We have had the best week! Before I post about our weekend...Ouachita Baptist University's Homecoming and Clark's college visit to OBU...I have to tell you about last week.
We went to dinner with some friends...OLD friends. Like, young-married-life-and-having-our-babies-together friends.
The kind of friendships that I PRAY my children and their spouses will get to have one day.
Back in the day, we went to Little Rock's First Baptist Church. We were members of a large, vibrant Sunday School class. Our director and his wife pursued us and brought us into this group. They fed us spiritually. They taught us, mentored us, became our friends. They showed us how to have a godly marriage, how to be good parents...and all about tithing and giving generously to others. They taught us the importance of friendship and the body of Christ.
The influence they had on our lives is immeasurable.
And the bonds of friendship that started way back when...are still there today. It's changed, evolved and grown...for the most part. In some cases, with some of them, there have been difficult seasons of friendship.
But not with us.
We've moved 4 times since those early days. We've kept in touch with this group...with some more than others. Now that we are back living closer, we get to see them more...and it's great! And, one thing that is really cool is that our daughter and one of the other couples' daughter...are really good friends. They were in the baby nursery together...and then we moved and they moved...and we moved again...then they moved back...and we moved again. And then our girls both went to OBU, but they didn't know each other. And me and the other mom BEGGED them to meet and they said that would be awkward.
And then they both went through RUSH...and they both joined the same sorority...and they became pledge sisters and the best of friends. And they were in each other's weddings.
So, I would say that the MOMMIES knew a thing or two.
ANYWAY, on Wednesday night, we met our friends for dinner. We almost didn't go. Wednesdays are hard for our family. I have choir and Clark has Youth...and we have Joshua. But we worked it out to where Joshua stayed home with Clark...and when it was time for Youth, Clark dropped him off in choir with Holly. After choir, Holly took him home with her, and then Clark went over there after Youth and hung out until we got home. Whew!
And no, we don't leave Joshua home alone. The last time I did, I got out of the shower, got dressed and walked into my living room to find a strange man standing there. He was dressed up like a policeman...well, like a policeman in the YMCA group. He was selling his cds door-to-door. Joshua knew not to open the door to strangers, but policemen aren't strangers, right?
I've never recovered from that. Joshua is so sweet and trusting.
ANYWAY, there were 4 other couples for dinner...and us. We met at one of their houses, and it was potluck. It was kind of funny because one friend is the "take charge" person and she decided that we needed to eat out on the patio so that we could all be together. When we got out there with our food, all the girls sat at one table...and all of our guys sat at one table.
Just like 7th grade.
And then the talking began. Of course, as girls, we keep in touch a LOT better and more often than the guys...so we were pretty much on top of everything that was going on with everyone else. The "take charge" friend took charge of asking the questions...she would say, "tell us about..." and then that person would share and we would all laugh...or cry.
At one point, I noticed that something was different. That we seemed to be talking REALLY LOUD...and the guys didn't seem to be talking at all. I strained to hear and that's when I realized...they were praying.
We have some issues in our group. One couple has two children who each bear the consequences of their early childhood, physical and emotional scars from a life before they joined their family. Two couples in our group have young adults struggling with addiction. One seems to have come out the other side...thanking God and living life with a renewed sense of commitment. The other? It's not good. He's married...separated, actually...and has a young son. His parents are grieved. GRIEVED. I mean, what do you do? How do you watch your precious son go down such a dark path? How can he leave everything he knows and has been taught?
The enticement of sin is great. And, in this case, the first step down that path is always your choice...but the steps after that may be ones out of your control, because the addiction takes over.
I could hear the father praying...his voice cracking.
And then, one by one, these sweet, godly men...hands clasped together...lifted up this family in prayer.
It was a sacred moment.
Because in the midst of the laughter and the tears and the chicken and the bread...God met us there.
"For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20
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