Make new friends, but keep the old...

Remember that old Girl Scout song "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."? I have had an awesome time at "making friends" the last couple months. I have met one of those people with whom I just "click". It is very interesting, that we both come from very different backgrounds, on opposite sides of the country, with different cultures, but we seem to understand each other at a level much deeper than you would imagine. I am so grateful for this new friend and hope that I can be as big a blessing to her as she has been to me.

Mountains and valleys

I look out my window and see the stunning landscape of mountains, snow-capped and steep-sloped. Although breathtakingly beautiful to look at, they are trecherous to climb. I sometimes compare my life to these examples of the Creator's handiwork and realize my "ups and downs" are just as trecherous to navigate, and not nearly as beautiful. My most recent example was last week. Wednesday was an "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, rotten day" just like the children's book. Not anything in particular going on, or maybe that was it, there was NOTHING in particular going on. I was wishing I could, like Moses of old, rise up in righteous indignation and shout "You stubborn and stiff-necked people, when will you see the Father for all His is". Realizing of course, that my neck is often one of the stiffest. Anyway, it was just one of those crawl-in-bed-and-hide-under-the-covers, kind of days. Discouragement seemed to sit right on my shoulder and whisper it's ugly little lies right in my ear. We made it through the day, limping and dragging ourselves to bed. Thursday, still feeling groggy from the battle of the day before, with whispers that were not as loud nor as frequent, became Thursday evening and our Beading, blabbing and Button blankets class. My friend Brenda had sent out a text message to her contact list before class started and we had 12 people show up! Several ladies that had never been before. Oh what an encouragement that was! I have so longed to see the ladies of our community gathered around the tables in the church building chatting and laughing and enjoying one another. My Father knew just what I needed to scale that mountain of discouragement. He is so good to me. Then, already feeling such encouragement, on Monday, at a wake of all places, Larry got the news of a gentleman, who has been coming to the church for a couple of months now, accepting the Lord at church a couple of weeks ago, and no one had told us! We have prayed so long and hard about a harvest here and finally we see the fruit of God's work here. This man asked the Lord to come into his life during our "prayer circle time" at church, and prayed out loud for himself. Talk about mountain top elation!

As I review the last week in my mind and heart, I pray that my "ups and downs" would be less pronounced. That my mountains would be leveled and my valleys raised up to make straight the way of the Lord. The dramatic dips and ascents are beautiful to look at in landscapes, but do not speak of the beauty of the Lord in a life lived for Him.