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What did you do most Friday nights as a child? I can tell you what I did without blinking. I spent it with my cousin Deborah. Our dads are brothers and our moms were best friends. We had the blessed opportunity of being raised in Christian families. Something I took for granted back then.
Almost every Friday evening our families would get together and the parents played Rook while the four of us kids played together. As the years passed, playtime faded and a wonderful “talk time” developed with my cousin Deborah.
She is two years older than me which I know isn’t much but when you’re in the eighth grade and your best friend is in tenth, then it’s a BIG difference in the mind of a middle school kid. I’m sure I drove her insane some nights. She was my hero! We sat together every time the church doors were open at same church and school and at Pensacola Christian back then, the middle school and the high school was together. I would try to get to school early just so I could hang out with HER and all her “cool” friends like Victor and Neva and the rest of you Class of ’79 bunch. Bless her heart; she was patient looking back now.
One of the saddest days I can remember was the day she went away to college. I think I was “in mourning” for weeks. lol I remember sitting in church for the last Sunday night together and thinking”It will never be the same after tonight”. I was right, things were never the same. We grew up and had to move on.
Through the years both of our lives have experienced extreme happiness, fear, sweet surprises, and heartache. The only “Constant” has been the Lord’s care and love.
We live twelve hours away from each other and never get to spend as much time as we would like to together.
At the moment she and her husband are going through the pain of his cancer and I just want to be there to help and talk to her, but the Lord put me in Florida and her in North Carolina. She knows how much I love and miss her. (Personally I think she is out of the will of God until she moves back down to Fl.)
Tomorrow is her birthday. Though I can’t be there with her, I just wanted to thank her for all she has meant to me through the years and pray that she and Steve can have a wonderful day together.
I love you Deborah!
Last night I had the opportunity to have dinner with about half a dozen of my “old” classmates from Pensacola Christian School. Most of us have known each other since kindergarten and that is a special bond that the years just can’t take away.
We all went into different areas of work. One is a nurse, one works in radiology; two are teachers, and one golf professional. We also all have VERY different personalities! (They know which ones I put the exclamation point for J ).
Time has changed us of course; we all probably have more pounds to love and less brain cells to spare. Some of us have been through sad circumstances with the death of a spouse or father or mother. For others divorce or financial strains have stretched their faith muscles to the brink. We have lost three of our classmates just in the last year.
We do not all agree on every political or moral issue. Things even got a little “heated” in some of those areas! There were moments last night that I had to bite my tongue. Some times I should have spoke up but didn’t.
As I sat looking around the table at each one of them, I remembered what we all looked like as children and wondered if the things in their lives came to pass like they thought they would or did some of our lives take turns and twists and “triple loops” that we didn’t want or didn’t plan to take. Which situations made us bitter or angry with God? Which ones could we have avoided? Which ones can we change with the Lord’s help? For me, my life did not take the perfect path. Some things I brought on myself and some things God allowed to happen to make me stronger.
One of my classmates called me a “SAINT” at one point in our conversation! This is too funny on so many levels, but I was thankful at least that she could see I was trying to live for the Lord now.
Yep, our table was a very wide variety of people, but what occurred to me was that each one of us God created. He loved each one and placed in our DNA His blueprint. He knew before time began that we would be friends.
Thank you Lord for my friends from long ago. Please keep them close to You and Your will. Through the years I ask that you work in their children and grandchildren’s lives. May they accept Your gift of salvation early in life. Amen
I have been through a battery of test in the last couple of months for a condition that is attacking the body and will not stop. The result show that the problem is MY OWN BODY is attacking itself! My immune system has gone haywire. It thinks that part of me is a foreign object and is trying to kill it off! Don’t worry, I’m not contagious.
The thought of that is just crazy to me. Why would it want to hurt itself? It’s like banging your head over and over again against a brick wall. Wouldn’t it want to protect its own?
Have you ever made a conscience decision in life knowing it would NOT be a good one and would probably end up hurting you and those around you in the end but did it anyway? Yep, been there and done that. It’s worse than watching a train crash, because you are not only watching it, but you’re also the driving force.
The solution to my health issue is that I am on mega doses of steroids. In order to stop the body from killing off itself, the medication has to make the body drop its defense system and this will go into remission for what we pray will be a long time.
In order for this medication to work the body will have to lay down its “guns” and surrender. The bad side of this is that I have no immunity during this time.
My body has two choices to make. Ignore the meds and continue its battle or surrender and be healed. It seems like such an easy choice doesn’t it? How many of us though, after banging our head and knowing it will hurt, still go back and do it again? What THING do we do over and over and over again and feel the pain each time. It seems it would be so much smarter to just lay it down at the Savior’s feet and say “I surrender all”.
