No, I don’t have good news on the Christmas picture I was trying to take for the blog. The camera and I have spent the weekend in two different rooms so that our relationship could have a little time to heal. Hopefully there will be a reconciliation and a victory soon. You’ll know it when you see it. And, boy, will it be a let down.
There’s something else I wanted to share with you. I’ve got to keep it short because I don’t want to take much time away from my man. He just got home last night from the deer lease. I want to write on it while it’s on my mind though. I just have to marvel from time to time over the unlikely loves God brings together in His family here on earth. The way people in Christ can become dear friends and traveling companions with individuals they’d never have thought to get to know. I love how, because the Spirit of Christ lives in us and He originated the differences, we can come to love people we might not have thought we’d like. It’s a thought I have often but I have some fresh imprints on my heart and mind today that compel me to write.
Travis Cottrell, my praise team leader on the road for ten years, has been in town this week at Champion Forest Baptist Church as the guest artist in their magnificent Christmas pageant. Our families are really great friends and Melissa and I had already gotten to see him between practices. Angela, Travis’s wife (and stunning proof of how much God loves him), and their three terrific kids, Jack, Lily Kate, and Levi, flew in yesterday afternoon to join Travis and Keith got home last night. My man was anxious to see them so we headed to Champion Forest Baptist for church this morning to worship with them and have some lunch. I watched those two men hug. So happy to see each other. Crazy about each other. Watched them sit at the end of our row together. And as different as night and day and one almost old enough to be the other’s father. Keith the consummate outdoorsman who shoots clay pigeons for fun and Travis the gifted artist who can write a musical on paper without even sitting at a keyboard. The chords are all in his head.
Both mighty men but so incredibly different. I couldn’t help but take it in again at lunch. While Ang and I were in the throes of kid-ville, Travis and Keith sat at the end of the table and gabbed like they’d hung out all their lives. Travis lets Keith talk to him about deer and Keith lets Travis talk to him about music projects. Travis could easily talk pro football because, interestingly, he’s a huge addict, but Keith, just as oddly, is not a fan. Both, however, love Jesus, love their wives, and cry over something tender faster than their wives. I don’t suppose conversation comes naturally to either one of them but they make it happen. Because they’re family. The Moores and the Cottrells have been halfway around the world together and have shared more life – joys and crises – in the last ten years than you can imagine.
Two months ago Keith sent Travis a pair of Lucchese cowboy boots with a handwritten letter about how the Tennessee Volunteers had come to the aid of the Texans at the Alamo (yes, we remember). It was priceless. Vintage Keith. And Travis loved them. They are an odd pair, Keith Moore and Travis Cottrell. One of how many odd pairs, I wonder, in the Body of Christ? This entry is a tribute to the unlikely loves Christ Jesus brings together. I’m inviting you to share yours. (Short enough for us to read them all!) One of the most marvelous things about loving Jesus is all the folks we end up unexpectedly loving, too.
I love you. I really do. And if a blog community of women who have never laid eyes on one another isn’t an unlikely love, I don’t know one.
Your committed Siesta. (P.S. I just had to hop back on and say that I LOVE YOUR TESTIMONIES OF UNLIKELY LOVES!! Siestas, be sure to read these comments! The stories of unlikely lives God brought together will bring such joy to your heart and praise to your lips. You will marvel over the one written by the young widow and laugh over the one written by the woman who has a fear of flying then married the pilot. You’ll love all of them! Also be sure to add yours. This is one of my favorite comment sections yet. Way to bring God some fun glory! And you’re right, Siesta. He and we are the most unlikely loves of all.)
Well, isn’t that just how our mighty God does things? This blonde siesta isn’t likely to figure things out any time soon on this earth….so I will marvel with you how awesome and totally unexplainable our Maker is!
Amen~
Since our identity is in Christ maybe it isn’t so mysterious that one Christian connects to another ~total strangers if you will~
Because we aren’t connecting to the ‘earthly man’ but to the
‘New man’
~Siestas in our case!
My amazing Savior introduced me to the most wonderful friends that have followed me my whole Christian life
~Goodness and Mercy~
and they are the reasons I can connect with a total stranger…
we have mutual friends!!
I so love everyone on this Blog~
I think each siesta has so mush to offer~~ It might just save on therapy~
Love the ‘blondest siesta’ on this Blog..or in the world! jan
My “unlikely love” is my hubby. On the surface, we’re as night & day as you can get. He’s summer, I’m winter. He’s funny, I’m serious. He’s a city boy, I’m a small town girl. He’s quiet, I talk to myself when others get tired of listening! And don’t get me started on music & movies!
Yet we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God brought us together. We’ve walked through fires together and built a life on the Rock. 15 years later, we’re still standing…and have a daughter who’s the best of both of us.
My unlikely love is the wife of my former pastor. She is 20 years older than me, we have opposite personalities (I’m bold and outgoing and passionate, she is quiet, thoughtful, and reserved.) But she has taught me so much, and is such a servant of Christ. I love her so much. She stood in the gap for me when I needed help the most, and taught me more by example than I ever could have learned through reading a book. I’m trying to keep this short, but I could go on and on. We are great friends. I wish more older women would reach out to the young women in their churches. We need you! And you have so much to teach us!
I have found that nothing says love like a pair of Lucchese boots.
And seriously, when I look at the blogging community, it blows me away that I am able to email and pray with and for women that I never would have had the chance to meet in real life. It’s a blessing.
I was just this morning noticing something semi-similar, at our church. I was watching the last of parishioners waiting in line to take communion. A gaggle of teen and tween girls with messy ponytails and grey sweatshirts. A smartly dressed couple with an adorable baby. An older man with a cane, being helped by a slightly younger man. Followed by a twenty-something woman with ginger colored dreadlocks. I noticed that the dignified older man and the bohemian girl exchanged warm greetings and remembered that I’d seen them talking together at previous church services, and thought, “only at church.”
I love that there is room for everybody – all kinds of people – in God’s kingdom and that the most unlikely people accept each other in a way that they probably wouldn’t in any other environment!!
Unlikely loves indeed…how about Christ and me?! He’s so perfect and holy, and me, so sinful and fallen…do ya think Christ unites unlikely loves to give us a better picture of His love for us?
growingingodliness.blogspot.com
Does my hubby count? I met him via Christianmatchmaker.com even though we were already attending the same church AND only sat a few rows apart. He is a pilot and of all the things in this world that I despise, it is flying! What was God thinking allowing me to fall for a fly guy? I’m so blessed by my man and it works regardless that he dreads flying with me as much as I dread flying. He always asks when we land…is my other wife back now? ;O) I guess I must turn into a crazy woman or something in the sky. God does have a sense of humor.
Beth , you could have not said it better it so true about a community of women that have never laid eye’s on each other and yet we all love and support each other in the body of Christ. In fact I never had any intention of ever haveing a blog however I enjoy reading them so much .I have only been blogging for a sort while and I have meet missionaries in Venezuela now in Paraguay and of course all over the USA I know I may never get 1st prize in blog country b/c I know I am not a good writer or stoy teller. But I have made friends form all over some that have over come Breast cancer ,and another friend that everytime I fell down her blogs left me up laughing silly I can’t help but laugh and forget about my self.Yes we are a community of women that understand each other form bad hair days too kids crying and giving us a hard time. I myself fine myself a mom the 2nd time around yes at age 40 something I have an 25 year old daughter and 18 years later a son. So I feel I can fit in almost anywhere.Anyway didn’t mean to make these so long But you could of not said it better. WE ARE A COMMUNITY OF LOVE!!blessing,marina
PS. May God truly bless all these siesta’s sisters that I can’t wait too meet in SA,Tx.
I LOVE YOU DEARLY BETH! i cant tell you enough how i needed this post! you always make me smile! you are a gift from God!
I will keep this as short as possible…what a great topic, beth!!
When I worked at a bank years ago, I used to eat lunch with a group of older widowed women. I loved our fellowship together. As the days went by, we become friends and I loved the time and laughs we shared. We all shared a love for each other, and for the Lord.
Doesn’t seem odd, except I was only 23. Well, in God’s amazing plan he put these precious women in my life for a specific reason.
I would soon join their windowed women club. Days before my 25th Bday my beloved 25 year old husband died of a massive heart attack.
Looking back, I know that God had placed these relationships in my life, “for such a time as this.”
To catch you up on God’s amazing plan…I have since remarried and have the most amazing family. We are blessed with 3 kids, and life is good. So, my bank days are over…now I just chase babies!!
peace to you,
kim
Dear Beth,
How I hear your heart…Your man “sounds” so much like my man of 43+ years. I had a hard time “understanding” WHY he wanted to go “out there” in the wilds fo hunt!!!
At this time in our lives, it doesn’t seem to be so important to him. You see, since our son has been “fighting” a brain tumor (our son has 2 children), those things have taken a somewhat “not so important” role.
Oh, I would gladly go back to the time when my husband WANTED TO GO HUNTING…..
But God is faithful and rest asssured, He is on the throne & understands our feelings, emotions, etc. He is SO good and I STILL believe in the miraculous healing power of God…When someone goes without breathing for 22 minutes (recorded on medical records) and comes back to life….GOD IS IN CONTROL…….I am just in for the ride to see what HE IS DOING…..WHAT AN AWESOME GOD WE SERVE…
Please pray that “all of our family” will be sensitive to the leading of HIS HOLY SPIRIT so we may come to know HIM in a more powerful way and serve HIM in a greater demonstration of the HOLY SPIRIT.
Nancy
Well, I suppose there is an obvious statement here about how completely proficient I am with a digital camera and my most beautiful amd beloved friend and sister Beth who, well, has other gifts….. but I suppose it goes without saying. (We both have impeccable fashion sense, though!)
My husband and I wound up in a Bible study small group with 6 other couples in their late 40s to mid 60’s (we’re early 30s). I have such a wealth of womanly knowledge in these friends who could be my mother but are my sisters…HE is so brilliant in weaving together our personal lives.
Travis sang “Annie’s Song” at Living Proof in Detroit last February. It got in my marrow and I adore him for it. I’ve never been so moved. Between that and your saying (in Believing God? or Patriarchs, one of the two….) that Keith prays for your women, darn it, I would have given anything to talk football with your guys.
In just a few short months, as a baby-blogger, I have already made some dear connections with sisters in the Lord all around the world. It has made God’s family seem so much closer to me.
My sister makes fun of me when I talk about my girlfriends in Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and the Philippines…I am in California!!!
Praise the Lord! Joanne :O)
The unlikey bond I once shared was with a little boy with severe down syndrome named Timmy. Timmy and I became an unseparable pair when we were together. We both suffered from health problems and would visit each other in the hospital. I loved that little boy like a mother…even though I was only a teenager when we first met….he was only five. Timmy lost his battle with cancer at age 10 when I was only 18. I will never forget the precious pieces of God that were revealed to me through that little boy. I miss him dearly…but know he is waiting with open arms for the day when we will meet again!
**My Unlikely Love**
Jesus brought me my best girlfriend 13 years ago when we were working as police and fire dispatchers together on a graveyard shift. She played a HUGE part in bringing me to the foot of the cross…
I am 39yrs old, married and have four children…she is 49yrs old, married with NO children…only God could have brought our hearts together like this.
She is my ‘Elizabeth’!
I never thought that my elderly neighbor would be the greatest friend and mentor of my 28 year old life. God is good.
Hey! Beth! How precious it is that the Holy Spirit brings together those who are in Christ to be able to fellowship with one another no matter what. What a powerful love! We are studying Genesis in Sunday School and it is amazing (as always), what a mighty love God has for us in how He so strongly desires our fellowship as well as an intimate relationship with Him. Our Awesome God!! Love you and pray for you and yours daily!
My best friend and I are the unlikely pair. I am deathly allergic to cats and she has four of them. Yet, somehow, we have made it work for over 10 years. I’ve had my scares with the throat and eyes closing shut after a long girls night at her home. But, at the end of the day, one night with red swollen eyes, laughing my tail off on her couch, is worth more to me than a cat-free night with any other person. The things we do for our girlfriends – oh my!
I met the sweetest friend on this blog! Her name is Annette and we have become such good friends. It probably seems weird to a lot of people because I might not even recognize her if I run into her in the grocery store. But… we’ve blogged together (if that’s what you call it), we’ve e-mailed and we’ve talked on the phone. Some of us tease about our imaginary friends. But… we’ll be “real” friends when we meet in August at the Siesta Fiesta! I am so blessed by this friendship! I live in Michigan… She lives in Texas!
I love her and am thankful for you introducing me to this Christian blog where there are so many lovely, godly Christian women! God is SO good!
Love,
Angie xoxo
I have a confession I need to make upfront: when I read Tennessee Volunteers I got excited thinking it was about my fav college football team and then I read the rest of the sentence. LOL!
I loved this post. Learning about Travis and Keith’s friendship, how sweet!!
I have been thinking about who I would write about but I can’t think of anyone where we are as different as night and day. I do have people that God has placed in my life that I dearly love and would do anything for! People that are in my life for a season but grow to love, the ones where you can go months w/out talking and pick up as if you haven’t missed a day with each other. My blogging siestas that I have had the pleasure of meeting. God set that up and it was so much fun. Lisa, Kim, Tammy, Abby, Shelley, the list goes on. I just love how God brings us together!!
Love You,
Patty
Dear Beth,
I have just finished wrapping, to mail, a Christmas present to my precious “Beth Moore blog” siesta who lives up north. We have never met. We have e-mailed each other pictures of our families. We both love Jesus, and we have prayed each other through joys, sorrows, and crises during the past year as we bared our hearts to each other. She is younger than I, still raising children, but also has grown, married children and grandchildren, and has a heart as big as Texas.
I cannot wait to hug her neck in real life someday! I’m sure I will cry…so grateful for the privilege of knowing her so well. Amazing Grace….what a blessing! Merry Christmas!
Oh, how happy I am to have found this blog!
I am always so encouraged when reading your writings. You truly allow self to “shut down” and the words of Christ to flow through you. I don’t know if you will read this, but thank you for your yielding to His voice…you are such a blessing to many!
Beth,
God loves to use you and you loved to be used I am certain 🙂 I have been thinking about how I really love my church but I have not “clicked” with gals I thought I would or imagined friendships have not bloomed like I imagined. Your post has opened my eyes to realize that my relationships at church may not look like I thought they would and to just love and be loved by whomever.
I so look forward to your posts and truly feel loved by you though I have never seen you in person! Your love makes me ponder Christ’s love even more!
Thanks for being you in Christ,
Blair
One would be my very best friend, Mandy, who has had Juvenile Rheumatoid arthritis since age ten. I remember when I first found out she was sick I asked her to PLEASE not hold back if she needs to vent. She warned me, “be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!” And I did…and I do…and I love the openness we have because we know each others’ “stuff” so well. It is a gift.
I’m the grandaughter of a precious 85 year old Grama with Alzhiemers.
The daughter of a spit-fire GOD-fearing Texas Mama.
The wife of a man struggling with depression & life.
The mother of a special needs boy-who is more special than his needs.
and we all live together. Thank you JESUS for the fruits of the SPIRIT!! – & that they are for “whosoever will” – I WILL!!
But, we’re talking about unlikely relationships…..
How about the newly single mom in our special needs support group. She is alone – because of her special needs child, but calls after kids are in bed to talk about JESUS.
Or the home school mom raising 7 children, but calls to talk about JESUS.
Then there is the Occupational Therapist who treats my son – he lives the gay lifestyle – he thanks me that I live my faith before him, not shove it down his throat – So GLAD he noticed!!
None of these people understand the dynamics of my life, just as I will never completely understand theirs, but JESUS paves the way for all converstations – if we’ll let HIM.
There are so many unlikely relationships in my life – people I have little in common with – Yet, as soon as we talk about our Savior, or they see HIM alive in me, we’re standing together on common ground.
No matter the circumstances, if we’ll follow HIS leading, JESUS will bring so many people to us… so we can share HIM!
mistie woods – abilene
I have been blessed to have best friends since the teen years, and I have my friends from a season. Most importantly I have my pillar friends that I have so bonded with through and during your bible studies!
Beth, What a wild coincidence – or providence! I sat down to read your blog right after having the one of the best Christmas parties I’d ever hosted. It was mine and my husband’s “small group” from our church. We just started meeting as a group about three months ago. We are as diverse a bunch of people as you could possibly imagine, but every one of us considers our group family now. We are just crazy about each other – all 20 of us! We range in age from 22 – 62. We’re from all over the country and we walk a diverse set of paths. But we eat together, play games together, talk together, and study the Bible together like nobody’s business! Like you, I am amazed at this bunch God has put together. What a sweet and satisfying mystery!
Kay
My best friend and I are most unlikely loves! She was my home ec teacher in high school … I was a pathetic tomboy (it was providence that I ended up in home ec instead of shop!). She is a clothes lovin’ runner and I’m a sweathog at best! But she loves me anyway … She is the absolute picture of a Titus 2 woman in my life … and we were brought together by a prayer that she prayed … I turned 40 this year and we’ve been friends for 26 years! I marvel at God’s grace and mercy everytime I think of our relationship! There’s no shortage of blog space devoted to her influence in my life!
I actually had the audacity to tell God I had enough friends. And wouldn’t you know it, less than a month later a family moved in two houses down with kids the same age as mine. Well, you can’t ignore those type of folks. Needless to say, we have been two peas in a pod ever since. We are very different – she’s even louder than I am, which I can’t believe – but we are very, very close friends. I can’t thank God enough for her!
I wanted how the carma was comeing along?
I have a few freinds that I am close to that were not alike.I love the way you put things ,& how wounderful it is that you have freinds like that.I have freinds that I hae neve mmet, but some day will. God bless love sister in Christ Victoria from NC ps I feel close to all of you & pray for all of you.
Well, I would have to echo the blog community it is a strange relationship but a love so deep! I think about my siestas and pray constantly. They get to me. Also, if I were going to say an odd pair in Christ it would be me and the man! We are as different as they come but somehow God saw fit that we be together! 🙂 I go back to my prayer journals from 2001-2002 to see where God confirmed that he was the man for me to remind myself when I feel like we couldn’t be any more different! LOL!! 🙂
I have never posted anything here, but I read religiously, but I just had to share this one with you.
Talk about unlikely loves….I was walking to our children’s department this past Friday night to pick up my kids after a marriage conference and I heard this little voice say my name. I turned and looked at it was the 2 year daughter of some friends, not friends that we go and do things with, but are really friends at church. Her Mommy told me that for almost 2 weeks she has been praying for me. At bedtime, before every meal, snack time, in the morning and whenever else she decides to just stop everything and pray for me. I was overwhelmed and have just bawled every time I have thought about it since then. When I saw her today, I had to scoop the little thing up and hug her and she hugged back and patted me on the back and whispered my name. Is that a God thing or what?
I am a stay at home mother but the Lord allowed me to get involved in prison ministry. The ladies I serve are some of the best friends I have ever had the pleasure of making.
For a long time, a divorced single woman at church seemed to seek me out. She was quite overweight, on welfare, raising her child alone and about as opposite from me as possible. She was also a Democrat!! I, on the other hand, prided myself with a faithful husband, 3 charming homeschooled children, a ministry with women like me and a higher education. I declined all her invitations for years and carefully avoided even sitting near her. In 2002, soon after my first Beth Moore study (the first one written!), the Lord allowed my life to go into the mire, with only His Hand to hang onto. My pride was flattened and my heart was broken. When things settled down and time had passed, we had left church (for good, I claimed) and our lives were completely turned upside down. Then one morning in our local Staples store, that very woman bumped into me and took the time to ask me how I was doing. What resulted was a miracle. A friendship only the Lord could ordain, a return to the very congregation I had despised, healing and forgiveness that is pretty unbelievable, and slow, steady restoration. I am still in process, but this woman is my best friend in the world and I love her dearly. The hours we have spent together bless my socks off. And how we laugh now at what the Lord has done – in both our lives.
This is too long to print, but thank you for letting me share. Our God is faithful and true. He is I AM. I praise His name.
A neighbor of mine and I would probably never be friends were it not for two things: The Lord and our children. Those two things are about the only things we have in common, but they are more than enough and we have built a solid friendship upon them. We are so very, very different but our friendship has been one I’ve learned the most from because of our differences. The Lord definitely had some things in mind to teach me when he brought her into my life — which by the way happened when I was walking by her house. She opened her front door and said hello, asked if I was a stay at home mom, just so randomly. I’m so glad she did…3 years later she’s one of my closest friends.
Hey Beth and al ya sistas out there. beth your blog was just what my heart needed. and I had been thinking along the same tracks the last few days. Here is a little writing I journeled the other day. Hope it makes sense. Tee
You remember The short finger play as a child, “Where is Thumbkin?” ? Well, here is a copy to refresh your memory…
Where is Thumbkin
(Start with hands behind back)
Where is thumbkin?
Where is thumbkin?
Here I am (Bring right hand to front, with thumb up)
Here I am. (Bring left hand to front, with thumb up)
How are you today sir?
Very well, I thank you. (Wiggle thumbs as if they’re ‘talking’ to each other)
Run away (Hide right hand behind back)
Run away. (Hide left hand behind back)
Continue with rest of fingers:
Where is pointer? Where is middle man? Where is ring man? Where is pinkie? Where’s the whole family?
Well, anyway the other day, Something reminded me of some the finger plays that my mom played with me. I remember as a small child sitting there in awe as she made the thumb and each finger disappear. However, I always felt so sad cause each finger / thumb would run away. I thought actually that maybe it was because I had something to do with it somehow!!! Talk about abandonment issues!!! But, then I thought of another play she also did with me and that was Here is the Church…
Here’s the church,
(fingers interlocked; fingers inside)
And here’s the steeple.
(index fingers rise to a point)
Open the door
(keep fingers interlocked but turn palms up)
There are all the people.
(wriggle fingers)
So, the Church has been there even when my family ran away.
My co-workers and I lost one of your unlikely loves this past week. A 18 year old young man that we all came to love and adore was killed in a car accident on his way to work this past Tuesday. He was a wonderful young man that came out of a split home, whose mother was not very kind to him, but there wasn’t a soul on earth this young man wouldn’t help. The roads were not good that night because of snow and it just happened that another co-worker had stopped to help a lady stuck in the ditch and the young man came along and lost control hitting the other co-worker’s truck and dying instantly.
We are struggling to work as we adjust to life without Jesse, I ask you all for your prayers as this small overnight crew adjusts to life without Jesse. He didn’t care how much you made or anything else, he always wanted to know about you and how you were and took the time to listen. One of the rare geniune people that you meet in the world today.
Simona
I think the most unlikely friendship I’ve ever seen is Jesus and me. To think that after so many years of me turning my back on Him, He still loved/loves me, took me back and for heaven’s sake, He uses me. Blows my poor little mind every day!!
He, the almighty King of the Universe and me, a prodigal of such huge proportions! Mmmm-mmmm!! Sometimes it is almost too much for me and all I can do is fall on my knees and praise Him!
Leah
http://www.thepoint-leah.blogspot.com
Oh Beth, What an interesting subject: God ordained friendships. My best girlfriend and I have known each other for about 23 or 24 years. She was my senior high school sponsor, and if you would’ve told me then we’d be best girlfriends now I’d have thought you were crazy.
She is a coach and I am not athletic, she is antique savvy and I am more cottage living, she is Southern Gospel music, and I am bring on the Travis Cottrell, but God had a plan in bringing us together. The layers of love and compassion we share are as unique and different as our personalities. God is so awsome!! Thank you for the opportunity to share the love I have for the differences God has made in us and still made us best girly friends.
Love and hugs,
Petrii
I feel this blog is a friend…or made up of many friends…unseen friends who do care about you and you know will pray for you…how incredible!
And I have a special friend that goes to my church and she is the best friend anyone can have! And then, of course, my Jesus…whom I’m so glad he is my dearest friend because I talk to Him alot about my life and what’s going on in my life and what I should do….and He puts up with me because He loves me! 🙂
I’ve noticed that quite a few of the commenting Siestas have mentioned age-difference in their unlikely loves. My own daughter has asked me, “Mom, don’t you have any friends your own age?”. :o) Of course, I do, and I love them all! However, I DO also have very close friends that are either 15 years younger or older than me. It may be “unlikely”, but I’ve found it to be necessary in gaining perspective and staying grounded…not to mention that it’s God-ordained (Titus 2). Man, does God know what He’s doing, or what?!
It would have to be my neighbors. I am the only Christian “in the hood” – and at times, it can be a lonely place. God has placed two of my neighbors as “friends” – not the deep heart-friends, but a “we care about each other and will help one another” kind of friend. I’m not sure what I’d do without them as I walk through a life of mom-hood, and working outside the homehood–and unequally yoke-hood in my own marriage. God has provided huge helpmates to me in the most unlikely of places!
Amen and amen.
I continue to marvel at the women God has called to form the community in which I live. We are from all over the country and many different backgrounds. Yet we were all called to this same life of prayer and contemplation. And nearly 50 of us live together, in a really big house, and we get along (for the most part!). Truly, if that isn’t grace in action and the Spirit of God then I don’t know what is!
Beth, we love you, too.
Your sister – Lynn
Dear Beth,
My best friend is 15 years older than I, but she is such a God-send! We have exactly opposite personalities, but, we get along really well. She is such a servant of Christ and has taught me so much about my Christian walk by her example. I have no doubt that the Lord placed us in each other’s lives to “shore” each other up when we need it. But, I also just really enjoy being with her. We can sit in a room and not say a word, yet we both know how each other feels. Isn’t the bond that Christ brings to us so wonderful? It makes it possible for “unlikely” pairs to be joined together in fellowship with Him! I think all of our lives become “richer” when we can have these unlikely relationships. We see a perspective and dimension that we probably otherwise would never see. Praise be to God!
Terri in Alabama
Hi Beth,
I’m so excited that I found this blog of yours! You have blessed me so much with your teaching over the years–ever since my church did the study on David. Right now we are in the middle of Daniel. God has so anointed you and we are the ones who are blessed.
Without naming names, we are connected through mutual acquaintances, both with the Passion conferences and your home church. I hope someday we can meet in person.
If you ever bring your ministry to the Chicago area, I’m there! I wish you and your family the most blessed of Christmases.
I can’t resist. . .
You should have taken a picture with your new camera so that we could see this uncommon love!
I can’t wait til you get it up and running!
So true! Me and my friend were just talking about how friendship is so different with your sisters and brothers is Christ. You have to love a God who can draw all his children together, different as they may be!
I often think this very thing about the friends that God has placed in my life. Many of my closest friends I have met at the weekly Bible study I attend, and boy are these women probably the least likely any of my buddies from high school would expect for me to be friends with. I was a different person then! While I am a young mama of three, 28 yrs. old, I find myself being friends with many women who could be my older sisters or even my mother! I value their friendships more than any other! Friends that God place in our lives are the best friends of all!
Unlikely loves? That would be me + (insert your name here).
Before Christ, I was a bitter, cold-water dumping, wet-blanket laying, all-around killjoy. I was miserable and wanted to be sure you realized you were miserable to. And you usually were when I got done with you.
The fact my black heart now beats red and that anyone could look at me and say, “Love you, Lisa” (and mean it) is a testament to the regenerating, restorative, boundless love of the Father.
Great post, Miss Beth. It’s awesome seeing men be open to these kinds of friendships. Healthy hunter/cowboy/musician dude love warms the cockles of my bleeding heart. 🙂
Lisa
My best friend ans I. She lives in Maine, I live in South Carolina. She has Five kids, I have two. She is always pisture perfect. She loves her pink clothes and I love my comfy jeans. As different as we are we have one thing truly in common. We can spend hours(i’m not kidding) on the phone talking about the Jesus. We met and as different as we look side by side our hearts chief desire is the love we have for Christ. We pray together, share scripture together and do the same Bible studies.Then over the phone talk about what we have learned and what an amazing ride He is taking us on.
I am so blessed by this friend and so happy God choose me to be her friend.
Merry Christmas,
Tabitha