My Special Friend

One of the blessings I have had for the past two years is being a Holy Butterfly special friend to Courtney Thomas. The Holy Butterflies are 3rd and 4th grade girls that meet on Wednesday nights and learn about what it means to be a woman after God's own heart. They are assigned "special friends" when they are 3rd graders. A special friend is blessed to pray for their little friend, spend time with them and just be a small part of their life. I had never been able to be a special friend while I was children's minister because it would have been showing partiality, so the first thing I wanted to do when I was retired, was to be a special friend and I asked if my special friend could be Courtney.

Little did I know that I would be blessed way more than I would bless Courtney. Courtney and I have had two years of special times together. It was fun watching her in plays and musicals or singing in her school choir. We had fun on outings together. But what made Courtney special is she loved me unconditionally. She never failed to give me a big smile and hello whenever she saw me in the hallways of the church building. She would make me cards and give me little gifts. The most special thing she did was twice she took her gift card that her grandmother had given her to Chick-fil-a and treated me to lunch. I delighted in watching her enjoy a good brownie. She loved chocolate and made sure I knew that her favorites were
Ghiradelli Chocolate Carmel Squares,which quickly became my favorite as well.

I was sad that we moved to Colorado Springs six weeks sooner than Courtney would graduate from the Holy Butterflies. I was so glad when she told me she asked Mrs. Lindsey if she would be my substitute for the month of May because I knew she would be well taken care of by one of my own spiritual giants.

So this post is dedicated to you sweet Courtney. Thank you for all the love you showered on me and for the ways I saw Jesus living in your heart. I look forward to keeping in touch with you and seeing how you continue to grow to be a great woman of God. He is going to use you in His kingdom in amazing ways. You will always have a very special place in my heart. I am most thankful that we will be friends not just in this world but in the world to come when we both get to be with our Jesus and His Father. Love you sweet girl!

Oh and a secondary blessing to being Courtney's special friend is I also got to spend time with her little brother Kyle. Kyle and I always had this special bond because I taught his Sunday Night class when he was 3 and 4 and he would always want to ride on my scooter. He gave me so many good laughs. It was hard for him to understand why he wasn't my special friend too :-) So we did try to include him some times as well.


Kyle and Courtney are blessed to have wonderful Christian parents, Eric and Kelley, who are doing a great job of planting God's Word deep in their kids hearts so that they will have strong roots to grow up with. They were also a blessing of spending time with Courtney and Kyle. They were sweet to trust me with their kiddos. I am hoping they will all come visit me next time they come skiing in Colorado!!

Looking For A Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Whew! I had no memories of moving being so hard!! I am so very thankful for all the friends that helped me pack up for this move. Terri, Andrea, Kimberly, Cathy, Joyce, Karla, Sara and David thank you from the bottom of my heart! I could not have done it without you!!

Then on this end, my sister Caren, neice Danette and their husbands were such blessings in getting boxes emptied and the kitchen and bathrooms set up. Now if I just had an interior designer to help me figure out how to decorate this house.
Trying to scale down from 2100 square feet to 1400 has been interesting. Just goes to show that there is so much stuff you really don't need, and I am really wanting to simplify....unfortunately there is something called a "crawl space" that is allowing me to "store" things "just in case".

I am so very homesick and really missing the voice of friends and hugs. God has always been faithful no matter where I have moved to bless me with friends and I know he will not dissapoint me here. It will just take time.

Met three neighbors today, two couples were in there late 70's, so perhaps it will give us an opportunity to serve. The other neighbor Jaquina warned me not to put up my winter clothes :-)

Continuing to wait with anticipation to see what God is going to do with us here in the Springs.

Lessons Learned From Moving

Well day one of leaving Richardson and on our way to Colorado. We are staying in Childress (not very far, but on the way). I have moved many times in my life but I don't remember it ever being this hard. I guess it is just that I am 11 years older than the last time and with my disability, standing just kills and you can't pack and clean without standing. But it did get done and now on the other end there won't be any pressure or deadlines to get things unpacked.

But I thought there were some spiritual applications that I learned from this move.
First of all "do not lay up treasures on earth"...how in the world do we get so much "stuff"?? I cannot even tell you how many trucks of "things" we took to Goodwill and Central Dallas Ministries and still we have way too many boxes!! I spent numerous hours purging through pictures and cards only to discover two more boxes of pictures and cards days later that I didn't get to look through and put together, so I will have that still to do on the other end. I am hoping I can still make more decisions to rid ourselves of things on the unpacking side.

I also need to make a committment to purge and clean once every quarter. Those places like under the bed, behind the couch, etc. are embarassing when you don't do it for a couple of years!!

This past Wednesday night, my lesson for the ladies class I teach on Wednesday nights was on Mary and Martha. What an appropriate lesson for me! I have spent way too much time "doing" the past few weeks and no time sitting at my Lord's feet. I can't help but believe if I had spent time with my Lord, other things woul have fallen into place without all the stress. Somehow all that decluttering of house stuff made me contemplate all the decluttering I need to do of my heart. I need to move a lot of things out so that the Lord can move more in. As I contemplate all the ways I want to decorate my new house, I think the Lord is dreaming of ways I will let Him redecorate my heart and life.

It is a new beginning and I am praying that I will not fall back into the old patterns but use this move as a starting over place and reprioritizing. I pray that the Lord will show us some exciting ways that we can serve Him and make a difference in the part of His kingdom called Colorado Springs.