Friends

"A friend loves at all times...." Proverbs 17:17

Friends used to be people we spent time with or went to school with or went to church with or worked with. But, because of things like My Space, Facebook and Twitter, the word friend has a whole new meaning. I now have over 200 Facebook friends. Do I really know these people? Do I really have the deep intimate relationship with them that the word “friend” suggests. While I do enjoy Facebook and the sense that you get of “knowing” people and being connected to them and their lives, I still love the somewhat outdated face to face time with my girl friends.

I have a small circle of friends that I get together with about once a month. We usually meet at a local (or sometimes not so local – depending on the spirit of adventure that day) restaurant for dinner. We laugh, we talk, we eat and we enjoy each other. Recently I was with my friends and we laughed a little too loud, talked too long (or so it seemed when the waiter walked by about the 15th time giving us that, “will they ever leave?” look), and ate way too much. We shared some serious things that are going on in our lives and in our families, we shared some insignificant things about our jobs, and we shared some silly things that no one but us would understand. We had a great evening of fun and fellowship.

Our friendship isn’t about status updates, tweets or quizzes that tell us what type of celebrity we are. Our friendship is about relationship. It’s about trust, honesty, openness, caring. It’s about simply being together and sharing a small piece of our lives with each other.

Thanks girls. My life is richer because of the time we spend together!

Happy Thanksgiving

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1

A few things I'm thankful for:

• The cool fall weather
• The fiery colors of the fall leaves
• The sound of the ocean
• Chocolate in any form
• My coworkers
• GNO
• The sweet girls I teach on Monday nights.
• My good health and that of my family
• Tim
• Facebook
• Payday
• The feel of my toes in the sand
• Godly parents that took me to church
• My sister who is one of my best friends
• A good cup of coffee
• Daisy, my cat
• My church family
• Memories of family members and friends that are no longer with me
• Laughter
• Mostly….Jesus

What are you thankful for?

I’m new to the blogging world. Well, sort of. I’m a lurker. I love to read and be encouraged by the words of others. I’ve been reading some blogs recently that have encouraged me in so many ways. I’ll share those here from time to time. They’ve encouraged me, not only to begin my own blog, but to live my life much more transparently. I don’t find it easy to share things with other people. I tend to bottle up my emotions and then spew them out at the most inopportune times. Sometimes I feel the burden of not sharing. I thought this might be a great way for me to talk about some things that I might not otherwise share.

I don’t want to share just to unburden myself, but also to help hold myself accountable to my God.

I’ve been praying for God to change me into the person HE wants me to be. I’ve been praying that I will live my life with the goal of honoring Him. I want to be a reflection of His love. I want to immerse myself in His Word and in prayer so that I can become more like Him. I want to share my struggles, mistakes, triumphs, and blessings. I also want to hear about yours. Let’s share our lives so that we can become who God wants us all to be.

What’s going on in your life today?