We have a friend who said that our family is experiencing the hardest time in our lives. I know others who have as great challenges as we have and some who are experiencing greater challenges right now. We reached the point, long ago, when I thought we had all that we could bear. Still things kept coming.

I marvel at the lessons God has given to us during these difficult times. I think of them as gifts of love. I am amazed at the many miracles He has created to share His love with us.

One of the great gifts of love he gives is friendship. In the last two weeks, I found that friendship and love can remain with us without frequent contact and I am awed by the amount of love that I can feel. I felt the strength of sustaining prayers. I felt the concern of others. I was literally enveloped in the arms of love.

I wish, sometimes, that life was not so hard. But how else can we learn the lessons so that we can grow to be more like God? I am grateful for the strength of my children and my husband through our experiences in the past year. How marvelous and great are the many bounteous blessings of our God in our lives.

I want to share one experience of the many great gifts given to our family. Last Thursday afternoon, after an especially long and trying day, my friend and I were going to visit someone who is sick. She was unable to see us and so my friend said that we could go for a ride. We did.

We decided to go shopping because she needed a new wallet. We went only in two stores. The second store, she found the wallet she wanted and I decided to buy one for me. My friend decided to give the wallet to me as a gift. I hesitated, but decided to be a gracious recipient.

I put the wallet in my bag and carried it around for a few days. Tuesday, I had a doctor’s appointment and I placed the check to pay the doctor in the new wallet. When I pulled it out to pay the doctor, I felt a sense of newness. I needed to have things that were new. I needed to get rid of the things that reminded me of my old life and start fresh. I hadn’t realized that such a small thing, a wallet, would help me move forward. It did. And each time I see it or touch it, I think of my dear sweet friend, who has been my strength over many years. Thank you, DeAnne. Thank you for understanding and loving me.

There are so many people who remain nameless right now, but someday, we will feel free to share their names and their gifts to us during our trials. I thank you too.

How can you show your love to a friend today?

There is a song that says “that’s what friends are for” and I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of friends in our lives. We have social networks like Facebook (by the way the mpowergen.com has 200-fans Hurray!) to help keep us connected and to open the door to re-connecting with friends from long ago. We had a blog from Wyddeth talking about the power of the written word to keep us connected through generations. We have cell phones and home phones with unlimited calling times available. All these things and others, keep us connected to the people we love.
Dictionary.com states that a friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard; a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter; a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile; a member of the same nation, party, etc.
Friends are the golden threads in the tapestry of life. They bring the color, light and sometimes even life to our lives. Friends tell us what we need to know about ourselves. They encourage us when we are struggling, they lift us when we are low; they tell us how we truly look, in a nice way; and they are always there to listen to our thoughts, concerns and triumphs.

Yesterday was a particularly hard day for me.  Yet, I was surrounded by my friends, my family and people who care about me.  Even those who were far away were praying for us.  I felt the strength that comes from prayers others offered in my behalf.  The day was hard, but the support of my friends made it possible for me to have the strength and the courage I needed.  I will be forever grateful to those beautiful people in my life.

Best of all, friends become a part of our family.  Some, like sisters, are kin by blood and also by friendship. We love them and want to share in their lives too. How blessed we are to have wonderful friends. My mom always told me to be careful who I chose to be my friends. I am glad I followed her counsel. I have the best friends in the world!

How can you share your love with a friend today?

Oh well… (I borrowed this phrase from a very dear friend of mine), I am posting my blog contribution a day late again. Our family has been under siege, as of late, and I promise, promise, promise that after we get through this, things will get better (this phrase is for my sister) and I will be able to post my blog on time. Ha! Ha!

I have been thinking a lot about what I would say today. The words which come into my mind are “thank you.” I cannot think of anything more profound or important to say than “thank you.”
My heart is full to overflowing with gratitude for the love, comfort and help we have been given recently.

As we have gone through this experience, I have been awed and amazed at how many friends we have; amazed at how we can be connected with people from far away, not having kept in daily contact, but still have the same love and attachment that we felt years ago. We are family. We are one, big, gigantic family. We are the family of God.

I hope I remember always that we are brothers and sisters. I actually don’t think I ever forgot it; I just didn’t always pay enough attention to the connection which occurs at each of our births. But now, my eyes are wide open, and I am fully awake. So, I won’t write a long blog. After a while, you will understand our experience because I believe we have to share our experiences with each other so that others can benefit from our mistakes and benefit from the growth we experience as a result of learning from those mistakes.

I also want to express my gratitude for a loving Father in Heaven who takes good care of us. Without Him in my life, I don’t know how I would be able to look forward and keep moving in that direction.

Our family has been strengthened. We have reopened doors wide to reconnect with the people we love. Thank you to each of our family members and friends who have supported and sustained us. You have empowered us to continue and to fight, even when we were too tired to go on. Your encouragement and your love nourish us daily. Thank you.

How can we help to sustain and support you?

On my mind much lately is the principle and practice of love.  Some questions that have been in my thoughts are those such as:

• Do we have to earn love, or can we expect it to be given freely to us?
• What comes by “protecting” ourselves through not expressing the love we feel toward others openly?
• How do we show our love in a way that it is received as love by those around us?

Over the past year or so, I have been working on relatively young relationships with new acquaintances and I have immediately felt connected to these people who have recently entered my life.  I feel a familial bond with them and seek to express my love and admiration for the presence of these new friends in my life.  Yet I hesitate.  If I express love quickly, will they find me insincere?  If I feel love for them that is unreturned, will I feel abandoned?

My husband and I are celebrating eleven years of marriage this month.  We had a short courtship (met in June, dated in July, were engaged in August and married in November).  Days before he proposed to me, we stood outside on my front step to say goodnight.  He looked at me and said, “Tell me something.”  I immediately thought to say, “I love you.”  In an instant, I thought of all the times I could’ve said it in other relationships when I didn’t.  I had never been comfortable standing exposed to express my feelings.  As I look into his tender eyes, though, peace overwhelmed me.  I said, “I love you.”  Never before had I said that to a man I had dated, but I said it to him with my whole heart, soul, mind, and spirit.  He did not return the words then, and I was okay.  I actually felt triumphant!  Jubilant! Lifted!  I was amazed how expressing my feelings of love soared my spirit to new heights.

When those around me share their love with me through words, I feel a deeper bond in our relationship.  I pray that my words to others will sustain them when they feel lost or alone.  I know that thinking of them when I am troubled and the ways they have wrapped their arms around me and accepted me for who I am gives me courage to keep moving, growing, and expressing love.

With whom will you express you love today?

Our guest blogger this week, Jean Sabin, has become a fast friend to our family.  She loves jogging outdoors and singing karaoke with friends and family; she enjoys and appreciates all mediums of art, and her favorite color is pink.  She is sensitive to the needs of others and is often looking to help those around her.  Though we have yet to meet face to face, we feel a kinship with her and are grateful for her contribution to MPower those around her.

Today I had to come to the realization that sometimes we can’t have it all, but only have what God wants for us.  A great friend of mine likes to coin the phrase “you can push and pull God’s hand, but he moves it on his own so much easier.”  He also utilizes his scriptures more than anyone I know; he would never admit it that his favorite verse is Psalm 25:9–”He teaches the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.”

If there is anyone who has been humbled in the past few years, it is my friend Dre.  But none more so than the past few months.  He has survived two life-threatening surgeries–and has had to bury a best friend–and a childhood friend–within days of each other.  He even has had to lose his job due to his health.  But he was always grateful for what God has given him.  He always has a positive outlook on things, and, as he says, “just tries to love life for what it is.”  This is a man who at one point (not too long ago) had it all–the girl of his dreams, the job he always wanted, and the house that he thought up.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any of that anymore yet he is still grateful for what God has given him.

I love this man, and in many ways I am in awe of what he has had to endure. Today he had to face failure (now I have known this man almost my entire life and I can’t remember him ever failing at anything he puts his mind to, but today unfortunately he failed an exam that he really wanted to pass so that he could work for a company that he has always wanted to work for but as I previously mentioned he didn’t get what he wanted).

Sometimes having to be there for our loved ones in their time of need could be as simple as making them comfortable or just by letting them grieve. Anyone who has dealt with failure knows the value of encouragement, yet all too often we are quick to point out the mistakes and failures of others rather than their successes and the things they do well.  Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement,” was a person who grasped the enormous value of blessing others with words. He came alongside believers in the midst of trials and troubles of all kinds, and he encouraged them to press on and to be all that God had called them to be.

The value of lifting up the hearts of men and women is immeasurable. Encouragement strengthens character, increases confidence in God, develops loyalty, deepens faith, and stimulates joy.  We as women have a choice each day about whether our daily lives will be marked by encouragement or discouragement.  May we earn the same reputation as that of Barnabas.

So, I have spent a significant part of my life dodging certain situations, trying to figure out how to minimize my mistakes and play up my successes.  Do we all do this at one time or another?  I don’t know.  Lately, though, I have taken a different approach.  I noticed the fruits of this process just the other day when I saw my sweet neighbor whom I will call Claudia.  “Claudia” and I often walk in the evenings for stress relief (and, yes, I will admit exercise).  She will call a bit before bedtime and ask, “So, do you think you can walk tonight?”  My responses vary by degree of stress in my life, the activities of the evening, or the rate at which my children drift into blessed slumberings.

So, the call came, and I am sure I could’ve used the walk.  Trevor was out for a few minutes, but I expected him back soon and promised to call her.  Well, he came home, we did internet research, put fussy little ones to sleep, and chatted.  10:45 p.m. came, and I gasped.  I had forgotten Claudia.  Oh, no.  What to do?  Do I send her a quick apology text?  Do I just ignore the whole scenario?  (I sadly must admit that the latter would’ve been my option of choice even just a few years ago…and even now days come and go when I still feel this way…ugh!)

I drove our children to school the next day, and who was on the sidewalk as we walked up toward my twins’ classroom?  Yep, it was Claudia.  I came up behind her, tagged her arm, and immediately blurted out a sincere apology (I totally forgot!!!).  Come to find out, she had worked on organizing something…and had totally crashed herself.  No worries.  Often people in New Zealand use this expression–”no worries”– and adopt its philosophy; my husband lived there for two years, and he has certainly reaped blessings for bringing this positive outlook back to his life in the States. 

Well, I could’ve run away, avoided her, continued to feel badly, etc.–but I faced the fury (which was really nonexistent except within my mind) and confessed:  I forgot.  No worries. 

I can be wrong, or mess up, or whatever.  Or I can face my mistakes and reach out to those whom I might have offended.  Most often I find forgiveness and much less stress when I address the issue instead of run from people.  How about you?

When I was a child, growing up with my brother who is twenty-two months younger than I, I longed for a sister.  I often wondered how I would feel or what I would do if I could have that blessing.  Because of some health challenges and infertility, my mother did not conceive again until I was almost eleven years old.  I was overjoyed when I found out the baby Mom was having was a girl!!!  A few years following, we were again blessed with another baby girl to enter our home.  I loved having little sisters to dress up, fix hair, and dance with around our empty living room.

As of late, though I am many years older, I continue to be overjoyed that I have sisters.  My family has grown in ways I could not have imagined as a child; I have my two sisters, my sisters-in-law, my daughters and mothers who I count as sisters, and my many friends who are also my sisters.  This sisterhood that we share has blessed my life in myriad ways lately.  My sisters share their thoughts with me, their pumpkin bread, their smiles, their meals, their cleaning skills, their strength of character, their challenges, and their joys.  As we laugh together and weep together, we are bound by unbreakable ties.

 I ponder the sisters I have as neighbors, as ladies in the grocery store who stop to admire my children, and as kind women who touch me with their gentle smiles.  I feel a sisterhood no matter the color of skin, the religious background, the education, the social position, or the economic condition my sisters share.  They are my sisters.  You are my sister.  Thank you for being who you are.  I am grateful for you.