From 9-2-2008:
F-R-I-E-N-D-S
Amazing how the Lord puts FRIENDS in your life @ just the right time. Sometimes you are geographically close to your friends, sometimes spiritually close, sometimes you just know they are there for you no matter how close or how far apart you may be @ the time.
I remember meeting one such woman. We had a mutual friend, we were invited to the same ladies event where our mutual friend would be speaking, we sat @ the same table and my first thought about this woman was "I'm not going to like her, she's gonna be stuck up, she is so beautiful and skinny!" Well stupid me had no ideal the Lord would have her to speak first and my visual first impression went right out the door! She was so down to earth, so sweet and so able to carry on a conversation! The Lord continued to cross our paths over and over again ~ we became not only the best of friends but spiritual sisters ~ it was unreal how I would know when she needed a friendly phone call and she would know when I needed one too. We did some crazy things together, shared our lives, prayed together, grew in Christ together. But yet we live far apart now.....still FRIENDS!!
We have the friends we kept in contact with from our Navy days, some of which we reunited with last Aug after 18 years of not seeing each other in person. It was like we had never moved ~ we just picked up where we left off ~ very special week in our lives and the lives of our boys. It gave the boys a glimpse of our life "before kids!"
Then you have those that plant seeds about the Lord, you move on, they keep in touch, they keep planting, and you see the excitement on their face when they realize you have been saved, spirit filled and are living for the Lord. Their cries to the Lord on your behalf have finally been answered after years of them hitting their knees for you!
Just as you think you are not going to meet friends in your new area of living the Lord provides ~ because HE provides ALL our NEEDS and friends are a NEED in LIFE! How wonderful to become friends with someone that two other people are telling you NOT to take advantage of ~ obviously those peeps didn't know me well enough to know I don't take advantage and I pull my own weight (no matter how much I weigh!) ~ that's just me! So from this person helping me out, I in turn have been able to help them out and just when I was feeling like the Lord wasn't near (yes, I know I moved not HIM) this person said something to me about always smiling....then they asked me if I was spirit filled ~ God is so FAITHFUL even when we are not. This FRIEND started inviting me to her house for ladies night out, and now our families have been able to "break bread together" on a couple of occasions. Today this wonderful person called me and we chatted about a couple of things that happened this morning and she shared she use to write a lot and that is missing from her life right now. Anyways she shared what she felt she had to write down today. Beautiful message. Now how funny is it that last night I was thinking I don't journal like I use to. I use to write things down, blog here and there on here, now I only journal food, anyways I told Kevin last night that starting today I was gonna journal more than food and asked him to take me to buy a notebook tonight. (I had surgery recently so can't drive yet). God once again has crossed my path with a FRIEND who has become a special person in my life over the last couple of years.
F-R-I-E-N-D-S
Notice friend ends in "end" because we are friends to the end and I'm reminded of the song "Friends are friends forever if the Lord is Lord of them....."
the feet of friends are always close....