Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A challenging thought

We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Saying goodbye to friends

When a good friend moves away, it is a bittersweet time. It is sad that you will not be seeing them any more, your days of making memories are done, but you also are happy for them. It is a new adventure for them, and good things are in their future.
I tend to get a little jealous when some one leaves, just because I have always had the desire to move away myself.
When a good friend moves away, it is common to reminisce on the memories of that friendship.
Wednesday I found out a friend was moving, Friday she was gone. She has been on my mind, and it got me to thinking about a few of my dearest friends through the years. I would like to share a bit about them.
Rebecca Marie

Rebecca was my very first best friend. We met in preschool, and clicked instantly. We both loved bananas, so we would bring them for snack every day. But we had a ritual, we could not just open our lunch box and eat the banana. We had say "Drum roll please" then join in an air drum roll. Then open our box and sing, "Da da da dum!" Then pull out the banana, use it as a microphone to sing "Jesus loves me" rapper style. Then we were finally free to eat our microphone.
She and I were best friends for three years (two years of preschool, and kindergarten) We had a dream of building a fort house and having a giant tea party for the whole world to come to. This picture is from when we finally had a tea party with several friends.
Rebecca had some bad memories of her mom, then her mom left her life. One of my last memories of Rebecca was a few days before kindergarten ended. She came and told me that her dad got a job and was getting married to a lady in Idaho. She said she would not be coming to 1st grade with me. She gave me a pretty necklace, (which I still have) and we promised to never forget each other. Our eyes both were filled with tears when our teacher (Mrs. Croall) came over and asked us what was wrong. We both looked up at her then at each other, then dashed to weep dramatically in her arms. I am certain she must have been a bit confused. When we finally calmed we looked at our teachers shirt, and realized it was completely drenched. This made us all giggle.
Emily "Elmers"

Emily came to my class in 5th grade. She was always very kind to me, and often the only person at school who would talk to me. I went through a phase where I had some pretty bad choice of friends. In 9th grade when I knew it was time to turn my life around, she was the first person waiting to welcome me into my new life.
One of my funniest memories with Em was a day I joked about her beating up a mutual friend, who happened to be two months younger than her. I declared out loud, "Oh Emily, you're gonna beat up a little kid!" Before we knew it, a rumor had spread across the whole school that Emily, the sweetest, most soft spoken, and gentle person in the world, had been beating up little children on the playground.
We have so many memories of beach trips, hiking, and class room adventures. One of my favorite hiking memories was when the flies were attacking her sister's hairspray. She had to hide under a blanket meant for our piknick.
We found a little cafe that we loved going to. Emily went away for college, and I was sad that it was the end of our friendship. These days we still chat, and make time to see each other every few months, and we have started a tradition of going back to that cafe every time we get to see each other.
Shanna

Shanna and I met only a short time ago. She is actually the inspiration for this post. She is the first person I opened up to and admitted the problems with forgiveness I have had the past 2 years. She helped me to put everything in perspective, and see the error of my ways.
Shanna told me she will never forget the day she met me, because when I walked into her apartment, I tracked mud all across her floor. You have no idea how badly that made me blush.
A while later 5 of us went for a late night walk through town. I made mention of how I get urges late at night to go walk, but never have any one to go with me. She said she has the same thing, and she would gladly go any time I wanted. All I would do was send her a text, and hour later we would be walking through town being noisy and silly.
Shanna agreed to celebrate "National Make Some One Feel Awkward" day with me, but going through the mall wearing a Chinese dress and bunny ears, while we pretended to speak a different language.
She gave me a tour of the abandoned mill in town, and stayed up until 6am chatting about life in her apartment. We had some interesting experiences with grave yard shift workers at McDonald's, and she got me addicted to McFrappe's.
There is a restraunt in town that has been there longer than I have, and I have never eaten at. She got me to go, where I had world's largest sausage link. I never told her that I had not eaten a sausage link since I was 7.

Shanna told me Wednesday that she was going back to live with her parents, and two days later she is gone.
It seemed very sudden, and I was a bit shocked. I don't know what the future holds for our friendship now, but when I think of the few short months I knew her, I can't hold back a smile.

Every person who comes into our life has an impact on us, no matter how big or small. These are just a few of the friends I have said farewell to, making it easier to remember all the good times. I am thankful for all my good friends. Em, Shanna, Lydia, Heidi, Paul, Amber, awe heck I could go on for ever...you know who you are.
Thank God for good friends!

Shanna, Em, Rebecca, if you read this I hope you feel special. Shanna, I am gonna miss our midnight strolls!

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