Today I Am Thankful

Today I am thankful for friends.  I am thankful for friends that I have never met and I am thankful for friends that I have had for years.

There is nothing more beautiful than a woman that says YES to God.  A woman that says YES with her heart, her time and her talents.  Because when a woman says YES she inevitably ends up touching the lives of other people in profound ways.

Today, I am thankful for the Fly Lady.  A woman I have never met, but has encouraged me beyond measure.

Everyday the Fly Lady reminds me that I am not behind in keeping my house clean. She has taught me that in just 10 minute increments I too can have a house that is "company" worthy! 

No more apologizing when friends come over.  No more feeling like a failure because I can't seem to get it all together.  No more giving up because the task of keeping a clean kitchen seems too overwhelming.

The Fly Lady (she also likes to teach people to fly fish!) runs a mentoring group on keeping your house clean.  Those that start out on the program are called Baby Flies. This Baby Fly hopes to be an adult FLYer soon!

Thanks Fly Lady for writing down your experience, sharing your wisdom and loving me right where I am. Thank you for your daily emails that help me stay on task. (I so wanted to show you all a picture of my shiny sink...but alas, if I waited until I actually had a photo of it, I fear it would be next year before I wrote this post!)

I am also thankful for real-life friends.  Even the kind of real life friends that live across the street from me but I never see!

Melanie was one of several friends/neighbors who never stopped praying for me during THE year of 2007 (click HERE). Not only did SHE pray for me but she petitioned her MOPS group to pray for me, bring me meals and even write me letters.

I am thankful to Melanie for making me cross the street on that oh so "windy" day to take pictures of me and Sydney.  How grateful I am for your persistences! Each time I see the pictures, the only professional pictures I have of my sweet baby girl under the age of 18 months, I am so grateful.

(Oh how this picture is anything other than an ordinary picture.  If you only knew the pain I was hiding so that I could one day have a picture to look at of my baby girl)

     For those of you that have ever experienced a time of major crisis, wrought with depression and/or anxiety...you know how difficult it is to make "normal" decisions.  Apparently that day, I was intent on canceling my photo session due to the wind outside.  Let's just put it this way...there was no hurricane in the forcast and the photo shoot happened  to be inside.  All I had to do was walk across the street.

But on that day, on that one day of many that was marked by extreme depression and anxiety...walking across the street just seemed too much to bare. Without Melanie's persistence that I come over despite the ferocious weather, I would have NO professional pictures of Syd as a baby. Melanie knew what I needed when I did not have the presence of mind to know myself.

If I learned nothing else from that year, I learned what it truly takes to minister and love on others during a time of crisis.  In short, my good intentions are worthless, it is only by my actions that I can help others.

What good is it for me to feel sorrow for a friend's life "situation" but not get in the trenches with her and help her stand til' victory comes?  Isn't that what we were called to? I often recall the story of the parlyzed man in the bible, the one whose tenacious friends cut a whole in their neighbor's roof?  Remmeber them?  It wasn't just some grand fairy tale.  This guys friends actually cut a whole in another person's roof and lowered him to the feet of Jesus.  I'm not going to help others with good intentions or even by prayer alone.  God has called me to be his hands and feet!   

Thank you to Melanie and several other friends not limited to Jenn, Kerrie and Julie! I am here because you carried me!

By using their God-given time, talents and passions these friends ensured that my lame arms and legs made it to the feet of Jesus.  Each of them knew where I needed to be for healing to take place and each of them stopped at nothing until I arrived safely. (even if it meant walking across the street on a terribly windy day, booking a session with a prayer healer, speaking words I did not want to hear but so desperately needed or responding to a crisis phone call!)

Love you ladies a lot.  And Oh Lord let me never forget the lesson I learned that year.  The lesson on how to help others in a time of crisis.  Let me never be plagued with good intentions but let me always be willing to get in the pit of despair alongside others and get my hands a bit dirty!

And let me never forget the power of one.  The power of one lady simply pursuing her passion and sharing it with others.  Fly Lady, I so wish we could have coffee one day!

Today I am thankful for friends.  I am thankful for the friends I have never met.  I am thankful for the friends that I have known since third grade and all the friends in between!