So I’ve spent the last few weeks under an interesting attack. Friendship. I’ve perpetually struggled with a list of about 5 main “demons” over the past years. It seems as though at any given time, I can count on having a few rough battles here and there. Friendship wasn’t an enemy I was prepared for. I’ve never thought that friendship could be so dangerous. Whatever happened to shooting lizards with BB guns on motorcycle trails (which I guess was indeed dangerous. At least if you count the time I had a BB embedded in my leg by my friend Bradley Pettit.), or riding bikes through flooded streets (avoiding only the one puddle laced with little brothers liquid waste)? That’s the friendship I grew up knowing. It’s just not that simple anymore. Now it involves putting others first. It requires being honest in word AS WELL AS action. It demands that love be shown, even when it doesn’t seem to exist. Honestly, I don’t seem to struggle with possessing these ideas myself (feel free to object…), but I do seem to give others a free pass on these standards. I’ve seen a few specific relationships that I really treasure, fall into gaps of dishonesty, disloyalty, and just plain selfishness. I guess being a few years older has caused me to see the beauty in just being truthful in all things, and not allowing grown adults to slide through the cracks of excused bad friendship.

Let me take this time to let you know, that if you received a link to this place, it means that I treasure you, WE treasure you. You have been, and are great to me (us). I (we) love you and thank God for your loyalty and love.

Continuing the friendship topic…
We spent an encouraging evening with our new friends William and Kristen Groves. I’m realizing more and more each day how blessed we are when it comes to great friends here in Temple/Belton. We don’t even know William and Kristen very well, but this evening allowed us to take a step in changing that. They have 3 great kids, one of whom (whose name is also Will) was in Beth’s class last year at CTCS. Will is a true big brother who loves his sisters in a way that makes me feel closer to Jesus. They have a beautiful daughter named Emily, whose sweet little face seems to always be shining. They too, have a new addition in a precious little girl named Mary Claire, who came into this world only a few months before Jessie Rose (but somehow weighs considerably less), and will probably be her first same age girl friend in town. That idea gets me excited. My friends are cool, but looking forward to seeing Jessie making friends just seems so overwhelmingly cool. That’s my new “Dad Thought” today. I hope I can demonstrate and encourage characteristics that cause my Jessie Rose to be a true friend. Lord, please bless my daughter with the attributes of authentic Christ-like friendship. Please give her loyal, truthful, loving, believing friends, whose passion for Kingdom “things” causes her to understand Your love in new and life altering ways.