “…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Sam 16:7 (NASB) Our friendship is blessed by God and I am grateful for such a wonderful gift.

I will treasure our friendship always, no matter how many miles stretch between us. So, dear friend, I will miss you a great deal. But I know that our friendship will remain intact and strong. E-mail, instant messaging, and the phone will sure come in handy.

This blog entry is for you, dear friend – you know who you are -- and I hope you know how greatly you will be missed. But at the same time, prayers will be floating towards heaven on your behalf as you embark upon this wonderful new journey that God has placed before you. You are my sister in Christ and I am honored to have such a sister as you.

Time

Time. A word that is used a lot ....in many variations and ways. In fact, if you look in the dictionary under the word "time," you'll get many definitions. It's amazing in how many different ways we use that word. And the sayings....... Time's a'wastin'. The time is at hand. The time is now. Time is of the essence. What time is it? Do we have time to do that? There's just not enough time in the day! You just need to make time. Where does the time go? Time sure does fly when you're having fun! And the last but not least that comes to mind is ........ Time marches on.. Don't I know it! 'Cuz it's marched right across my face! Actually, the rest of my body too, come to think of it.

That's life. But it's LIFE! And it's TIME that God has given us. We need to cherish it, relish it, embrace it! We should wake up each new day and immediately say, "Thank you, Lord, for giving me another day to serve you and enjoy your beautiful creation!" Do I try to do that? Yes. Do I always succeed in doing that? No. Typically, I fall asleep talking to my Lord and when I wake, I begin to talk to Him immediately. But not every single day do I start with giving him thanks and praise. I try, but I must admit that I also fail at times. And sometimes, it's one of those "it's all about me" prayers. And do I always give Him all the time that I should in prayer, devotions, and reading His precious Word? (Hanging my head in shame here.) No, I don't. But I'm working on it.


As my pastor shared this past Sunday, God's Word is our instruction manual for life. That is so true. There's really not one issue or problem that we might encounter in life that isn't addressed in the "Good Book." If we read it, meditate on God's Word, and pray....the answers will come. Perhaps not in our time, but in God's time. And God's time is perfect. Being the impatient people we are, that's a hard one to grasp sometimes -- at least for me.

One definition of time that stood out to me this morning is "a period of apprenticeship." Hmm. Very simply stated, that's where you work under a master teacher to learn something and learn how to get it right. Wow! We're apprenticing for God ... to be Christlike! And we're working under THE Master. And He's the Master Teacher of Life! Isn't that awesome?

Anyway......time. I had a great time yesterday. My daughter and I went to visit my mom. She still lives in the small community in which I grew up. We had a lovely visit and she took us out to lunch at the local cafe. We ran into my nieces and my brother's in-laws there and we all managed to sit at the same big table and enjoy some wonderful food and a great visit together. What an unexpected treat!

Afterwards, we dashed up to my brother's house and checked out the new (surprise!) puppies. They were little cuties. Thankfully, we didn't have much time to dwell on the precious pups -- we already have two dogs at our house.

We then headed down to the Senior Center to play Bingo. No gambling involved. It's mostly about fellowship and laughter -- and we had plenty of both! To add the element of sharing to the game, everyone brings inexpensive treats (mostly candy bars, cookies, small candles, note pads, that sort of thing) in plain, lunch sack-sized, brown paper bags so no one knows what's in each bag. Then when someone calls bingo, someone else goes and picks them out a bag and gives it to them. They then open it -- everyone oohs and aaahs over the delectable goodie -- then it's placed in front of them. The process is repeated with each bingo and if someone wants something that someone else won previously more than what they found in their bag, then they can trade. They seem to always make sure that someone goes home with a goodie that they favor along with having had a good time. If someone isn't "bingo-ing," cards are traded and shuffled so that hopefully, everyone gets to holler bingo at some point in time. If a player doesn't get the opportunity to shout "bingo," then someone else shares one of their "bingos" with that person by giving them the sack to open, and of course, keep the treat.

We laughed and we laughed! It was so much fun! My daughter and I had a great time and hope to go back to another one of their monthly bingo afternoons. Time. I'm so glad that we took the time to go see my mom and spend some wonderful quality time with her and her friends. We were greatly blessed indeed. It was time well spent.

Oh and just in case you're wondering ...... some variation of the word "time" was used 34 times in this blog entry, counting the title. I think anyway...... I lost track of time and had to hurry when counting. Oops! That's 35. =)

Blog Entry for my Writers' Group

I am joining a writers' group and they want the members to submit entries to be placed on their blog. I remember them saying that at the last meeting, but truthfully, I sort of forgot about it. I think the same cells that seem to be slowly sucking the color out of my hair in random places on my head are sucking my memory cells along with it. ha! Anyway, I happened to be speaking with my new friend, Morgan, yesterday who is in charge of the group's blog and she asked me to submit a blog entry to her.

So, I sat down at the computer and pounded out a few words that I hoped would be worthy of being posted on their blog. I took a deep breath and hit the send key on my e-mail and thus, it was officially submitted to the Blog Master, er...I mean, Morgan. But guess what? I forgot to title it. Do you see a pattern here? Ugh!

So, after reading it, she entitled it "Joining the Blogosphere" and graciously posted it on their blog. I'm still learning about all this blogging stuff, but I think it's considered bad blog etiquette to place your blog entry on more than one blog. So, just in case you have nothing else to do right now and are interested, here's the link to it. http://kswriters.wordpress.com/ It's dated June 23, 2009. Oh, I know it's a little extra work when you've already traveled to my blog, but here's a thought. Just consider it bonus exercise for the day! I mean, you do have to move your hand over to the mouse, move it around a bit, and click! How many calories do you suppose that burns?

Have a blessed day, blogger friends!

Missed Opportunities

It was brought to my attention today by a sweet friend on a homeschool e-loop -- and she was right -- that we should never miss an opportunity to witness for Jesus Christ. I'm afraid I not only missed one opportunity, but two! I'm not proud of that fact, but it is the truth.

There's been some solicitors going around the neighborhoods trying to sell books, etc. I'm sure they're very good products and it's not the materials they're selling that I'm opposed to, but their sales tactics. They are....er, rather aggressive. They're trained in very hard-sell methods and try to overcome the "no answer" many times over. While I kept them outside and tried to be very patient and just jump in when they took a breath and say, "No, thank you," they didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. I'm embarrassed to say that I was losing my smile by this time. Even though pressed repeatedly for information they could give to my neighbors about my recommendation for their products (never mind I wasn't interested) or asking for names of my neighbors for their sales purposes, I kept saying no. And instead of thinking of how I could guide the conversation to "Do you know Jesus?", I was thinking to myself...."Hello? How bold are you? Do I look like I have stupid tattooed across my forehead to give out information about my neighbors without their permission?" The moment that thought came into my head, I should have been rebuking myself with "whatsoever a man thinketh in his heart, so is he", eh? But after feeling almost worn out by their repeated sales pitches, I ended up just frustrated and finally ended up saying "thank you...no" and shut the door. Sadly, I missed an opportunity on that one.


Then to keep my "less than stellar record" of positive witnessing opportunities with door-to-door sales people (insert eye roll here) ........about a week or so later, a young man came to my door -- without the tag team approach this time. I'm not sure he was selling the exact same thing, but it was surprisingly similar, nonetheless. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really care what he was selling -- I just knew that I wasn't buying. He started off by saying, "We are having a scavenger hunt." Well, our neighbors were having a party and I thought he was from there. Within seconds, I figured out he wasn't from the neighbors, he was a salesman. He was rather.....er, assertive as well. But after the previous experience, I didn't beat around the bush this time. I got right to the point with the "No, thank you"-- very nicely, mind you, and with a smile the whole time -- but I was very direct. He actually went away after only the third no. At the time, I thought how well I handled the situation and that it had to be a record. "Does pride goeth before a fall" ring a bell?

I was thinking about safety, especially with my daughter in the house with me. I mean, you never know, they could hold us hostage at book point or something. ha! Seriously, we don't have to let them in, but we can still witness. So, I missed two perfectly good opportunities that God placed smack dab before me -- and I blew it! I shouldn't let sales people frustrate me to the point of forgetting who I am -- a child of God and believer in Jesus Christ -- and the great commission. And I did. I'll be praying about how to better handle solicitors who come to my door from now on. Maybe I should think about getting some tracts.

Could've, Would've, Should've ....

Am I the only one or have you ever got caught up in the “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve’ done this” attitude? The sentences we utter or the thoughts we think containing these contractions are often followed with a “but” or an “if only” in the rest of what we’re saying. Sometimes that’s okay; sometimes not so much. I plead guilty.

We make excuses for ourselves for why we didn’t obey and answer the Lord’s leading in our lives. Instead of just admitting we didn’t try or didn’t obey because we’ve been fearful or it’s outside our comfort zone, we instead choose to have a pity party, stinkin’ thinkin, or live in the land of denial. With such negative self-talk, it’s no wonder we get caught up in the “IF ONLYs.” So stop it! I’m talking to myself here. Whatever the situation calls for….. we need to talk to God about it. Whatever it is, pray! Get knee pads if you have to. But pray, obey and hang on for the ride! Oh, I know, that’s so much easier said than done. Believe me, I’m still talking to myself here. But let’s not have regrets and just quit with the “IF ONLYs” and deal with "IT IS.” This is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Let’s not allow that stinkin’ thinkin’ to get a hold of us. Whether it’s what you look like, what you think your skills are or whatever issues you’re dealing with…..trust in God. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…..” (Jer. 1:5) “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” (Psa. 139:14 ) God does NOT make junk! Don’t let the world tell us what we are or what we can or can’t do. We have to know that God is going to equip us for whatever task he sets before us. Let’s step out there, trust in the Lord, do what He asks of us. Obey without our own expectations. Okay, okay. Before you start with the eye rolling and groaning, I admit this is really difficult sometimes. And don’t think that I haven’t had conversations with the Lord questioning if He’s absolutely sure it’s ME that He wants to do what He’s asking. I mean, I could give Him names of others I personally think might be better at what He’s suggesting. I know, I know. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth.

Recently, I was asked to give a prayer testimony in front of around 60 people or so. Public speaking always terrifies me. Sure, I love to talk, but I don’t want to get up and speak to a whole bunch of people. That’s not something I want to stand in line to volunteer for, if you know what I mean. Anyway, God convicted me to do it (much to my dismay). Was I scared? Uh, YES! I actually felt physically sick even thinking about it. When I got up there in front of all those people, I was shaking so much, you could even hear it in my voice. And no matter whether I did poorly or not, God was glorified and I lived through it. Although at the time, I wondered if I would survive at all. =) And I’m hoping He’ll wait quite a while before He asks me to get up in front of people again. (Hey, I’m just being honest here.)

A long time ago, I read in a "Beside Still Waters" devotional the following sentence. “God’s plans will never lead you where the peace of God cannot go with you.” Don’t you just love that? Sometimes He asks us to do things that we don’t know what the results will be. But He does. Stay faithful to Him and squeeze every drop of joy out of every single day that you can. We never know what wonderful things God has in store for us if we ‘re just open to the possibilities.

I read somewhere once that “Fruitfulness results from faithfulness in the face of potential failure.” That’s worth pondering.

'Just a lesson God chose to teach me. I thought I'd share it with you. I hope, dear blog friends, that your day will be filled with blessings.