Good Monday morning, my darling Siestas! I pray you had a weekend full of the grace and truth of Jesus Christ! I am sitting here in my sweaty work out clothes, not quite ready to jump in the shower and hit the pavement to work. I usually keep my adorable namesake on Monday mornings while AJ has some alone time with Jackson in an activity class they attend together. The class for today was canceled so I don’t have a single toddler in my den saying “Bibby? Bibby? Bibby?” every few seconds. Those words are music to my ears so it’s way too quiet around here this morning. I’m usually pretty lazy about getting into work mode on a Monday because I’m babysitting but this time I’m holding back a bit because my physical body feels like God has borrowed it for a quick marathon in Lexington.

There is not enough I can say about our Lexington group. They were just fantastic. We received some hard words from Jeremiah this weekend but those of us willing to open ourselves up to them also got to stick our heads in the fountain of Living Waters (Jeremiah 2). I will not forget that gathering for a very long time.I got to Lexington a day early because the Friday flight landed too late to take the risk. My hotel room looked out over the very center where we’d meet the next day. This was the sunset Thursday evening over that place. I stood at the window and praised God for it and asked for it to be a sign of His goodness to us and a deposit on the full measure of what He wanted to accomplish the next two days.

If you got a chance to catch the previous post, Rich has outdone himself by adding some video to the LPL picture-recaps. I watched it a few minutes ago and nearly cried. By the way, Rich’s beautiful, smart wife Gretchen, and their six month-old Polly were there this weekend. Polly is the cutest little thing. I’m just crazy about that family. Rich’s two girls may or may not have been the final shot in the video. Don’t call him shameless.I got a little Polly time myself. Go right ahead and call me shameless.

Well, I guess I was being prideful because I can’t get this picture to turn the right way. Laughing so hard. It’s saving straight up but it won’t insert straight up. I don’t care. I’m leaving it. Trying to compose myself as I keep looking myself in the eye, sideways.

I got home around 8:00 PM or so Saturday then woke up the next morning to a wonderful Sunday. My son-in-law Curtis was preaching in all our services in Pastor Gregg’s absence and I do dearly love to sit under CJ’s great teaching. Our terrific Pastor will return from his one-month summer sabbatical next Sunday and CJ will start teaching the Wednesday “Mid-link” Bible study again with the new Fall semester. It was an especially great day because our whole section was back in our corner of the sanctuary, all worshiping together with such unspeakable joy. In a church the size of mine (the sanctuary holds 3300 people), you have to go out of your way to plug in and feel like a part of things. You’re not likely to feel a close connection with the whole group but you can get to know a significant, life-changing part of it in a Bible study (Sunday school) class or something similar.

A bunch of us have been worshiping in the same general section of the sanctuary for years and, as I’ve told you before, our ages range all the way from young children to great grandparents. It’s a pretty broad section so there are many whose names are unknown to me but their familiar presence is so precious to me. The summer means travel so it’s been several months since it was full to the brim with this close community of folks. We all hugged and hugged yesterday and much of the time during praise and worship, I could not get the songs out of my mouth for the lump in my throat. And then my son-in-law got up and brought us a great word while I sat beside my firstborn, a young wife and mother pursuing God in the glad and chaotic mix of toddlerhood and preschool. My church is so dear to me. A good, sound local body of believers is absolutely crucial as we take this pilgrimage of faith together. It is God’s way. We were meant to do this together.

Right before the service, my sweet sister in Christ, Allison, came up to me with a big hug and a gift. I love Allison. I love her for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that we’ve made it through some differences. She has been in my classes for years and not necessarily always liked them or agreed with them. For starters, she is a King James gal and I use a number of different translations. One of us is single and the other married with kids and grandkids, so our lives also just tend to play out on separate planets at times it seems. Satan would liked to have caused some really hard feelings between us a couple of times because neither of us is very shy about expressing opinions but he simply did not prevail. And each of us would give glory to Jesus Christ alone for that. Each of us is weak in our natural selves but we genuinely love each other. Yesterday she said, “I made something for you” and placed in my hands five of the most beautiful greeting cards you have ever seen in your life. What makes them so special is that she paints the designs herself. Allison is tremendously gifted. She painted a picture of my best dog buddy of 18 years, Sunny, and it will be on my wall till I’m old and…(did I nearly say gray???). Here are a couple of the cards:

Aren’t they gorgeous? Now, do you want to hear the best part? She said with a sheepish grin, “There is a verse inside each one.” I said, “Oh, Allison, I love them! Yes, I’m so glad to have them! I will use them judiciously and for very special occasions!” Then she said, “And they’re in King James.” And we both bent over laughing. I love that girl. She’s fought a lot of obstacles in the power of Christ’s Spirit to live in the light of freedom. So has her friend Beth.

Because I know you’re going to ask to see it:

That makes me want to cry. I said good bye to that faithful friend two years ago and then I got my new little buddy, Star, a month later. To brighten the mood again, I’ll show you another gift I got recently. It’s sitting right by my kitchen sink this very moment. THIS, my dear Siestas, is one reason why you’ve gotta love women’s ministry:

The Scripture written on it is the main verse from “So Long Insecurity.” It’s Proverbs 31:25 in case you need to remember today that Christ has clothed you in strength and dignity.

Well, that’s my Monday morning hello! Good grief! You’ve made me late for work! I’ll leave you with this verse…from Allison…in the King James.

I love all of you dearly.

PS. Melissa, that was a fabulous post on Friday. Absolutely fabulous.

Good morning, All! I pray that all of you are prospering in the promised presence of Christ this day. He is so faithful to us, isn’t He? I am packing my suitcase and will board a plane to Lexington, Kentucky today for our Living Proof Live tomorrow and Saturday. The flight in on Friday was too late to risk a delay so I’m going early to shut myself in a hotel room and study. In 28 years of speaking at conferences and women’s retreats, God has never let me miss one due to a travel disaster. Would you believe I’ve only missed one over illness? And had I not been in emergency surgery, I am just crazy enough to have shown up anyway. I recall asking the doctor before he put me under if they could just give me enough pain medication to make it through the event and then I’d come right back to the emergency room when it was over. He just said, “Start counting backwards from ten to one.” I bet it would have been a particularly funny women’s retreat but, of course, we’ll never know.  There have been times when the plane was so delayed that I walked straight onto the platform and other times my bags didn’t make it but God has always purposed to get our team there on time. Sometimes barely but in those times He seemed even more faithful to supply His Word and His peace. I love Him so much. I marvel over a God whose strength is only made more perfect through our weakness.

Jesus is enough for you and me again today, Sisters. He is our Portion. Let’s leave tomorrow to Him. Give us this day our daily bread, Lord.

I cannot wait to see the group God is putting together in Lexington, Kentucky. Trav, the team and I have had a blast in Christ every time He’s sent us to Kentucky. I can still tell you every topic we’ve studied with people in that great State and can see the insides of each auditorium in my mind like the events happened yesterday. It is all and only Jesus. In my quiet time this morning, He reminded me out of John 6:63 that “the flesh counts for NOTHING. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

Oh, Jesus, come to each of us today in this blog community with the power of Your effectual Word and breathe spirit and life into our souls. We need you so much.You are our Everything.

NOW, if any of you would like to come to the Lexington Living Proof Live tomorrow and Saturday but simply cannot afford a ticket, that’s what our Siesta Scholarship Fund is ALL ABOUT! 20 comp tickets are just begging to be claimed. Please call the Living Proof Ministries office toll free at 888-700-1999 and ask to speak to Susan or Kimberly and they’ll get you fixed up! We would be delighted to serve you.

Lord have mercy, I’ve got to pack! I’ll talk to you wonderful things after the weekend. I think Melissa’s going to hop on here and say hi before then. Stay in the Word! Christ will make it spirit and life to you!

Greetings from the road, my dear Siestas! Well, to say that Keith Moore and I are having an adventure is our official understatement of the year. If you watched the SSBS wrap up (Tuesday’s post), you know that Keith and I have done something highly uncharacteristic: pulled out of our driveway in a large rented RV and hit the road with little more than an atlas and two rather sizable hounds.

My coworker, Sabrina, was going over my August calendar with me about a month ago and said, “You have a week of vacation coming up and you should take it. Beth, the rest of us take actual vacations. Some of us even take three weeks a year. Where could I make you and Keith some reservations?”

So I began to think and think and talk it over with my man. Ever since my surgery, I just haven’t been able to work my physical body into the ground like I used to. To tell you the truth, that’s a gift from God. He probably never meant for us to work as hard as I have worked in the last twenty years. This time, I knew I wanted real time off. But where? Keith’s spiritual gift is giving so I knew he’d give me any kind of vacation I wanted but there’s one little factor that grossly limits our choices: we want our two little buddies with us.

That’s when this wild idea hit us. My man has been trying to get me to do this RV thing for years but I couldn’t quite picture, for instance, washing and drying my big hair in it. Believe it or not, that was one of my lesser worries. My greater worries are not suitable for public conversation but as you can clearly conclude, I decided to try my best to overcome personal obstacles. Novices that we are, we’ve had moments of questioning our sanity (like, for instance, at night when we can’t actually sleep in it) but, overall (during daylight hours), we are having a blast! Keith will not let me drive but I am the world’s best map-reader and a sight-seeing enthusiast so we make a great pair.

I will just give you a few highlights (or low lights depending on how much you appreciate trivia) because I can’t stay on here very long. I’m only getting this opportunity because Keith hardly slept all night and has now finally fallen asleep and snoring loud enough, God love him, to rock the entire RV. I may need to take some Dramamine. (Did I spell that right?? Spell check is letting it pass but, for the life of me, I have never noticed the “drama” in Dramamine before. That I have not overdosed on it is a wonder.) Geli and Star are also staring a hole through me like, “Is this what we came here to do? Seriously? Just sit here in the RV? Do you know what kind of good smells there are out there right now??”

We drove over 10 hours on the very first day from Houston to Caprock Canyon State Park in north Texas. At half past midnight, we backed the RV into a space that, lo and behold, had a broken electrical outlet but we didn’t realize that was the problem. We thought either our RV was malfunctioning or, more likely, we were inept. We blessed the other campers by sleeping (all 4 hours) with the generator going. But when we were able to drink enough coffee to peel our eyelids off our eyeballs, these were a few of the scenes around us:

Can you believe that’s in TEXAS??? Absolutely breathtaking. We loved it so much. Then, yesterday we got back on the road and spent all day spying gorgeous countryside on our way out of the Lone Star State and into New Mexico. Geli and Star were in dog heaven. They love traveling this way and, as I tweeted yesterday, they suggested we buy this thing when we get home and drive around Houston in it. Finally, we understand their needs, they said. This was the scene behind us much of the day:

It’s a wonderful thing to have an I-phone on a road trip. At all times I can find the nearest Starbucks. I can also find charming restaurants. This was one of them yesterday.

Keith got a big old plate of beef enchiladas, New Mexico style, with red chili gravy that made your eyes water. I had a hamburger steak because Kimberly, our darling young waitress, said it was good. I had a hard time overlooking the sandwiches because the menu said all of them were made with homemade bread but I’d had enough sandwiches in the RV to let that dream go. As God would bless me, my hamburger steak came with a side of “Texas Toast” (thank you again, Texas!) that was, you guessed it, made out of HOMEMADE BREAD. It was two inches thick and grilled on both sides in butter. I could bawl about it but, of course, I’ve had only about six hours of sleep in two days. I’m telling you it was the Texas toast of my life right there in New Mexico. As we paid out, our waitress said, “Ma’am, can I ask you a question. Is there any chance your name is Beth?” Turns out her Daddy is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in that town. It was a delightful encounter and we thanked God for it.

We made it to our second destination about 9:00 PM last night and will be here one more night.  I have on a jacket and I nearly froze to death last night. All my Houston home-girls hate me right this minute.

I’ll catch back up with you in the next day or two but I’ll leave you with the most surreal sight of the trip thus far. We purposely chose the scenic highways that looked like long ropes through ranch lands as broad as tongue could tell. Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado are all famous for those. We saw beautiful horses and tons of cattle and that was just in Texas. Once we crossed the first border, we hit New Mexico where the deer and the antelope play. And seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day. Home, home on the… Sorry, Siestas. I’m just overtired. To get back to my story, before we left Texas, we passed by a typical wide-open pasture with horses frolicking and manes flowing in the wind. Nothing unusual about that except that these were all miniature horses. The kind that would stand about as tall as my waist. No, not Shetlands. Miniatures. Like stuffed animals. In herds. I have never seen anything like it. We weren’t at a place where we could pull of the road with our big Daddy or I would have taken you a picture. It was the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen because everything else about the scene was absolutely normal. It was like the horses didn’t even know they were supposed to be taller than three feet. Suddenly, I pictured a remake of The Wizard of Oz set in Texas instead of Kansas. Pitch those red slippers, my little pretty! Put on some hot pink ropers and follow that yellow brick road, Girlfriend. You’re about to have the ride of your life.

These are the things that amuse me.

I’ve enjoyed saying hi to you, Siestas! My man just got up and, from the look of things, I better put on another pot of coffee. We love you. More than anything, we love loving Jesus with you. I am asking Him to refresh our souls and grant us some sweet revelation while we’re on this trip. I pray the same for you, Darling Things, whatever you may be doing right now. He can meet with us as easily while we fold clothes and wash dishes. It’s all about whether or not we ask Him for eyes to see.

I’ll talk to you soon!

Every now and then I know that a blog post is going to have such fun comments, I am almost giddy writing it. My “french tipped nails” (I saw that somewhere recently) kind of skip across the key board like a jackrabbit across a dewy pasture. Yesterday the Wednesday crew of the Living Proof staff went to lunch at a Salada not far from our office. (Salada is the Luby’s Cafeteria of salads. I just rolled my eyes. Of course, I’d rather have Luby’s. Seriously? But, as sprouts and spinach go, Salada will do the trick but it can be pretty pricey for those on a ministry celery. Now, lettuce get back to the story at hand.) We’d just had a seat at a long table with our sprouts when my eyes wandered to a table across from us and a woman I could only see from the back. You know how you get that feeling sometimes, “I know that back”?

I knew this one.

I’d seen that very back saunter down the aisles of my classroom at Northbrook High School in Houston, Texas, about three hundred years ago. I stared at her until she turned to a profile. About the time I jerked forward with recognition, one of my coworkers asked me what I was distracted by.

“That is my high school English teacher. I had her for two years straight. Junior and Senior year. She was the best teacher I have ever had in my life and the very reason why I minored in English.”

“You’re kidding!” my coworkers chimed in.  “Are you going to say something?”

Just about that time, my person of interest and her friend reached over, grabbed their purses on the floor and prepared to get up.  That’s when I knew I only had a second to move on it.I hopped up from my seat, darted over to her, knelt down on the floor by her and said, “Mrs. Fanett, it’s me, Beth.”

(I don’t know why but I have tears in my eyes. I’m really in a silly mood but for some reason recounting this moment is touching a tender place in me.)

She responded just like you’d hope. She stood straight up from that chair, hugged me and sort of cupped my face in her hands, searching to find that seventeen year-old again. (OK, I’m really about to cry now. GET A GRIP. This isn’t Kleenex fodder, Birdbrain.)

After we greeted each other with equal warmth, I turned to my staff at the adjacent table and said, “Ladies, this is Mrs. Naomi Fanett. She is the best school teacher I have ever had.”

And for just a split second, we were no longer at Salada. Somebody grabbed the remote and pushed rewind and there all of us were, even my coworkers, in bell bottoms and short skirts in a classroom in Northbrook High School. Mrs. Fanett was teaching us how to appreciate a word fitly spoken, a word fitly written. She used her hands a lot and her eyes danced as she taught. There was something poetic about her. Something that made high school girls that hadn’t smoked a lot of dope want to grow up and teach English just like her.

I’m not sure why, but she liked me and, better than that, I knew it. It’s such a waste when you don’t. I don’t mean she seemed to like me more than the other students because she didn’t. She was too professional to show a lot of favoritism. She just had a natural affinity toward the kids that actually stayed awake in class and raised their hands for more than permission to go to the restroom. Of course, not many students had the gall to sleep in Naomi Fanett’s English class. It wasn’t that she was as strict as it was that she’d be so appalled. She commanded respect somehow and I never remember a single football player ever even belching in there.

When Mrs. Fanett searched my face for that high school student yesterday, I thought back to what she would have imagined. I had only moved from our beloved home state of Arkansas to the biggest city in Texas the year before. I’d gone from a 2-A school to a high school population a third the size of my entire former town. I had an accent as thick as the piney woods staring down on my tiny childhood home out in Ouachita Hills. My wardrobe was the only thing vaguely big-city-fied, thanks to the employee discount I got through my part time job at J.C. Penney’s. Despite all attempts to sound like I belonged, I only had to open my mouth and yawn for someone to say, “Where are you from?”

But I had a romance with English. And sometimes when Mrs. Fanett would pass out our graded papers, she’d lay mine on my desk, glance at me with the quickest smile and tap the red grade at the top of the page.

Approval.

It wasn’t that I was good at English. It was that Mrs. Fanett was good at English. She excelled at what she did. She acted like teaching high school students was the most important profession on the planet. She fascinated me way back then. She fascinated me yesterday. Before we parted, she told me that she’d recently retired and that she and her husband (also a teacher) were traveling now.

And suddenly I had an uncontrollable urge to go somewhere like Tuscany.

With Mr. and Mrs. Fanett.

There ain’t nothing like a good school teacher. Tell me it ain’t true.

OK, I’m dying to hear about your favorite teacher. Bring it, Sisters. I’ll watch this baby all day.

*** Hey ladies, this is Melissa . . . I added a couple of additional pictures to the bottom of this post.  My favorite is obviously the one where the entire Living Proof Staff is throwing up gang signs . . . I mean, A.A.V. (All About Vangie) Signs. Classic LPM ***

Hey, Siestaville! How are all of you? We have had quite the whirlwind weekend! Hawk (Michelle) and I had the great joy of serving at the Desperate For Jesus women’s conference at Dr. Tony Evan’s fine church in Dallas alongside speaker Tara Jenkins. (Oh my word, I loved getting to know her. God is raising up such wonderful and powerful young women to serve this and the next generation. We’re in good hands, Sisters.) My dear friend, Priscilla Shirer (Dr. Tony and Dr. Lois Evan’s daughter and one of our favorite Bible study teachers/writers on earth) emceed the event and I love any time I get to spend with her. I had a blast with the women who attended just like I knew I would. They don’t just listen to the Word around Oak Cliff. They participate in the Word. Groups don’t get better than that one.

I finished my second session late Saturday morning, threw the baton into Tara’s able hands and took a run for the airport. Hawk and I had a huge event to attend back in Houston and we’d make it by the skin of our teeth. Even the least weather delay would have caused us to miss it. When we got to DFW, the Houston flight prior to ours was delayed and the one after ours was canceled but we sailed out of there on the everlasting arms of God and made it to the church on time.

Since you got to meet my dear friend and coworker, Evangeline Harris, a few weeks ago on our second SSBS video greeting and knew we had a wedding on the horizon, I thought it was only fair to let you know that our Vangie is now (drum roll please) Mrs. Darren Williams. (I think I heard trumpets in the distance just then.) The wedding was BEAUTIFUL! Our bride was an absolute vision and her groom was so handsome. The chapel was full of family and friends who cheered them on to the altar after a courtship fit for a Lifetime movie. Both of them have long histories with God and each loves Jesus more than anything on earth. Isn’t that the ultimate? It was truly the culmination of two great stories into one fabulous book.

Evangeline has nine – count them, NINE – brothers and sisters and, yes, all from the same set of (courageous…and maybe tired) parents. She honored me so much by asking if I’d take part in the ceremony. As I addressed them both during the service, I told Darren that he had no idea what all he’d inherit when he fell in love with Vangie. Not only did he instantly have 11 in-laws and all their spouses. He had all of us at LPM who are as thick as blood with his new wife. I told him he’d just inherited 15 lily white women, some of whom attempt to take the edge off with self-tanner. But I’ll not say who. Let me just say I was among the tanner ones at the wedding. Thank you, L’Oreal.

Needless to say, the LPM staff was there with few exceptions and in rare form. (Curtis graciously babysat so Amanda could come without a preschooler and a toddler who would have added considerable color and volume to the whole affair). Both Diane and Kimberly on our staff were bridesmaids alongside other close loved ones of Vangie’s. Both of them bawled their heads off during the ceremony. It was emotional for all of us because we’ve all been on hand every single day of this sweet romance since their Sunday school teacher, Lisa Weir (also a good friend of ours),  introduced them at our church last year. Our Vangie had held out for the right man for 20 years of adulthood and I don’t mind saying it paid off.

Nancy, another of our LPM sisters and my close friend of 20 years, did a Scripture reading so she was sitting on the pew beside me, right by the piano. (Do you guys like these kinds of details?? Sorry if you don’t. You can proceed right to the pictures if you’re rocking back and forth with frustration.) Right before I went onto the platform to speak over the couple, Nancy leaned over to me and said, “We’ve done a lot of things together at LPM but this one may have to be at the very top.”

I looked at her and said, “Yes, indeed.” This was the first time we had actually ever married someone off. Michelle (AKA Hawk) better run for her life before we start thinking we’re on a roll. I told you several weeks ago in the greeting where I introduced the bride that we made up hand motions to “All About Vangie.” And, yes, we did them 100 times at the wedding. That morning, all of us traded texts that had just three letters in them: “AAV!” I don’t think it would be all that hard to change the hand motions from AAV to AAM. Be afraid, Michelle. Be very, very afraid.

OK, OK, I’ll shut up and let you see some pictures Amanda snapped at the wedding for our LPM photo library. She didn’t take many so she wouldn’t impose on the professional photographer but I think you’ll enjoy the ones we have.

I’m thinking she must have taken this one before the ceremony while everybody was waiting and I was already in the Greenroom with Vangie. This is my man and our Bible study/event coordinator Jennifer Hamm’s man, respectively Keith and Chad. Yes, Keith has on Wranglers. He wore Wranglers to Melissa’s reception, too. Vangie didn’t care. She loves that Keith Moore.

This was one of the best wedding cakes I’ve ever tasted. I didn’t get a chance to ask Vangie who baked it. She was pretty busy.

The foyer at our church had been transformed for the reception into Vintage Vangie. Her good taste was everywhere. Honestly, I’ve never seen the foyer more beautiful. Everything was either white, black or hot pink. Here are some goodies:

A little wider shot so you can get the idea:

Yours truly with the bride and groom! I love them both so much. (That’s a side clip of sorts if you’re wondering what’s going on with my hair. I tried something new. Not sure it works out of the context. Maybe not even in it. If you weren’t wondering, forget that I brought that up. It was otherwise a very Spiritual evening.)

The B and G cutting that gorgeous cake:

Vangie and Lisa Weir.

Stunning Bride.

Living Proof Staff with the Bride.  Again.  It’s ALL. ABOUT. VANGIE.

Vangie and Darren are off on their honeymoon in San Diego for the week. You can imagine how abuzz LPM will be when she gets back to us. She only had one request of us when she left: “Don’t talk about anything fun till I get back!”

Oh, Vangie. We talked about something fun today all right. We talked about YOU. We just can’t help ourselves. We’re AAV.

I just have a few minutes to climb on here before my staff (and BFF’s) and I head to lunch. I just got a text saying we’re going to Luby’s Cafeteria so I’m already thinking about what I’m going to get. You’ll be happy to know after a year of being unhealthy and underweight and in bad need of surgery, I am back to my normal size and feeling ten tons better. (I am still dealing with some physical pain but I think it’s my trust from God right now. You’ll never waste a prayer on me but that’s another story for another time.) Anyway, the only unfortunate part about being physically healthy again and back to my real weight is that I can’t really get chicken fried chicken for lunch anymore. Grin.

Last night my man and I had the neatest experience and it’s on my mind so I think I’ll share it. We were invited to the 30th birthday party of a young woman we’ve known all her life. Kay’s parents and Keith and I have been dear friends since our early 20’s. Many years ago we served together in our young marrieds’ Sunday School department. Kay’s Dad, Roger (one of the finest men I’ve ever known), taught the men’s class and I taught the women’s. Each set of couples had 2 daughters almost exactly the same age. They grew up together at the same church and have known each other all their lives. We have vacationed together a number of times as families and as couples and leaned on each other more times than I can count. During difficult seasons, we have wept together and in times of victory, celebrated like wild people. Our oldest daughters served in summer missions together and met and fell in love with two guys from Missouri who were best friends. They each married those guys and were in each other’s weddings only two weeks apart.

We got invited to Kay’s birthday party because Roger and Mary Ann (one of the finest women I know) would be the only other older couple there. The rest were all in their late 20’s or early 30’s. As we sat at that table with our life-long friends right beside us, I looked around at those young people and remembered just yesterday when it was us sitting in their positions. We had so much life ahead. So much joy. So much victory. So much defeat. (I’ll just apply that part to Keith and me) So much need. Life – and marriage, for Heaven’s sake – is flat-out HARD. But you really couldn’t tell it last night. It was a celebration and time to put our troubles aside and boast in the graciousness of our God. And we did.

I thought last night how much God used that band of married couples so many years ago to keep Keith and me together through hard times and how much sweeter they made the good times. Many of us from that original young marrieds’ group at our church are still friends today. All but two couples have stayed together (no condemnation to those who haven’t – the devil is relentless) and through many very difficult times. None of us are without scars. None of us are as full of ourselves or as sure of ourselves as we were back then. We’ve been broken over and over and sometimes to pieces but last night there we sat, telling some of those people our stories and hearing a few of them say,

“That’s pretty cool.”

The way God ordained it, we don’t just need our vertical relationship with Him to make it in life and marriage. We need one another. We need Hebrews 10:24-25 kind of people. We need folks around us to cheer us on and even to question us and hold us accountable. We need people who will not only pray for us but laugh with us and cry with us. Eat Mexican food with us. Live life with us! We need more than Facebook and blogs and tweets, as much as I enjoy them. We need real people and real face-to-face, life-to-life relationships. Last night when Kay’s husband, Jerrell, prayed over her before we sat down to the birthday feast, for some reason Mary Ann, Roger, Keith and I grabbed onto each other for dear life and hugged each other with all our might. We are still standing after the enemy has done you-can’t-imagine-what to try to destroy us. Not one of us would take an ounce of credit. Jesus. It’s all Jesus. He’s been so much better to us than He had to be. He did not let the devil bring the destruction he wanted.

It seems only yesterday we WERE those young couples. In the blink of an eye those young couples will be our age, having endured what they were sure they couldn’t and having celebrated more than they deserved.

God is so good.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed…Therefore we do NOT lose heart.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-8, 16.