Well we are only 5 1/2 weeks away from little Chloe arriving on the scene. She may get here sooner or later, but she's definitely on the way. Poor Sarah is on the verge of just being miserable. She's done such a good job surviving the challenges of being pregnant. In spite of lots of sickness, she has prevailed with good health! We went to the doctor today and they said everything looks great. Her blood pressure was super too! Sarah just glows to me. I can't wait to see the glow of motherhood on her when Chloe comes in the world. It's a very exciting time in our life. Saturday is my birthday (I'll be 35 years old) and then Sunday Sarah's mom is throwing her a baby shower. Sage, her sister, is coming in from Maine as well so all in all it should be a fantastic weekend for us. It's still hard to believe that I'm going to be a new daddy at 35 years old...that means I'll be 53 when Chloe graduates from school. I'm not going to think too far ahead though. I'm going to enjoy these next years, Lord willing, with my family and friends!
On to other things....Life is so very full of challenges! Sometimes these challenges just seem so overwhelming that it's hard to get through the day. I'm so thankful for a great friends and supportive family that come along beside of us and run life's hard race with us.
On Monday I went to Beckley WV to see my old buddies from my old job. It was an awesome and yet sad visit. God was so very gracious to me when he put Jennifer and Tami and Buddy and yes even Steve (ha ha) into my life during what was a very very dark time. They were there when I needed picking up off of the floor (not from chair accidents) and they were there to knock me around a little bit (or hit me in the head with a baby bag) when I needed some straight talk! I tell you this. I am so very glad that God is the God that I can go to with my prayers and concerns and that He comforts us beyond the level of a friend's comfort, but at the same time I'm so grateful that He allows people to be an important part of a healing process as well.
Scott, Tami, Jennifer, and Nancy treated me to lunch on Monday, and while I enjoyed the free food and the birthday and baby shower gifts (of course!) the best gift to me was their company...just their presence. I sit there and look at their faces and listen to their jokes and our times of yesterday and I wonder in my mind if the Lord could ever truly bless me with such close friends again. It's so great to laugh isn't it! It's so great to be around people that want to be around you because they can, not because they have to. It's amazing to me that God is such a great God that He answered my prayers for great Godly friends like them. It's amazing to me that there are people in this world you CAN trust, you can be YOURSELF with, and you can just ENJOY their company. All too often I think we walk around with masks on so that people can't see who we "really" are. All too often we live in fake worlds with fake smiles and fake laughs. All too often we miss many great opportunities to get to know someone because we are too afraid of being REAL with them.
I know it sounds a little sappy perhaps, but I just so enjoyed sitting there, relaxing and just laughing. Today everyone's so busy blogging, texting, e-mailing, calling, and whatever else that finding someone you can have a strong face-to-face friendship seems just about impossible. I can tell you this...all of the e-mailing in the world won't take the place of being in front of someone and sharing life with them. I encourage you to stop, slow down and take a little time for the people that are so important in your life.
Our relationship with God is so much better too when we are "face-to-face" with Him. Being a faithful church-goer is useless if it's done out of obligation rather than relationship. God is looking for a RELATIONSHIP with us like we have a RELATIONSHIP with our kids. I think in this society, we think the best way to communicate with God is a quick text message of a 2 minute prayer when things go wrong...then we go one with our life and never bother to approach Him again until we actually need something. God wants to be our friend and He wants to SEE us living out His love through an intimate relationship with Him. What if we put as much effort into our walk with Him as we do with our great friends or our spouse or kids...the world, and our own personal world may look a lot different.
Well that's it for the day. I hope everyone is surviving the week and the rainy, gloomy weather...let the light inside of you OUT and change the world around you!
In Christ,
Ron2
No comments:
Post a Comment