Life Long Friends for the Journey...


This morning I sat across from one of my best friends in the world, Jenny Nielson Shafer. Jenny and I met in the 10th grade at Nazarene Youth Conference because we were forced to be in the same breakfast club table (that's a long story). Little did I know, a couple of years later we would wind up at the same college, playing on the same volleyball team, and start a friendship that would be for life. Our friendship didn't stop there. We followed each other out to Seminary to study ministry, I took a job in Maryland as a Youth Pastor, and several years later Jenny's husband got a job 45 minutes from where we live! It's pretty crazy.

As I sat across from Jenny and spilled my guts about being antsy in the waiting process, being frustrated in not hearing anything, and stressing about the Cupcake Weekend (trust me, there will be several posts to come in the wee hours of the morning!), Jenny did what she does best...listened a lot and encouraged even more. She has supported us like crazy in this process, been praying for me since we were Freshman in college, and is a friend that I can count on no matter what.

I am not sure what we would do without the support of friends along this journey. I could probably blog like crazy about friends and how they have helped "carry" us through this process, but blogspot would probably kick me off for being too long! Jenny is just one of many. We were singing a song in church on Sunday, "Desert Song," which I had posted about before. All week, the phrase that has stuck out to me as been, "All of my life, in every season, you are still God, I have a reason to worship...to praise." This week I have been anxious and antsy as I wait and to be honest, sometimes I am not all that happy with God's timing! He has reminded me every day this week, "I am still God...and you have a gazillion things to praise me for."

So today, I am thankful for Jenny and thankful for the reminder that despite the season we find ourselves in, God is still God and is gracious enough to send us some pretty amazing friends along our life journey...for that I am thankful.

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