True Friends

Recently I was reflecting on the goodness of the Lord to bless us with true friends during our earthly pilgrimage. You know what I mean. These are the kind of people that you can truly be yourself with. You can share all of your thoughts with them and not have to be stressed wondering if they'll "Take it the wrong way." They're the kind of friends who say of others who have judge you wrongly, "Don't they know the kind of character you have? How could they think such awful things about you? They must not know you very well."

This post is a tribute to those kinds of friends in my life. I'm sorry to say that I don't have pictures of all of them right now so I'm sharing the pictures of the ones that I do have. These were all in the January 2011 folder, so that's why they're pictured now and the others are not.

I'd like to mention briefly the others who come to mind that I don't have pictures for, but who have touched my life in their own special ways. Kimberly, your friendship has seen me through countless sorrows of miscarriages, cancer, and shingles on the brain. You are such an awesome friend that I thank God for almost daily!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carla, your enthusiasm is so catchy that every time I think of you, I smile! Your laughter fills the room with positive energy and then everyone smiles! Also, you make the most incredible cards in the world--totally awesome!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for being you!

CJ and Ed down in Georgia--your friendship means more to me than I could ever say! The way that you welcomed Jacob and I into your radionics family was so heartwarming and I bless you for it.

Chris, how can I ever thank you enough for being there for me in 2006 when I knew that I was dying? Your continual strength and support plus herbal knowledge then helped me to keep fighting for my life. May God bless you richly for your friendship!

To Lori, Trish, and Roxy: you cannot imagine how much I've been enjoying practicing BodyTalk with you here lately! What a ball of positive energy walks into the room when you 3 enter it! I hope that you'll keep on learning with me!

I'm also thinking of Donn and Roxanne Gill from Eureka. We go WAY back, don't we? Thanks for all of your prayers for me during my long illness and especially for your visit at that time, Roxy! Thanks, too, for taking such good care of my dad down there in the assisted living facility! It is such a relief to know that you're there!

Then there's the wonderful Jackson family in Lincoln. These people are such wonderful encouragers! In fact, this week I received emails from them which lifted my spirits higher than they've been in awhile. May God bless you, David and La'Trice, as you serve Him with grateful hearts! You are such a blessing to me!

Now, I'll share the pictures from my January file. This was taken on New Year's day at the home of Lane and Sarah Keister. The Keisters bought our very first bag of wheat grown, cleaned, and bagged here at SEEDS OF HONOR!

I love these people for many more reasons than that, though. Here are bright; well-versed; well-educated; well-bred .......... people who are great hosts and make you feel so welcome in their home. Thanks for your friendship, Keister family!

Also this month, this old family friend came over for a visit. Of course, I can't imagine that there would be too many folks who could resist driving over for a birthday party in their honor. :)

Robert's cousin, Jerome, has helped us over the years with everything from butchering chickens to shingling the roof to working cattle........ Being he was turning 55, we decided to throw him a party. Being he just started raising sheep, Cora put a ewe and her little lamb on the cake!

Here Robert is watching Jerome open his birthday present from him. It was a pair of heated socks for when Jerome has to go out and check on lambing progress!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moving through my January photo file I found this picture which I posted recently. Still, worthy of a repeat, is this picture of Scott and Elizabeth Hanson at their daughter's wedding last week. These friends are offering families the hope of kissing autism goodbye. Go here to learn how you can help families who may be dealing with this dreaded disease:www.btautismstudy.info.

Here is a picture of a good and faithful friend of over 3 decades. I caught this of Robert at Joshua and Esther's wedding a week ago today. There aren't too many people that I know who would venture out in a blizzard to haul a wedding cake across VERY bumpy roads...................

At the risk of showing my age, I will say that these are some of my/our "Oldest" friends. Of course, Ward and Carol aren't old and certainly Robert and I are not, but we've been friends for a loooooooooooong time with this couple. We met them at the home school convention when Andrew was a baby which is 20 years ago.

When we decided to go to Rolla for the wedding, we called up Ward and Carol and asked if we might stay with them. Instantly we were made to feel welcome. It was so wonderful to be in the home of these dear people! Thank you so much, Ward and Carol, for all of your warm hospitality! Thank you, Carol, for all of your wonderful cooking! YUM!!!!!!!!!

I asked Robert to take this picture of Carol and I. There's just nobody as special as a dear, "Old" friend!

Now here is a relatively "New" friend in comparison. This is my neighbor, Tanya. You have to imagine my joy when Tanya arrived last week to pick up her children's birthday cake which Cora had made. By the way, Cora made 2 birthday cakes and a wedding cake over the course of 3 days last week, so it was pretty "Sweet" around here for awhile.

Of course, I REALLY enjoy when folks come by to pick up their cakes. Tanya surprised me with a friendship plate which has such an awesome message about what really matters in life--FRIENDS! She made me smile when she said, "It arrived at my house with goodies on, but I figured that you'd rather have the gift of music instead."

Tanya had made a CD of many of her favorite Christian songs and now I feel like I know her better. What an awesome idea! Thanks for your wonderful friendship, Tanya.

Guess what? Tanya also brought along her sweet, new baby Brooklyn. She even blessed us by leaving the little cutie with us for about half an hour while she went to pick up her son at a neighbor's farm. Cora snapped me when I was in this moment of bliss.

Now I am thinking of my friend Terri who called me recently. Terri is the closest friend that I have ever had on this earth! However, when we moved away from the Linton area, our friendship ended abruptly for reasons that I'm not free to discuss. You have no idea how I agonized over that lost friendship!

Terri had given me a pillow one time. It's a little couch pillow, that she had cherished, but wanted to bless my life with. It's made from fabric of that wonderful Hunter Green color with lovely flowers f0rming a border around these words, "A FRIEND IS A GIFT YOU GIVE YOURSELF."

How very true. It does take effort to keep a friendship going. Did you ever notice that? It takes communication and positive energy and encouraging words. It takes a "Get well card" at times or cooking a meal for someone who just lost a loved one. Sometimes it means driving 4 hours with a wedding cake in the van that you're hoping will stay together until you get it to the church.

At other times it means saying, "I'm sorry for hurting you," or "I forgive you for hurting me."

Sometimes it means just sitting quietly with the Lord and praying for them without them even knowing that you're burdened for their hardness of heart towards God or towards you.

Sometimes it means saying those three "Magic" words (as we used to call them when we were children), I LOVE YOU! So that's what this post is all about. I've said all that I've said so that anyone who reads this will know that my intention was to show how very much I love you all.

You all ARE God's children and He loves you all so much! How can I do anything less than send my love to you too? So here it comes--one great big HUG for the whole, wide world!

Lastly I want to thank my incredible children--Cora, Andrew, and Jacob. Although I made it a point of NOT being your friend when you were little, in order to be able to continue guiding from ahead of you, things have changed now. How I cherish your friendship! You three are such wonderful dears as I continue on my life of growing and changing into the woman that God wants me to be. Thanks for growing into incredible servants of God who are such a delight to live with--almost all of the time! :)

Having run out of words (Can you believe it?), I close by wishing all of you a happy Sabbath! In particular are my wishes to the family of Schultz's in Bismarck who only recently joined the Sabbath-keeping family! GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Wishing you all the blessing of true friends,

Dawn