Fresh Pair of Eyes

Last year I wrote a blog named Bridge & Sisterhood on 9.21.11.  I was leaving Highlands, NC & was moving to Maumelle, AR at the time.  I wrote about my dear friends that I played bridge with every week.  There were five of us at the time, but now there are four because Charlene pasted away this past November.  I wrote about Charlene 12.9.12.

These ladies are so dear to me.  These friends are the ones that I try to keep in touch with quite frequently, & many times every day on Face Book.  I still call them for prayer, encouragement & advice.

When I left they gave me this beautiful hand cut necklace & earrings.  They wanted me to have something special to remember them by & Highlands, like I could ever forget.  Each stone is hand-cut  made out of picture jasper, spotted jasper, agate & Italian foil glass.  The store where they bought it makes each necklace difference.  So what I'm trying to say is that my necklace was created with care, love & was made unique.

I guess you might see where I'm going with this.  Just like God created each of us in
Ps 139: 13-14.
For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

I want to go back to friendship.  I see each of their friendships as unique.  They each have a fresh ideas & experiences just like each hand-cut stone in the necklace.

I had several situations that have come up this year.  Besides prayer & searching the scriptures, God has given me friends throughout my life to share with.  Each one has a different mind-set that has fresh perspectives from their own life experiences.  They know the Lord & what He wants for each of us.  I appreciate friends who know me, & won't judge me.  Friends that I can identity with & speak honestly with.

Besides these dear friends that I turn to, I also have a dear childhood friend named Kay Wiggins Adham. Our lives have seemed to run parallel since we were born, & even more so since our fathers died three weeks apart at the end of last year & beginning of this year.  Since then we have been in contact pretty frequently.

One day I had a light-bulb moment.  I was traveling home, & I had so much on my mind.  It dawned on me, instead of just calling my friends, telling them all about my situation, talking it out with them, & asking for prayer; 

what about a fresh pair of eyes to help me truly change my heart. 

Yes, I told Kay all about the situation; yes, we talked it all out; & yes, I asked for prayer; but this time I truly wanted God to change my feelings, to change my heart.  I just didn't want my feelings validated that time.  I wanted to see my wrong, if I was wrong.  From that point on I could tell I was different.  I wanted to be different at the beginning of the conversation.  In fact, the purpose of the conversation was I desired God to change me & to use my friendships as a fresh pair of eyes, heart, & mind to help me see what God wanted me to see in my situation.

I'm grateful.

ann :)