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.)
Yes, yes, yes! How amazing is our God! I have had many unlikely friends in the seasons of my life…I have had many weird stares from unknowing strangers who had no clue what blessings come from such seemingly-odd pairings. What blessings would’ve been missed if I hadn’t taken the Lord’s urging to get to know someone who may not have been on my friend-radar if it hadn’t been for Him.
This season as I listen over and over to Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God, I think of how unlikely all the people involved with Jesus’ birth and life were…a lowly carpenter, a scared teenager (and I have to tell myself a young pregnant girl would be scared with what was happening to and in her body even if it was Emmanuel in there), rough shepherds, dirty setting for a birth, Mary and Joseph alone – no midwives…none of this, including the Messiah who was born, were who Israel were expecting to be part of their saving grace.
We have an unlikely God who sees the beauty in all He has created – plus as we have said in other blogs, He likes surprises AND mystery AND He has a fabulous sense of humor. He is so good! He is just amazing! Thank you, Lord!
There is a woman at church that I’ve seen for years. I’ve been at FBC since 1977. But not the whole time. Noticed this woman then. I remember when I would see her I thought not someone I would be interested in knowing. A bit older and what looked to me as a religious person and not a fun person. But, since 2006 and being in the choir I’ve gotten to know her. A very tender person she is toward Jesus. When she prays she weeps. She is simple and I really love that. And when I start joking around and can be funny she cracks up with me! When she told me I was a friend to her, I was floored, because I think so highly of her now.
Last year I was in the christmas program at church, FBC (First Baptist Church). I noticed this young woman in her 20’s in the choir and in the program too. Not friendly, aloof and stand offish. One song we were to sing was the Little Drummer Boy. And I love that song. During intermission a whole set of drummers were out in the lobby doing a small drumming thing. The choir waiting, watching, preparing to go in to the second half. I was so stirred up by those drums (and i can be pretty demonstrative at times) that I started jumping pretending I was playing drums. Someone from the choir said to me, “were you in the high school band?” No! I wish I could play the drums!. Then this young lady I mentioned saw me and said, “You! You!, I want what you have!” From that point on we were like best buds. Just loving on each other each time we see each other. It was differently unlikely!
Allison
Jesus is so much the common denominator and with that, any thing can happen! I too have marveled over how God ordains a relationship. I’ve only been a Christian for 8 years of the 42 years that make up my life. In saying that, the last 8 years God has truly brought some incredible women into my path. One being my past housekeeper when I finally asked her to come to church, it was like the parting of the waters. Our relationship grew into a FRIENDSHIP! A year or so after that, her daughter accepted Christ and asked me to be her Spiritual Mother (God-Mother). What an honor, and only because of Christ!
Love you all, dearly!
Yolanda
As I grow older I find there is only one characteristic that I need in a friend, and that is a love and a devotion to Jesus. I have one friend who enjoys the things I do and other friends who hate those things and they are all friends to each other, the reason I think, is because all our eyes light up at the mention of Jesus. We all are in love with the same person and delight to share new things we find out about Him.
But, this should not be a surprise look at Jesus’s disciples. John, the disciple who Jesus loved, could not have been more different from Peter, who was also part of Jesus enter circle.
The mountain is the most beautiful when contrasted with the valley.
Love to all my friends, fellow lovers of Jesus,
Wanda, in Georgia
Beth,
That was the sweetest post. I met a treasured sister through this blog and it has amazed me how God has knit our hearts together. Though we have only met once briefly, I find myself praying for her and thinking of her like I have known her my whole life. Amazing–she is precious and so are you! Thanks for sharing so much with us.
There is a couple at church that we just really clicked with. We are in our 30’s and they are in their 60’s. They are incredible people of faith that are just actually so very cool! Seriously, we love hanging out with them! We have had them over for dinner. They had us (and the kids) out on their boat. We have gone out after church for lunch! We truly love this couple! They are the real deal!
Tony Evans did a sermon on the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ and likened it to (forgive me) mayo! Water and oil are the first two ingredients and we all know they don’t mix but you put the egg in there and it makes a beautiful thing!! (-: The Holy Spirit is our glue that holds us together! May He open our eyes so we make much of Him and little of us…
I know exactly what you mean. When you see this w/your very own eyes, it’s a beautiful thing indeed.
We went to China in Feb. to adopt and traveled w/10 other families. We experienced our babies being placed in our arms for the 1st time together, and spent our first 14 days as family side by side. These 10 families could not be more different. It’s really amazing how different we all are, but our babies spent the 1st 10 months of their lives together and we are forever linked. I love these other families with a deep and abiding love. People I would have NEVER gotten to know in my regular life. I am so grateful to God that he chose these specific families, it has made me see others, who are very different than me, in a new light. I love how God works, love it!
Two years ago we moved from AR to MD, big culture shock. When we found a church to attend I was eager to make new friends since I was a new mom and needed some mom support.
There was a woman that just rubbed me the wrong way but I couldn’t put my finger on why. I never expected to have a relationship with her. Later she asked me to join her and another mother with a child the same age as mine at her house for a Beth Moore bible study. I agreed and started to love her so much. We had bible study at her house every week. Not long after we finished the study she moved to Spain (her husband was a Navy doctor). I miss her now. God works is crazy ways and he used your bible study to make that friendship happen. We still stay in contact through my blog and email. Praise God for unlikely loves.
My unlikely love would definitely be my hubby. As Melissa (@ breath of life) said, our personalities are as different as night and day. Well, we started out that way, but after 24 years of marriage, we’ve blended quite a bit :o)
We just joined a new church this summer, and are so enjoying getting to know the people in our Sunday School class. For the most part, they all grew up in the same small town in Tennessee, and are wildly different. I love how we are all so unique.
Hugs,
Adrienne
It never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit can touch your heart to develop friendships that seem odd. Not even that – how about friendships with people you weren’t even sure about before your shared passion for the Word made Flesh made you Siestas! Now you would feel incomplete without them! God is so good!!!
This is so true and it brought tears to my eyes…along with Elaine’s post on her “fake” friendships. What a testimony you have with the Lord, sister! Isn’t He just the most awesome thing? Even when it hurts so bad you could pull your hair out, He will not stop doing what is best for the one He loves and has chosen. He is so faithful to perfect us. Man, you just have to love Him!
Your eyes are always open to recognize the work of our God.
I will just say that once I opened myself up to the possibility of the “unlikely love” thing, the opportunities just started pouring in to really love people deeply even if I didn’t have much in common with them, and the same thing has happened to my husband… Love you too.
I sometimes think that my husband and I are like Donny and Marie’s song–except he’s a little bit country and I’m a little bit rock n roll. He loves old fashion blue grass music–loves Kentucky Cats, wears boots,just a good ole boy, on my end–didn’t grow up in the country, i love the city, and all that goes with it. The one thing that joins us is Christ. He is the center of the joy of both of our lives. We minister as a team–he’s the fireball preacher and i’m the cheerleader on the side. That’s what makes life so grand is that God designs us to fit in His mold but with different flares and likes and dislikes but altogether!!
That’s what is great about the body of Christ.
I cannot tell you how many times Jesus has stirred in my heart a love so deep – it blindsided me – but for people that I really should hate – people that had struck to hurt…ya know what I mean? The real mind-blowing thing is how many people He has allowed to treasure and love me…because I know that in itself is a gift from Him! Thanks for the post – love you girl! Sunshine
The simplicity of God …isn’t it beautiful! He always shows up and He always delivers what we need! God has certainly brought some unlikely friends into my life for which I am forever grateful.Being single,my close friends are all married and have children. While we certainly have our differences, we try not to dwell on them instead we enjoy the things we have in common…God,family, friends, and shopping!!!Thanks for sharing about Keith and Travis’ friendship…it’s a wonderful example of God’s unfailing love for his children.
Blessings.
C. Anne
The dearest people to me in my life are a group of women I meet with at my church. I was asked to co-lead this group of “younger women” in the study of the Patriarchs that God blessed us with through you, Beth. Well us women, me 23 and the rest “39”+ have made fast friends. I am daily blown away at their vulnerability to let me, a child, into the honest depth of their hurts– broken marriages, sick children, career re-workings– and consider me a peer, a sister in Christ and not a daughter in Christ. My life, and most certainly my faith, is forever changed from gleaning Truth in their perspectives.
Amazing relationships brought together by Jesus… Hmm.. lets start with the HUSBAND!!! Totally opposite of me in EVERY way and yet we are crazy about each other…even when we drive each other crazy. We are two incomplete halves that Jesus made whole.
Then there is the best friend who comes from a completely different background and saved late in life…I marvel at Gods timing… when he brings friends to each other.
or how about the sister in law who has always managed to be a real “sister friend” and not like a relative at all.
I could go on and on… Meeting people on the other side of the world that I never saw before and because of Jesus feeling like I’ve known them my whole life…
Thank you Beth for these thoughts..
Heidi in Georgia
Elaine,
Thank you for your post. I, too, often tried too hard instead of allowing God to bring His chosen friendships – or sometimes ease one out of my life.
I’m having lunch with a new friend today…and we’re both named Beth…do you think God meant this message for me????
This story makes me laugh. My best friend and I started out as casual friends. God laid on my heart to ask her to be my accountability partner(while doing When Godly People do Ungodly Things)she agreed and after 7 years of that you no choice but to become close. Complete opposites doesn’t even begin to describe the two of us. I grew up as a goodie goodie hypocrite (that God miraculously saved) and she grew up doing all of the things I would have never ever done. I would have judged her to death (she was delivered also, but not until after many scars…her testimony is much like yours Beth). Robyn is 16 years older than me, but I could never tell. People ask if we are sisters all the time…sometimes we are asked if we are twins (she has RED hair and I have BLONDE – we look nothing alike). We laugh and say the Jesus in us makes us look alike. She is my God given sister and encourager. Our favorite thing is to visit you at your conferences. We have gone almost 1000 miles round trip to be fed by Jesus through you. We do a lot of feeding and desperately need to be taught sometimes. God has graciously given us a women and girl’s ministry that is a huge blessing and takes a lot of devotion. We plan to see you in Jacksonville and Atlanta this year. We are anticipating a great time! ~Aleah
Oh yes indeed, I have an odd couple for you. That would be me and most of my dear Christian girlfriends in this community. To say I have an unchurched background is nominating myself for understatement of the year. I had the most worldly upbringing possible, raised on MTV and Top40 Radio and R-Rated movies, pop-culture saturation. My dear friends in the small town I have moved to, come from very conservative Christian homes, many of them only a generation away from the Mennonite communities that populate this area of Ontario, most of whom shun any sort of worldly entertainment.
So my favorite example of this is when I was going on a girls weekend with these lovely sisters of mine, and I put in one of my Beatles cds (which, if you read a previous post of mine, all of my secular stuff is on hold right now as I am trying to allow God to guide me on what is acceptable and what isn’t, but I digress) into the cd player in the car. None of the girls knew who the Beatles were. The BEATLES for crying out loud. Ok, so we’re listening to the cd, and I then take it out and put in Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits. Two songs in one of my dear, dear friends leans forward and says, “I’m sorry, Nicole, but could we listen to something other than the Beatles now? How about some Casting Crowns?”
Bless her cotton socks, she didn’t know the difference between the Beatles and Frank Sinatra!! It is a wonderful example of how different I am in these superficial ways from most of my girlfriends, we have such different beginnings but we are so bonded in Jesus Christ and that bond is much stronger than anything else. It’s a miracle indeed. 🙂
Ooh! I have one! My husband and I are artists… he an art director and me, an illustrator. Our best friends in this ND town are quite hilariously a Cow Scientist PhD and a Physical Therapist/Gymnastics Coach. Women… well, we all can get a long. But I get the biggest kick out of our husbands… one of the most gifted designers/artists I’ve ever known who you’d think could care less about cow rumen and cow pies and cow food… and one of the most brilliant scientists who you’d definitely think wouldn’t even sneeze in the direction of anything art. Yet somehow, God has brought them together as great chums. I marvel at this often! Our God is so wonderful! Oh how I love Him!
I just got back from taking my step grandma to the airport after a MOST WONDERFUL visit. So of course when you mention unlikely loves, I think of her and my grandfather. My grandfather passed away a month ago, after 25 years of marriage to a most unlikely love. He was 27 years her elder which unfortunately brings immediate judgement from those who don’t know them. But those who do know them know that they were a match made in heaven. Their differences in age and personality were used by God to touch the lives of more people than I could even count. They lived and traveled many years in their RV and were on a mission to reach out and witness to all they came in contact with at campgrounds, on the road, ANYWHERE! With my grandpa gone, a part of her is gone, but she is living day by day with God’s grace in her “new normal”. Thanks for letting me share.
Kelli in Ohio
how truly beautiful is the body of Christ. I am living in nepal and I have found our fellowships on sunday nights with other “m” from all different companies and countries to be an amazing blessing. God promises that he sets the lonely in families in Psalms. I left an amazing body of Christ in america to come serve God in a foreign land.. but yet God has placed me in a family. We are very different from eachother… but I was just thinking last night as we sat around at our fellowshiph by candlelight (it was load sharing night, no electricity) that it was like the early church.. sharing our lives in common bond to spread the gospel. From a tennesse girl like me, to a hippy girl in dreadlocks, to a girl from uganda.. we are all here serving GOD in a dark place.
Travis and Angie are my favorite praise and worship musicians and knowing both your families through the years from Bible studies and conferences it thrills my heart to know those two guys are so close!
My odd relationship with my prayer partner actually developed from being in one of your Bible studies together about 4 yrs ago!!
We are total opposites with two things in common, we love the Lord and we love your Bible studies and conferences and have traveled all over the southeast together going to Living Proof Live. It has been one ofthe richest freindships I have been blessed with in my years!! So thanks for being the go between for God to bring us together!!!
Hi, Beth!
My unlikely love would be my former neighbor, Anne. She did her best to be invisible, but God chose my husband and I to love her with HIS love! She tried to sell her house probably three different times, but God kept her here until she made her relationship with him a priority. I will never forget her beaming face when she came over to tell us that she was right with God and to thank us for praying. She was able to sell her house about six months later and then was called to heaven two months later through a car accident.
Thank you Jesus for unlikely loves!
Dawn
My “unlikely love” is my dear friend Lory- we met as counselors at church camp, she is 20 yrs older than me and her oldest child is almost my age, but we have become the CLOSEST friends- she calls me her “Jonathan” we are two spirits knit together in our souls. We are an unlikely pair- but love each other so dearly. She is an example and an inspiration to me…especially as I am just starting out raising my daughter (who’s 2) and she has her 3 girls who are 17, 19, and 21! She has so much to teach me, but we also learn from each other. I thank God continually that He brought us together on that bus heading to church camp- we went to minister to the youth…and ended up meeting a lifelong friend and being ministered too!! GOD IS GOOD!
I’ve had several of these “Jesus misfits” friendships! One of my newest is “Lucy” aka Tracy from SC. We “met” thru this blog as a matter of fact. I mentioned I was going to see you in Columbia, SC on a comment, she then linked to my blog to say she’d be there too and we’ve spoken at least 2-3 times a week since then! We love Jesus most, our men and our families next and we LOVE YOU, Beth!! Our lives have so many things in common and we’ve encouraged each other SOOO many times that we know it’s a “God-thang!” All this and we’ve actually only been face to face ONE TIME! AMAZING how God can allow us to open ourselves up to one another because we know He’ll guard and protect us!
Another misfit is my sweet friend at church Lisa. We’re so much alike that it has to be Jesus that keeps us together otherwise we’d HATE each other!! teehee We have a lot of things in common, we have a VERY similar (twisted) sense of humor, similar taste in clothes, we’re both musically gifted (if we do say so ourselves! haha) but more than all those things we have a wild love for Jesus! We meet every other Monday night to pray in our prayer room at church and it’s not 5 minutes til we’re both on our faces ballin’ like idiots and then laughing like we’ve lost our minds! AND we both LOVE that God made us that way!
We’re all just a bunch of misfits in a world that isn’t our home!! Praise Jesus!
Ms Beth,
I have to say the most unlikely relationship is this whole blogging friendship. I have met the most wonderful women. We have talked on the phone, met in person, prayed for one another, cried for each other, laughed together, encouraged one another and just truly enjoyed growing that relationship. I had no idea that starting a blog for my friends and family would turn into such a true JOY!!
I honestly love these women and CAN NOT WAIT to meet them in San Antonio.
God is so GOOD!!
We love you and appreciate all you, Amanda, Melissa and everyone at LPM do!!
God bless,
Kim
Ohh, I have a story for you. I have trouble writing my name in one paragraph, so I’m doing my best to keep it brief! 🙂 My Lisa and I met when I was in middle school. How? She was my awkard redheaded pubescent boyfriend’s mother! He and I grew tired of each other fairly quickly, but, much to his dismay, it was after she had led me to the love of my life: Jesus. Lisa took me to church and was there when I fell on my knees and begged my Lord to lift me back up. In the twelve plus years we’ve known each other, we have been to two Beth Moore conferences (I had to say it), I’ve gotten married, and had three babies, the last of which was my Miller Grace who God was gracious enough to carry home after just five days. Lisa, though she has moved several states away now, jumped in the car and came to my side… not only because she loves me, but because her youngest son has gone home to Jesus in the time we’ve known each other, too. An awkward middle school student and a bossy mother. Only God could have ever known we would be the best of friends, who share everything… even grief over babies awaiting us in Heaven.
We Love you too!
🙂
In the midst of trying to “fit in” at church, navigating the maze of women’s events in the attempt to find my place, I have met some unlikely loves. I am a 36 year old wife and proud mother of 2 boys – 7&9. Because of a ministry that was faithfully put into my hands, I now count several women who have experienced more life than I have, as friends. All three could be my mother. I run to put my arms around them when I see them, have cried in their arms, and have laughed until my sides hurt when in their presence.
So, to you, Jan Freeman, Joy Conway, Cathie Kirsch…..I thank you for loving me in a way that has made me a better woman in every way. I thank God often for those “unlikely loves” that can change your life!
This is an easy one. For some reason, I always attract friends who are nothing like me. My dear sisterface always shakes her head and laughs at my eclectic friendly group gatherings. She always says “you and your friends are like night and day, I don’t understand these relationships.†Probably half of my closest friends are non-believers…half of which are pretty close to not being in the non-Christian group. 😉 I guess that is the evangelist in me. Anyway, one of my closest friends, while we do not share many commonalities, is the best person to spend time with. We love cabin time…that’s our link. Our cabins are places where we can just be us and respect each other’s differences. If we eat…I say grace. If I say “what a pretty blue bird,†she reprimands me because they are not blue birds; they are Steller’s Jay’s (I still call them blue birds just to get her going). I fish, she sunbathes; and I sit silent…quietly chuckling as she bounces off the walls and bellows out show tunes.
I deeply love my friends because they are who I am not, and I learn from them (sometimes learn too much), and every one of them know that as much as I care for them, Christ loves them more…and they are ok with that.
My unlikely relationship is with my husband. I am a professional woman with a college education – boring, really. Always did the right thing, never any trouble… and I married the most fun redneck who hunts and fishes and spits. Easter Sunday means he wears his good jeans. I’m crazy about him and he won’t let me take myself too seriously. God is so good to not answer my prayers to give me who I thought I wanted. Instead, I have the most down-to-earth man who loves me unconditionally. For added fun, God gave him two more girly-girl daughters to live with besides me!
My husband and I share in a ministry that is full of unlikely loves. Take our relationship with a young minority woman with three small girls and a little boy on the way. She and my husband (who is definately old enough to be her father) gab for hours on end about everything you could imagine. She is family. We love her like our own and we feel like we have 3.5 grandchildren.
Love to you and your family and all my siesta’s!
Kristi B.
How sweet Keith is!
I have had several people come & go in my life. Special people…special situations how we’ve met, but mine has to be my husband. His is a sad story, but we never would have met had it not happened and his dad would probably have passed away a lost man had this not happened.
My husband was seven and had four older siblings and one younger when his mother was killed in a car accident. Picturing his dad at that funeral with all of those children still makes me cry to this day. My husband’s mom attended church and took the kids, but their dad never went. He was a very different man then, than when he died a few years ago. After she was killed he gave his life completely to the Lord and through a pastor who moved to the town I live in, eventually his family moved here too. He and I started going to church together when we were in Jr. High. (we were just great friends until our jr. year in high school) His dad (who has since passed away) had the most remarkable testimony. I remember one day he came to our house and I was the only one there and he told it to me. So sweet!! He met and married my husband’s step mom. I am very close to my mother-in-law & we are blessed to attend church with her still. She, by the way was in her early thirties when she met my husband’s dad and she was not ever able to have children. God blessed her to marry this man with all of these children and be a blessing to them and to me. (not an easy job for a woman used to living alone etc.)
I still feel so sad sometimes when I think about those kids losing their mother, but I know she is smiling down from heaven and seeing us and our family praising God and knowing we will see her again someday.
God works in ways we cannot see at the time.
I do not usually post as “anonymous” but my unlikely love seems to be turning more and more unlikely than love. My husband and I have had a hard marriage… we are complete opposites…. grew up TOTALLY different (I’m a Southern gal and he’s from Cali) we just can’t seem to get it together. we are growing farther apart though neither of us want to. we are just too lazy to try to fix it…. some prayers sure would be a blessing.
Oh Beth to talk about old couples (friends)that God has put together. What an extraordinary time for your post. Saturday night the some of the closest friends in my life came to my house for a early Christmas gathering. First off there is Troy (whose pic is on my blog) we have been friends for 4 yrs. Then came along Duke and Melanie they moved here from California 2 yrs ago complete opposites (we’re southern and their from California that is just a little joke we have) and then a little over a year ago came Kevin and Christie the youngest couple of the bunch. Since I am keeping it short I want go into any detail on the difference because it could take all day, but the one thing that counts that makes our friendship great is that we all are madly in love with our Lord Jesus.
Also, I really enjoy that group of different friends and siesta that I have met and read about since I started blogging. Thanks Beth if it hadn’t been for reading your blog for the first time I would not have met all these nice ladies that have a true love for God.
Becky
Attalla, AL
Mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws are supposed to be natural enemies, right? Not in my case! My husband and I have been “together” since we were teenagers, and his mother is a great woman of God. I was already a Christian when we were dating, and had grown up in a Christian family, but SHE had the family that I really wanted someday — loving, always accepting, always laughing together. On top of that, they took me in like one of their own when I started dating their son. She treated me like I was her own daughter.
When I was in college I worked the night shift. Their house was just a few miles from my work, and my future husband and I went to the same college. So, I would get off work at 7am, drive to their house, wait for my guy to finish getting ready, and then we would carpool to the university together. Every morning — every SINGLE morning — that I entered their house, I was met with the same scene. My future mother-in-law in her bathrobe, sitting in her favorite well-worn chair, her reading glasses on and a steaming cup of coffee on the table next to her. She always had her Bible in her lap, deep in thought…or prayer. She loved Jesus so much…still does.
In my mind, I connected the vision of her in that position with her Lord, to the woman she was and the family she had, which I wanted to have so badly when I “grew up”. The Lord taught me through her that if I was going to cultivate a wonderful, strong family of my own someday, it was going to have to start with me in that same worshipful position. My mother-in-law has been the number one spiritual influence in my life, and I absolutely adore her. We’re strange friends, considering the in-law relationship that a lot of gals have, and I’m so thankful for it!
I love you, too, siesta teacha and firend. I was just talking with one of my unlikely loves… a woman old enough to be at least my aunt if not my mother. She has a daughter 10 years younger than I. We laughed at ourselves when we realized that the age doesn’t seem to make the difference, it is the relationship with Christ that draws us in. She is one of my dearest friends, the person I consider to be my best friend in recent years in some 20 years my senior and she has children my age. But, we relate on such deep levels with Christ in common. I no longer attend church with her and — well, she was my co-worker then as well… We saw each other everyday and talked often – even on weekends. I miss her – I think I’ll call her after I get off the net… Blessings indeed.
Michelle
My best friend and I are an unlikely pair because we are so different! But we’ve been friends for 20 years now! I also have to say the blogging community of Siestas that I’ve made friends with (even though I don’t have a blog).
I think about unlikely loves often because my best friend and I are such unlikely loves.
We met three years ago on a missions trip to help after the Asian tsunami. She was a baby Christian with an abusive marriage and two kids. I was an older Christian, single and recent college graduate. She was high-class, the wife of a dentist. And I was nearly broke. Our past couldn’t have been more different.
Our relationship has been through good and bad times – the worst being when her husband took his life a year ago. But what God has done in both of our lives since then has been amazing.
We’re looking forward to what the future holds for both of us (including godly husbands and children!) – and so thankful to God for bringing us together.
I too love how the Lord takes away those sterotypes and just lets us love one another. Two of my best friends in our church are my go to people when I have a need. One is ten years my junior and the other is 20. (we celebrated our 40th, 50th and 60th birthdays in the last year and 1/2. Guess whos the oldest) We have the best time together and age rarely enters into it. Carrie keeps me up on all the latest music and Patty makes me feel like we are the same age.The only thing that depressed me was when I found out that Carrie’s husband & my son played basketball against each other in Jr high… (I was a young mother!!)God bless you Beth, I feel as though you are one of those friends as well.
Looking forward to the day we can ALL be together.
Merry Christmas
PS the King Ranch Chicken is fantastic!!!
My bff 😉 and I met under the worst of circumstances…in a cancer clinic (she and my daughter were in treatment together). And as strange as this sounds, the minute I spoke to her, I knew she’d be in my life forever. We were an unlikely pair. She was much younger than me, single, no children. I was in my early thirties, happily married and a mom to two little girls. But we had a shared love of Jesus that bonded us like holy glue and we were inseparable. She went to live with our savior almost two years ago and I miss her every single day. But you know, I was right about that first day we met. We will be together forever, we just have to patiently wait on the reunion that we know will come some day 🙂
Love you too Beth. Merry Christmas!!!
Beth – your insight is precious. I can just visualize everything you wrote even to seeing you ALL in the “pew” at church yesterday morning! (And that was without a digital picture. I told you your words paint vivid imagery for me!)
Oh, I just love Travis Cottrell – his CD’s are in 5 of the 6 CD slots in my car stereo right now. (The 6th one contains Christmas music I am learning for choir.) I listened to Shackles all the way in to work…really really loudly! 🙂 So good – so good!
My precious pairing is with a woman at church that assists me with the Women’s Ministries. She is Cindy, I am Jan (No Brady Bunch here!) She is blond, I am brunette; she rides a motorcycle, I will not-cannot-scared to; her husband is not a believer, my man is the worship pastor; she doesn’t do “makeup and hair” except for special occasions, I fix up to go to the mailbox; she’s in the details, I’m for the big picture; she’s behind the scenes and I’m at the microphone. We are as different as daylight and dark, but I Love her to pieces!!!
The bond for us is JESUS and a desire to minister to the precious women in our church and community. It just doesn’t get any better. God is so good to me.
PS: My man gave me some beautiful black lizard-skin cowboy boots for my 50th birthday last month! Hal-lu-jah!
I LOVE YOU BETH!
Jan
Isaiah 58:11
First of all, the group of women on my side bar have all become such encouragers. Being the wife of a youth minister I don’t usually have the luxury of a lot of close “real” friends. For some reason the people are just so distant (I wrote about this on my blog today)
But I have started to find a friend in this one lady at our current church. I wouldn’t have thought the two of us would have “that” much in common. We dress totally different. I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of gal and she is always dressed “to the t”. The only thing I had found that we had in common at this point, other than we both love the Lord, was that we were both BIG supporters of our youth group.
Anyway, we were sitting in the sanctuary last Thursday night, practicing for our singing Christmas tree and the two of us started talking. For SOME reason the conversation ended up on candy and chocolate (if you can imagine that!) In our conversation we found out that both of us LOVE, the same Movie Candy….Junior Mints, Chocolate Covered Raisins, and anything with Dark Chocolate. Then she said to me….”Okay, one more thing, and if you like this, then this is all too crazy…Do you like chocolate covered cherries?” I died laughing, and told her “YES!! But I only have them around Christmas.” And she said, “Me Too!!!”
I thought we were an unlikely pair, but turns out we are “Two Peas in a Pod!”
Beth,
Our unlikely relationship is me, the gal who has 3 colors in her hair, a diamond stud in her nose who is more comfortable in high heels and Lucky jeans than anything in the world.. .and adores Jesus… and some of my praying friends are the Amish.. in our small community in Indiana. They give me raw milk, eggs, milk and love.. oh how they love! And they love me! What a hoot, I bring out the ‘joy’ of Jesus they tell me.. and oh, I know Jesus loves this unity! Praise HIS name! Divertisy in harmony, His way.
Sandi Krakowski
Differences can keep the relationships exciting. I have a friend, she and I are as different as the extreme textures of sand paper. She is a well known leader in the community, higher class of living, and gorgeous. I on the other hand, sqeak out a meger living, am unknown. But we both adore our God, and love each other. We are a GOOD balance for each other, and NEVER run out of things to sit and chat about (for hours) She views much of life from her fast paced jet-setting, where I view from my quiet slow pondering. God is good to expose us to qualities that we can sooo appreciate and not grow tired of.
After reading todays blog, I ran upstairs and got my journal so I could share what I wrote just last week…My life is not normal. I find myself in countless situations thinking “this is not normal” “most people don’t do this”. This morning I sat across the table from a beautiful girl, who less than a year ago, was a stripper and a prostitute and listened as she spoke of God’s provision and His great love for her. My gaze is fixed upon her gorgeous eyes and flawless complexion, she’s radiating Jesus. All I can think is, why? Why would I get the honor of spending time with her? Why does God entrust one like me with one as precious as she? The God who created the universe and every single thing in it changed her life completely and for some unknown reason allows me to be a part of it! Who am I lord that you are mindful of me?
Mama B,
Well I have been blessed with one INCREDIBLE best friend to do life and this Jesus thing with. Our personalities are actually not that different, but she is twice my age (shhh!!!) which from the confused looks I get, I can tell is not typically the norm!
Our friendship was born out of what was probably the most horrible, nightmarish time in her life…and our hearts were glued together because of it. She has seen my heart at its ugliest and loves it anyway. Her heart is the most precious thing to experience, and if I have an ounce of the Jesus that she does when I die I’ll be doing alright. She is the spitting image of an angel and the definition of sweet.
Her nickname to me is ‘Orange’, but you know her as Kathy Johnson (we sure know how to pick a best friend huh, Mama B?!?!) 🙂
Love her…and you…