These are our friends Matt & Lindsay.
They are my husband’s former TAs (teaching assistants) who are now married and live in Iowa. They came for a visit to Chicagoland and spent a night with us. We love catching up with them. We walked to the Farmers’ Market this morning and the Billy Graham Center, then had lunch before they headed home. It was nice to have a beautiful day to enjoy walking around town.
I’m so thankful for the warmer weather. It lifts my spirits! I’m thankful, too, for good friends. I was having a hard day yesterday, and I had to run my daughter over to a friend’s house for a Jr. Gift Givers meeting. (Several young girls get together and plan ways to raise money to give to missions.)
While I was out, I did something I never do. I just stopped by unannounced to a friend’s house who I have not seen in a while. She was home, and we enjoyed talking for 30 minutes, sharing what’s been going on, and by the time we finished, I was so encouraged. When I got back home, I had a kind and encouraging email from someone that also served to brighten my day. Then our friends arrived that night to spend the night.
Between the weather and the encouraging friends, I felt lifted right up out of my distress. I’m thankful the Lord meets us in those moments in unexpected ways when we call out to him for help! Sometimes when things are hard, it’s easy to waste my energy thinking about those things instead of lifting my head and forgetting those troubles and moving on. I want to have a mind fixed on God and praising Him, but sometimes it requires that I act and obey and not simply dwell there in the mire. I love it when I see how worth it His ways are and pray He will help me choose those ways more consistently! He uses all these things in my life anyway to grow and strengthen me, and I am thankful.
Praise Proclaimer 