The Best People

Man, we are surrounded by the best family and friends in the world.  That, wrapped with a detailed God who cares about the little things, can make for some pretty good days if I don't wreck it with a bad attitude.

I have had an issue that I have been DREADING.  It is something that causes me great fear and heaviness of heart.  It is a lonely road I travel every year that greets me like a faithful friend.  You probably have those spaces in your life too.  The ones that pop up that cause the icky feelings on the inside.

And no, I'm not talking about my yearly.  LOL

Sunday, our preacher talked about how God can be trusted.  Nothing new about those words, but when I took the time to think on the reality of them, the words filled with life.

There have been some hard things lately and I have found myself doing something pretty new.

When the hard things have come, I have been finding the Scripture that says who God is. 

And I hold on to those verses white knuckled. 

My prayers are along the lines of, "God, I am choosing to believe this is true about you."

Choosing to claim God's truth about who He says He is, and not finding refuge in my own sea of emotion.  Choosing to take the time to read about who He says He is in the Word, and then repeating the truth back to God over and over.

Do you have praying friends?  If you don't, ask God to surround you with some praying friends.  A good way to start is to become a praying friend to others yourself.

There have been years where I felt friendless.  Those were the crummiest  years.  Seemed everyone else was going to grill out with friends, and I there I sat friendless among the little jibbery people.  And I prayed during those times, asking God to give us good family friends.  And it took time and effort.  It took inviting and inviting and inviting and never being the invited.  But in the midst something happened.

God took our small efforts and cultivated sweet friendships with people.  Yesterday, which generally is a hard day for me, was filled with peace, joy, obedient boys, and we ended the day with some of our very best friends, grilling out of all things!  We ate together on the patio and shared fellowship together.  My good friends made a hard day so much better.

The emails and texts have been non-stop.

"Last night I was working in my garden planting flowers, and I was praying for your family the entire time"

"Prayed for you today"

"How can I be specifically praying for you?"

All day long I could tangibly feel the prayers of the people.  My fear/dread was replaced with joy/peace.

It has re-energized my desire to be a praying woman.  They are not wasted words vanishing into mid-air.  They change the tide.  And I am humbled to serve a God who listens to us and does not leave us alone to live life by ourselves.

There are more things we need to talk about like the sale at Bath and Body Works that is causing me great angst, my new ministry purse (don't ask), and the cool moon pics we snapped Sunday night, but I have to talk the little guy to swim lessons and try to squeeze in one more cup of coffee, so peace out!