Can we find a friend so faithful…
…who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
The more I think about a possible move out of my home state, out of my home town the more nervous-excitement I have. While there’s always the thrill of adventure, I also have a heavy heart to leave my friends and family behind and start a new life in a new place.
As some of you may know, my dad has had chronic illnesses for most of my life. When I was three, my dad was involved in a chemical spill destroying a good portion of his lungs. Ever since, the strain that was left on the rest of his body has cause lots of permanent damage to other organs. My dad is a big reason why it would hurt my heart to leave.
Over the past four years, he’s had several “close calls” to death. He’s gone into septic shock twice, an almost kidney failure and it’s an every other month bout with pneumonia. His health is failing, to say the least. His last “close call” was this past summer when I was still pregnant with Little Sister. While he was laying in a coma I told him he had to make it, there was just no way I was going to name our new daughter Bernadette Stephanie (Bernard Steve). He did pull through, and I couldn’t have been happier to name our daughter something else.
Another reason why I would hate to move is the friends that J & I have made over the years. Most of our very close and dear friends are a result from our current church. And the reason we are apart of our current church is because of our dear, sweet neighbors who invited us when we first moved into our home. We have been so blessed by them (and I say it honestly, not just because they read this!). They have helped us through rough spots in our marriage, through my first labor with Big Sister. Who else in this world would give me a pedicure while I had contractions on her couch? Who would pull over on the side of the road to tell us to get to the hospital so we didn’t give birth in the front yard? Who else could I cry to about life and get good, Godly advice from? Only my sweet neighbors.
And because God gave us the home we have now, the neighbors that we adore, the church family that has become our closest friends. I can trust that God will give us that wherever we go. We may not go to dinner next door, we may not have best friends at our church, but I trust that God will carry my burdens, give me friends, give me someone I can trust with my sorrows. He’s always provided for me. He’s always been there to listen to me, to help me, to cry with me. He’s given me the best friend I could ever ask for. He’s given me Jesus.
I know that our decision to move to Huntsville will be prayer sought and God lead. We have made decisions without seeking His counsel first and we’ve suffered the consequences of that. But we’ve learned (sometimes on the first try)! And we know that a move for our family has to come from God.
And lots of google searches.
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
