We stand a few feet apart... dreams and visions and hopes exchanged. We talk about the deep things of God, the plans and purposes He is calling us to. She encourages me. With a smile and a nod she lets me know that I am hearing Him right... she stands and listens as I rattle on about the million crazy things I am trying to sort out... and she doesn't seem to mind a bit. She is a person that I have let in on the secret desires of my heart because I know she can be trusted with them... not in a "trusted not to tell anyone" way... but in a "trusted not to shoot down my balloon" kind of way. I can trust her to support and encourage whatever wild-eyed scheme I have dreamed up. To brain-storm or to listen through my brain-storms (which is the way I figure most of my life out!). And to help in any way she can.
She listens to me like I imagine Jesus listening to me... eyes locked on mine, heart open, smiling with my enthusiasm and casting away the doubt when it creeps in.
You would think, by this description, that we have been friends for years and years. Not true in this particular case, but when God sets about binding hearts together, He can do so outside of the confines of time (because He's big like that!) And I'm so, so, so glad that over the last year He has truly gone about binding our hearts together!
I am thankful for this beautiful friend of mine... and the countless others like her that God has brought into my life! The women who encourage me, pray for me, brain-storm with me, work along side me... and love me right where I am at. I am thankful for the ones that I have known for decades, and the ones that I have only known a matter of months... and for the way that He has brought each into my life at just the right time. I am thankful for conversations held standing outside the church in the middle of the night, or in a garage on a crisp fall day, or via text during the day... And most of all, I am thankful for these women so gifted with encouragement... these ones who hold me up when I am feeling ill-equipped, full of doubt or less-than-the-call.
Do not ever underestimate the power of an encouraging word. So many times it is just the wind in the sails necessary to propel that boat of dreams to the horizon.
Thank you, friend, for spurring me on with your kind words and love. It's encouragers like you who give me the strength and the courage for the next step... whatever that may be...
1 comment:
Humbled......so humbled!!! Your beautiful thoughts so wonderfully set into words. God is so good to me to send me forever friends that continue to speak encouragement to me!! Let me tell you about the mask(veil) that wore for 40 years. God has set me free from fear to speak because I always worried about what everyone thought of me. So I just shut my mouth and shook my head in agreement to whatever anyone would say so that they would like me. The old me would have been talking to you and shaking my head in agreement to whatever you said just to make you happy. BUT, God has used that weakness and made it His strength within ME. Really God, ME!!! Because I look to HIM, and not the world to see who I am, and because there is NO condemnation in Christ Jesus who gives me my strength, what I once struggled with, what I thought was my weakness, is now a wonderful gift. Now I just love looking into eyes like yours,listening to ways God is working in your life and seeing God's beautiful creation just unravel before my eyes. God silences my lips so that I can hear and see the wonderful beautiful creation before me. God so beautifully weaves His body together as one to built each other up and encourage each other. And even though we are wired so totally different, we have one thing in common... the only thing that matters, JESUS!!
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