Spiritually Healthy

I often wonder if I am even a good friend.  This thought came to me the other night as I tossed and turned (much to my sisters frustration) in my bed, trying my utmost hardest to drift off into a deep slumber but to no avail.  I literally stayed up, wide awake in bed, mulling over my life. Do I put the needs of others before my own?  Do I seek to put others first...no matter what?   I read somewhere in a book once that, "The highest bond of friendship is forged in the fire of discipline and it is true to experience to say that the greater the cost of the forging, the greater will be the friendship." What am I willing to do for my friends?  Maybe it's my sister's up and coming  wedding  that is causing me to dwell upon certain areas of my life.  Maybe it's because of all fun, friend/family-filled events that are taking place almost daily.  Maybe the Lord is pricking my heart and causing me to reflect; revealing to me where I really do lack. ...

There is a lot of good and wonderful things taking place within our household.  For one, my little sister is getting married.  *cue the dancing, and joyous celebrating*  Have I neglected to mention that?  I guess I have!  Well ladies and gents, believe it because it's true!  My 5k running buddy is getting married in just a few short weeks. Also, would you believe that this will be the SECOND wedding for our family within this year? But wait! there's more.  Not only will there have been two weddings in 2022, but we have also had TWO babies born into our family as well.  Little Charlotte was born in the beginning of April to my oldest brother Joseph and his wife, Emily.  Then Tirzah came into the world in the beginning of September.  Her parents are my second brother Timothy and his wife, Alissa.  This brings the total of grand babies to EIGHT!   Eight = new beginnings.   In March my youngest brother, Andrew, got married to ...

Admitting that I am not good enough for certain types of jobs is difficult for me to, well, admit.  In a way, I take it personally.  Up until recently, I tried my utmost hardest  not  to disappoint. Even if I overworked myself to the point of mental, emotional, and physical breakdown, I didn't want to be the cause of someone else's frustration.  Friends, I cannot even begin to tell you just how much I hated the very thought of upsetting someone. For most of my adult life, this has been my theme: be given a task and not just complete it, but over complete it. For example, if I was asked to wipe down a dusty table, mind you, just the table, I would do extra work that clearly wasn't necessary.  So I wiped that table down, but I also I wiped the chairs/benches - even though there was no need for it.  The response from the task giver was normally positive, "Oh, thank you SO much for doing that! You're on top of it, aren't you?"   Quite often, people be...