True Beauty campaign Topic: Friendship It's funny, I thought having all this recuperating time after surgery would give me lots of time to write and post thoughtful blog entries.....but I haven't. My brain is a little dull and listless...it's not super-bad, but bad enough to feel a blank stare come on when I even think of writing a blog entry. So I will refer you to something interesting that I found today.
My friend Crystal from over at the Choosing Home forum, posted this entry today about Real Beauty. It's a very good post, I hope you'll go read it.....especially if you have daughters! Our culture distorts the idea of beauty so much, we should really talk to them more and provide more resource and time to the subject of true beauty!
Meanwhile I will sit here and try to get a little oomph in my get-along!!
I'm a Blogging Chick Topic: Friendship I've joined another web ring (linking to lots of other blogs) called Blogging Chicks! Check it out....lots of women bloggers of all types. And they have carnivals too!
To be understood Topic: Friendship
Thank you blogger friends for your kind words of encouragement yesterday about my dad's situation. How cool to be baraged with understanding and Christian love. It brought tears to my eyes to read all of your thoughts to me.
God brought to mind these 2 verses today also....
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
Romans 5:3-5 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Thoughts on Friendship Topic: Friendship I can't help but love those Sonic commercials. They are so silly and sarcastic.....like the one with the husband and wife sitting in their car at Sonic and she is eating a sandwich. She suddenly declares, "Y'know, I don't think there is anything in the world that I love more than a Sonic toasted BLT." The husband looks at her and hesitantly suggests maybe she is exaggerating (can't remember the dialog here) and he says, "After all, what's the Sonic toasted BLT got that I don't have?" Without skipping a beat she says, "Bacon." then takes another bite of her sandwich. LOL Very sassy.
They have a new commercial with 2 girlfriends sitting in their car, eating little banana splits, talking about how cute they are. They hold them together and declare that if you put them together they make a whole. And while looking straight ahead, the one woman starts talking about when they were teenagers and girls wore those little broken heart necklaces to remember their special friends, saying how goofy they were and why did we ever do something so rediculous. All the time she is talking, the other woman is desperately trying to hide the broken heart pendant that she is wearing!
Girlfriends are great...we don't agree on everything or have the same taste in necklaces or humor sometimes, but we need each other.
Yesterday I met with 3 different girlfriends of mine. One was Cheryl, my walking buddy. We did our 45 minute walk around the mall, chattering along.
Love ya Cheryl!
Then a new friend, Mary Ann, had asked me to come out for coffee with her while our husbands had a meeting at her house. So we jaunted off to Starbucks (sorry Hannah) and had muffins and blended iced mochas. We had so much getting to know each other to do that time flew by and suddenly I shivered, it was so cold in that place. We moved outside to the patio area and the warm Phoenix morning sun felt so good, we chatted even longer. We know each other from church, but had never had any exclusive visiting time, so we chatted about family, church, vacations, decorating, Jesus, and what a beautiful morning it was.
Thank you Mary Ann!
Having 3 appointments for girlfriend visits in one day is a little tiring, yet energizing, if you know what I mean, ladies. From Mary Ann's I went across town on the Squaw Peak Freeway, through beautiful desert mountain views to Scottsdale to have lunch with Nancy. If you want to see Phoenix in from a brand new view, just drive the 51 (Squaw Peak Fwy) from north to south....beautiful! Now I know where the picture at the right was taken. I love this picture.
Nancy and I have been friends for years. I met her when we both lived in Williams and now we both live in Phoenix. We hadn't had any visiting time since moving here though, so we had a lot to catch up on! We have been through a lot together...some very hard, rough patches in life and in friendship. But those are the kinds of friends you can bare your soul with and not feel so vulnerable....there is a trust and accountability there. And we did....and it was good.
Hang in there, Nancy!
Each appointment was unique....3 friends, one new, but comfortably familiar and encouraging, one new and fun to get to know, one rekindled and on a much deeper level...caused by walking through hard times together. So it was an interesting day!
I needed a totally different kind of day...a day to spend with friends. It is very refreshing, in a way that being with my husband or family can't produce. (sorry honey, you've great, but it's that bacon thing...please refer to the first paragraph) =) I love you though...and you know I love you more than any bacon sammich!
Taking a walk Topic: Friendship Having lived here for only 8 weeks now, I haven’t really had the time to invest in very deep friendships yet. I feel close to some people here, but a close, trusting friendship takes time, although some people you can know for a long time and never feel very close to them. Don’t you love it when a new friendship just ‘clicks’? After we had been here only a few weeks, a woman I only slightly knew heard me say that I really needed to start walking every day. She said she lived pretty close to me and she would walk with me. I was excited to have a walking partner all of a sudden and also a bit nervous to make that kind of daily commitment to spending time with someone I barely knew….so we settled on walking 3 days a week.
From the first day, we hit it off well. Cheryl and I walk about 45 minutes and just set off with no route in mind or pace to follow. We just go along and feel in sync, like we’d always been doing it. We talk and talk….about life, about the church, our families, marriage (she and her husband have been teaching in a marriage group for years and years, so I learn a lot from her!), food, places we’ve lived, our families growing up, dogs, about the yards we pass by and good paint colors for houses.
One day we were walking in my neighborhood, which is all winding streets, like a maze, no direct routes. I was getting a little tired and I asked Cheryl how long we’d been walking. It was over an hour! We had totally lost track of time and we were not close to my house either. All of a sudden our legs ached and our heads were hot and we were thirsty! Neither of us had our cell phones or I joked that I was going to call my husband to come pick us up….except we didn’t know how to tell him where we were! Don’t worry, we finally did make it back after deciding to keep heading east and north. =) (I was a girl scout after all) We got back and had a long, tall glass of ice water while we talked some more. Our 3 days a week has turned into every weekday now and when she’s gone out of town, we miss the time together! I had to go up to her on Sunday after not seeing her for 3 days, due to appointments and say, “I miss you!” It was funny, but it is such a blessing to have what I consider a real friend now in such a short time. An encouraging, kindred spirit….and the exercise has been great too! We’re starting to compare how our clothes fit better and better.
Ephesians 4:10 ….pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
……or the woman who exercises and has no one to laugh with!
About last night... Topic: Friendship
It was last night, literally, but it was also our daughters’ last night at youth group here at this sweet church. I was invited too because I have been teaching youth Sunday school for years. It was a goodbye party. They ate snacks while I went around taking pictures of my kids and their friends. We listened to Christian music videos playing out on the PowerPoint screens while we visited. We played games. Well, make that THEY played games, I watched with some other smart adults. By the time they were done, they were all lying on the auditorium floor, chairs cleared to the sides, in sheer exhaustion! They like to play running games. It was fun…. to watch.
Then our youth pastor gathered us all to the front and asked the youth to share memories or wishes for my kids since they are leaving this group. By the end it was quite emotional….both tears and laughter. Then they all scooted in (all sitting on the floor) and laid hands on my girls and me, everyone reaching in, touching, all as one praying.
As I heard them praying out loud and heard in their voices the pain of final goodbyes, it hit me…the pain of leaving these relationships that are so strong. I had been avoiding thinking about it or feeling it with the adults because my tendency is to be stoic or make jokes to laugh when I feel a strong emotion welling up. Feeling it was hard. Brad, our youth pastor, talked about when he first came to our church, it was 1997. He’s watched our girls grow up from little kids who were 5, 7 and 9 to young ladies who are serving God and are a blessing to his children, who are 3, 2, and 1. Then I looked around and realized I’ve watched all these kids in the youth group grow up…some gracefully, some with struggle. I’ve taught them in Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday school, retreats and camps. I’ve had most of them in my home and they all talked about how I’ve fed them over the years and they enjoyed hanging out in our home. Several of them call me their second mom and since some of them are in college, now serving as leaders in the youth group, it was awesome to sit back and remember and see them now, appreciating all you’ve done for them over the years. And I appreciate them too…they have been great friends for my children and we are so blessed to have had such a good peer group for them here.
The hugs were very sweet afterwards, even though the running games had made them sweaty and gross. LOL And there were lots of promises from kids who want to come down and spend time with us in Phoenix soon and lots of thank you’s and we’ll miss you’s. They were all signing Emma’s t-shirt and taking time to make a last connection. Last things are important and feeling your influence and the good influence of others is important during this time.
I’m glad they made me take the time to feel it. I’m so glad to have known them and privileged to have been a part of their lives and Christian walks.
"It takes a long time to grow an old friend." - by John Leonard
We are embarking on a new life adventure…..moving to Phoenix. Moving is one of the highest ranked stressful events in our lives. And while I can see why it is so stressful, I kind of like it. It is full of potential…just like my barren rose bushes, which are gradually sending out new leaves and shoots.
I like adventures and new things….new climates, new environment, new home, and what is most enticing is new friends. I am a collector of friends. My collection includes several wonderful specimens from each place we’ve lived….and a few from different temporary environments. Those include high school, college, church groups, home schooler groups, working environments, including a Christian conference center where I worked for 2 summers in college. My collection comes out and gets sorted through every year at Christmas. I get out my address book and start walking through the years, looking at each name, remembering the faces, the events, the good and hard times shared all while updating addresses from all the Christmas card letters that pour in.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be born, grow up, get married, live and die all in the same hometown. Makes me go ‘hmmmm’. But I will never know what that is like because I’m married to a pastor who God apparently likes to spread around a bit…share the wealth, if you will. =) I lived in the same city all my growing up years, high school and college years, so when I went off to attend seminary in Texas, it was an adventure! It has never stopped being an adventure since then. I met my husband the first week I lived in Texas and we were married less than a year later. It was like a perfectly orchestrated year of awakening to a new step in God’s plan…..we grew from friends who spent all their time together, to dating, then engaged by New Year’s, married June 1. And I don’t consider him to be part of my collection….he is more an extension, or a part of me…I’m thankful that he isn’t in my address book…he’s at MY address…for always!
We lived 2 years in Texas going to seminary and struggling to balance and keep up with school, working and being engaged and then newly married. There wasn’t a lot of time to nurture friendships outside of our little tiny world of early married life. Even so, we tried to keep up with a few of the friends we made there….friends from work, from a street ministry we helped out with, and from classes. Most of these people went in to ministry vocations too and moved a lot like we did and I don’t know if we have kept up to date on any of them! But I still remember fondly and feel a bond with them.
We spent 2 1/2 years in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma as my husband had his first ministry position right out of seminary. He was a youth pastor. Our first anniversary was spent at a youth lock-in, to get to know the youth. It was a strange time, as most of the people there got married soon after high school and by the time they were in their mid twenties, they had several children! So as a newly married 23 year old, I didn’t have much in common with my peers there. We made good friends in unexpected places though. One of my husband’s favorite duties there was to visit the widows from the church. He was a full time youth pastor, but the kids were in school all day, so he did some associate pastoral duties as well. These sweet, spunky ladies became good friends to us. I also had 2 women who provided me the feminine friendship I needed! One was a woman my own age who was single and a hoot to hang out with….the other was a little older than me with one grade school aged boy, but was a kindred spirit to me.
Next we lived close to 10 years on the New Jersey side of Philadelphia. If you think that sounds interesting, you have no idea! The eastern U.S. is a different world….but when we got over our culture shock, we settled down to enjoy the ride. Our oldest daughter was a brand spankin’ new 10 weeks old when we moved, and I was confined to home for a year or so while Charles was out doing church planting work with our only car. Those were hard years, but I made some dear friends, some other new mothers from our sponsoring church, who helped me feel more a part of it all and get through the new mommy scene. As time passed there, Charles worked in 3 different churches, as well as taught at a Christian school for five years. So we racked up the friends and they now fill a good part of the address book that represents my collection.
"I count myself in nothing else so happy_ As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends."_ - William Shakespeare
Currently, we have just finished up (two months shy of) 9 years here in the mountains of northern Arizona. It was like heaven to move here….we had to keep pinching ourselves when we went outside each day. Instead of living in the crowded, busy suburbs of Philly, we looked out to see mountains, forests, wildlife and a much more laid back way of life in a small town, perfect for our growing family. The friendships here were just as laid back and easy going as the peaceful scenery. There have been very few high maintenance people and a lot of kindred spirits here. I may need to invest in a larger address book….maybe a filing cabinet….
I am going to have to update my address book this year in a major way. The friends we have added to our collection here in northern Arizona are precious and plentiful! Maybe is the small town environment…maybe it’s the cold winters and cozy gatherings in warm homes. Maybe it’s just a very special place stuffed full of really special people….yes, I think it is….I can’t explain it any other way. As the years have gone by here, we’ve seen other people have to pack up and move away. And they always miss the fellowship they had here in the mountains…..there is no place like it. I’m sure we will be missing it too….but I can’t help being excited for the adventure that awaits us on this new move.
We tend to bounce back and forth between small town and large city. But no matter where we go, east or west, small town or urban setting, God prepares the way with kindred spirits just waiting to blossom into lifelong friendships much like my roses that are sending up their new shoots, soon to house many beautiful flowers.
Wow, I’m going to have to save up for all those postage stamps we’ll need next Christmas!
"Most people come into our lives and quickly leave. It is the special few that come in and leave a footprint in our hearts. and we are forever changed." Unknown
Feminine Fellowship Topic: Friendship
Our annual ladies retreat was this past two days. It was wonderful to spend the past 24 hours with the love and easy friendship of the ladies here. More than the mountains, the cozy small town or the cool weather in summer here, I will miss my friends who are here and their acceptance and love of not only me, but all the new ladies who come to our church. It is a special place and is contagious to all who join in the fellowship!
This weekend, we talked and talked. My jaws actually started aching from all the flappin’. We missed some of our own who weren’t able to come to the retreat this year due to sickness or busyness. We sang, prayed, listened, and opened the Scriptures. We talked about being a light to the world and heard testimonies of several ladies. We had a pajama fashion show (which was wild!), and raided each others’ rooms….teehee…..There was a get to know you deeper game we played, telling two true things and one false thing about our life. My three things were 1) I played Mary Magdalene in a college play 2) I saved my husband (their pastor) from choking once and 3) I write a national, weekly column. Well, they all guessed three, except those who read this blog. And when they found out I wrote it on the internet, they all were a buzz, wanting to know how to find it. I chastised them though, for thinking this was more important information than saving their pastor from choking to death! It was a fun game and we really did find out a lot more about each other’s talents and past! We ended the retreat taking communion together with lots of hugs and a few tears.
Here is an email I just received today from a friend who used to be part of our group here. Well, she still is a part of us, she just doesn’t live here anymore. Anyway, it reminded of the retreat….the graphic is great and the words are so true!
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone..
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.
It's funny, I thought having all this recuperating time after surgery would give me lots of time to write and post thoughtful blog entries.....but I haven't. My brain is a little dull and listless...it's not super-bad, but bad enough to feel a blank stare come on when I even think of writing a blog entry. So I will refer you to something interesting that I found today.
I can't help but love those Sonic commercials. They are so silly and sarcastic.....like the one with the husband and wife sitting in their car at Sonic and she is eating a sandwich. She suddenly declares, "Y'know, I don't think there is anything in the world that I love more than a Sonic toasted BLT." The husband looks at her and hesitantly suggests maybe she is exaggerating (can't remember the dialog here) and he says, "After all, what's the Sonic toasted BLT got that I don't have?" Without skipping a beat she says, "Bacon." then takes another bite of her sandwich. LOL Very sassy. 
tiring, yet energizing, if you know what I mean, ladies. From Mary Ann's I went across town on the Squaw Peak Freeway, through beautiful desert mountain views to Scottsdale to have lunch with Nancy. If you want to see Phoenix in from a brand new view, just drive the 51 (Squaw Peak Fwy) from north to south....beautiful! Now I know where the picture at the right was taken. I love this picture.
with friends. It is very refreshing, in a way that being with my husband or family can't produce. (sorry honey, you've great, but it's that bacon thing...please refer to the first paragraph) =) I love you though...and you know I love you more than any bacon sammich!
Having lived here for only 8 weeks now, I haven’t really had the time to invest in very deep friendships yet. I feel close to some people here, but a close, trusting friendship takes time, although some people you can know for a long time and never feel very close to them. Don’t you love it when a new friendship just ‘clicks’? After we had been here only a few weeks, a woman I only slightly knew heard me say that I really needed to start walking every day. She said she lived pretty close to me and she would walk with me. I was excited to have a walking partner all of a sudden and also a bit nervous to make that kind of daily commitment to spending time with someone I barely knew….so we settled on walking 3 days a week.
