Unlikely Loves
No, I don't have good news on the Christmas picture I was trying to take for the blog. The camera and I have spent the weekend in two different rooms so that our relationship could have a little time to heal. Hopefully there will be a reconciliation and a victory soon. You'll know it when you see it. And, boy, will it be a let down.
There's something else I wanted to share with you. I've got to keep it short because I don't want to take much time away from my man. He just got home last night from the deer lease. I want to write on it while it's on my mind though. I just have to marvel from time to time over the unlikely loves God brings together in His family here on earth. The way people in Christ can become dear friends and traveling companions with individuals they'd never have thought to get to know. I love how, because the Spirit of Christ lives in us and He originated the differences, we can come to love people we might not have thought we'd like. It's a thought I have often but I have some fresh imprints on my heart and mind today that compel me to write.
Travis Cottrell, my praise team leader on the road for ten years, has been in town this week at Champion Forest Baptist Church as the guest artist in their magnificent Christmas pageant. Our families are really great friends and Melissa and I had already gotten to see him between practices. Angela, Travis's wife (and stunning proof of how much God loves him), and their three terrific kids, Jack, Lily Kate, and Levi, flew in yesterday afternoon to join Travis and Keith got home last night. My man was anxious to see them so we headed to Champion Forest Baptist for church this morning to worship with them and have some lunch. I watched those two men hug. So happy to see each other. Crazy about each other. Watched them sit at the end of our row together. And as different as night and day and one almost old enough to be the other's father. Keith the consummate outdoorsman who shoots clay pigeons for fun and Travis the gifted artist who can write a musical on paper without even sitting at a keyboard. The chords are all in his head.
Both mighty men but so incredibly different. I couldn't help but take it in again at lunch. While Ang and I were in the throes of kid-ville, Travis and Keith sat at the end of the table and gabbed like they'd hung out all their lives. Travis lets Keith talk to him about deer and Keith lets Travis talk to him about music projects. Travis could easily talk pro football because, interestingly, he's a huge addict, but Keith, just as oddly, is not a fan. Both, however, love Jesus, love their wives, and cry over something tender faster than their wives. I don't suppose conversation comes naturally to either one of them but they make it happen. Because they're family. The Moores and the Cottrells have been halfway around the world together and have shared more life - joys and crises - in the last ten years than you can imagine.
Two months ago Keith sent Travis a pair of Lucchese cowboy boots with a handwritten letter about how the Tennessee Volunteers had come to the aid of the Texans at the Alamo (yes, we remember). It was priceless. Vintage Keith. And Travis loved them. They are an odd pair, Keith Moore and Travis Cottrell. One of how many odd pairs, I wonder, in the Body of Christ? This entry is a tribute to the unlikely loves Christ Jesus brings together. I'm inviting you to share yours. (Short enough for us to read them all!) One of the most marvelous things about loving Jesus is all the folks we end up unexpectedly loving, too.
I love you. I really do. And if a blog community of women who have never laid eyes on one another isn't an unlikely love, I don't know one.
Your committed Siesta. (P.S. I just had to hop back on and say that I LOVE YOUR TESTIMONIES OF UNLIKELY LOVES!! Siestas, be sure to read these comments! The stories of unlikely lives God brought together will bring such joy to your heart and praise to your lips. You will marvel over the one written by the young widow and laugh over the one written by the woman who has a fear of flying then married the pilot. You'll love all of them! Also be sure to add yours. This is one of my favorite comment sections yet. Way to bring God some fun glory! And you're right, Siesta. He and we are the most unlikely loves of all.)
posted by Beth @ 7:04 PM
210 Comments
210 Comments:
Yep...knowing Jesus is an incredible thing. He's my friend, he's your friend, so we can all be friends together.
I'm just astounded at the incredible women I've "met" (some even face to face) through blogging and long for heaven (and next August in San Antonio) when we can finally meet face to face and hug each other!
Joanne
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What a great post Beth. I feel that way about my husband and I. Unlikely loves... and yet- because we both love Jesus more than anything else... our differences fade into the back ground.
Thanks for sharing.
The Lord brought my best friend and I together in 1982. I was a rude, crude and socially unacceptable college kid and she was a first class, high society IBM executive. We hit it off instantly and are still thick as theives today!We live together with 4 generations from her family and are in full time Christian ministry.I am still rude and crude and she is still an executive, but the body of Christ takes ALL parts.
...and we love you Beth!
My new friend at work Robin. A completely different aspect on God, but I am learning not so different, but seeing her excitement about what she believes, just makes me have to hug that girl!
I wrote a post about her if you would like to see more:)
Be Blessed:)
Angie
Beautiful Body of Christ! There is nothing like it when you see Him act in this way through us. I marvel at His ability to love through us and bless those who are watching. It causes me to fall in love with my husband all over again when fellowships with brothers-like how you mentioned.
Oh dear Beth...
For me, right at this very moment...this amazing group of imaginary friends through this blog has just done it for me! Y'all are just the most amazing, sincere, encouragers, lovers of Jesus that I think I "don't know!"
We are all different as far as what we read, listen to, watch for movies, ages, locations,etc. but we are one in the same in the body. Its a beautiful visual of what the body of Christ looks like and how it functions.
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I love you to pieces Ms Beth.
Merriest of Christmas's to the Moores and Jones'!
Fran
Well, isn't that just how our mighty God does things? This blonde siesta isn't likely to figure things out any time soon on this earth....so I will marvel with you how awesome and totally unexplainable our Maker is!
Amen~
Since our identity is in Christ maybe it isn't so mysterious that one Christian connects to another ~total strangers if you will~
Because we aren't connecting to the 'earthly man' but to the
'New man'
~Siestas in our case!
My amazing Savior introduced me to the most wonderful friends that have followed me my whole Christian life
~Goodness and Mercy~
and they are the reasons I can connect with a total stranger...
we have mutual friends!!
I so love everyone on this Blog~
I think each siesta has so mush to offer~~ It might just save on therapy~
Love the 'blondest siesta' on this Blog..or in the world! jan
My "unlikely love" is my hubby. On the surface, we're as night & day as you can get. He's summer, I'm winter. He's funny, I'm serious. He's a city boy, I'm a small town girl. He's quiet, I talk to myself when others get tired of listening! And don't get me started on music & movies!
Yet we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God brought us together. We've walked through fires together and built a life on the Rock. 15 years later, we're still standing...and have a daughter who's the best of both of us.
My unlikely love is the wife of my former pastor. She is 20 years older than me, we have opposite personalities (I'm bold and outgoing and passionate, she is quiet, thoughtful, and reserved.) But she has taught me so much, and is such a servant of Christ. I love her so much. She stood in the gap for me when I needed help the most, and taught me more by example than I ever could have learned through reading a book. I'm trying to keep this short, but I could go on and on. We are great friends. I wish more older women would reach out to the young women in their churches. We need you! And you have so much to teach us!
I have found that nothing says love like a pair of Lucchese boots.
And seriously, when I look at the blogging community, it blows me away that I am able to email and pray with and for women that I never would have had the chance to meet in real life. It's a blessing.
I was just this morning noticing something semi-similar, at our church. I was watching the last of parishioners waiting in line to take communion. A gaggle of teen and tween girls with messy ponytails and grey sweatshirts. A smartly dressed couple with an adorable baby. An older man with a cane, being helped by a slightly younger man. Followed by a twenty-something woman with ginger colored dreadlocks. I noticed that the dignified older man and the bohemian girl exchanged warm greetings and remembered that I'd seen them talking together at previous church services, and thought, "only at church."
I love that there is room for everybody - all kinds of people - in God's kingdom and that the most unlikely people accept each other in a way that they probably wouldn't in any other environment!!
Unlikely loves indeed...how about Christ and me?! He's so perfect and holy, and me, so sinful and fallen...do ya think Christ unites unlikely loves to give us a better picture of His love for us?
growingingodliness.blogspot.com
Does my hubby count? I met him via Christianmatchmaker.com even though we were already attending the same church AND only sat a few rows apart. He is a pilot and of all the things in this world that I despise, it is flying! What was God thinking allowing me to fall for a fly guy? I'm so blessed by my man and it works regardless that he dreads flying with me as much as I dread flying. He always asks when we land...is my other wife back now? ;O) I guess I must turn into a crazy woman or something in the sky. God does have a sense of humor.
Beth , you could have not said it better it so true about a community of women that have never laid eye's on each other and yet we all love and support each other in the body of Christ. In fact I never had any intention of ever haveing a blog however I enjoy reading them so much .I have only been blogging for a sort while and I have meet missionaries in Venezuela now in Paraguay and of course all over the USA I know I may never get 1st prize in blog country b/c I know I am not a good writer or stoy teller. But I have made friends form all over some that have over come Breast cancer ,and another friend that everytime I fell down her blogs left me up laughing silly I can't help but laugh and forget about my self.Yes we are a community of women that understand each other form bad hair days too kids crying and giving us a hard time. I myself fine myself a mom the 2nd time around yes at age 40 something I have an 25 year old daughter and 18 years later a son. So I feel I can fit in almost anywhere.Anyway didn't mean to make these so long But you could of not said it better. WE ARE A COMMUNITY OF LOVE!!blessing,marina
PS. May God truly bless all these siesta's sisters that I can't wait too meet in SA,Tx.
I LOVE YOU DEARLY BETH! i cant tell you enough how i needed this post! you always make me smile! you are a gift from God!
I will keep this as short as possible...what a great topic, beth!!
When I worked at a bank years ago, I used to eat lunch with a group of older widowed women. I loved our fellowship together. As the days went by, we become friends and I loved the time and laughs we shared. We all shared a love for each other, and for the Lord.
Doesn't seem odd, except I was only 23. Well, in God's amazing plan he put these precious women in my life for a specific reason.
I would soon join their windowed women club. Days before my 25th Bday my beloved 25 year old husband died of a massive heart attack.
Looking back, I know that God had placed these relationships in my life, "for such a time as this."
To catch you up on God's amazing plan...I have since remarried and have the most amazing family. We are blessed with 3 kids, and life is good. So, my bank days are over...now I just chase babies!!
peace to you,
kim
Dear Beth,
How I hear your heart...Your man "sounds" so much like my man of 43+ years. I had a hard time "understanding" WHY he wanted to go "out there" in the wilds fo hunt!!!
At this time in our lives, it doesn't seem to be so important to him. You see, since our son has been "fighting" a brain tumor (our son has 2 children), those things have taken a somewhat "not so important" role.
Oh, I would gladly go back to the time when my husband WANTED TO GO HUNTING.....
But God is faithful and rest asssured, He is on the throne & understands our feelings, emotions, etc. He is SO good and I STILL believe in the miraculous healing power of God...When someone goes without breathing for 22 minutes (recorded on medical records) and comes back to life....GOD IS IN CONTROL.......I am just in for the ride to see what HE IS DOING.....WHAT AN AWESOME GOD WE SERVE...
Please pray that "all of our family" will be sensitive to the leading of HIS HOLY SPIRIT so we may come to know HIM in a more powerful way and serve HIM in a greater demonstration of the HOLY SPIRIT.
Nancy
Well, I suppose there is an obvious statement here about how completely proficient I am with a digital camera and my most beautiful amd beloved friend and sister Beth who, well, has other gifts..... but I suppose it goes without saying. (We both have impeccable fashion sense, though!)
My husband and I wound up in a Bible study small group with 6 other couples in their late 40s to mid 60's (we're early 30s). I have such a wealth of womanly knowledge in these friends who could be my mother but are my sisters...HE is so brilliant in weaving together our personal lives.
Travis sang "Annie's Song" at Living Proof in Detroit last February. It got in my marrow and I adore him for it. I've never been so moved. Between that and your saying (in Believing God? or Patriarchs, one of the two....) that Keith prays for your women, darn it, I would have given anything to talk football with your guys.
In just a few short months, as a baby-blogger, I have already made some dear connections with sisters in the Lord all around the world. It has made God's family seem so much closer to me.
My sister makes fun of me when I talk about my girlfriends in Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and the Philippines...I am in California!!!
Praise the Lord! Joanne :O)
The unlikey bond I once shared was with a little boy with severe down syndrome named Timmy. Timmy and I became an unseparable pair when we were together. We both suffered from health problems and would visit each other in the hospital. I loved that little boy like a mother...even though I was only a teenager when we first met....he was only five. Timmy lost his battle with cancer at age 10 when I was only 18. I will never forget the precious pieces of God that were revealed to me through that little boy. I miss him dearly...but know he is waiting with open arms for the day when we will meet again!
**My Unlikely Love**
Jesus brought me my best girlfriend 13 years ago when we were working as police and fire dispatchers together on a graveyard shift. She played a HUGE part in bringing me to the foot of the cross...
I am 39yrs old, married and have four children...she is 49yrs old, married with NO children...only God could have brought our hearts together like this.
She is my 'Elizabeth'!
I never thought that my elderly neighbor would be the greatest friend and mentor of my 28 year old life. God is good.
Hey! Beth! How precious it is that the Holy Spirit brings together those who are in Christ to be able to fellowship with one another no matter what. What a powerful love! We are studying Genesis in Sunday School and it is amazing (as always), what a mighty love God has for us in how He so strongly desires our fellowship as well as an intimate relationship with Him. Our Awesome God!! Love you and pray for you and yours daily!
My best friend and I are the unlikely pair. I am deathly allergic to cats and she has four of them. Yet, somehow, we have made it work for over 10 years. I've had my scares with the throat and eyes closing shut after a long girls night at her home. But, at the end of the day, one night with red swollen eyes, laughing my tail off on her couch, is worth more to me than a cat-free night with any other person. The things we do for our girlfriends - oh my!
I met the sweetest friend on this blog! Her name is Annette and we have become such good friends. It probably seems weird to a lot of people because I might not even recognize her if I run into her in the grocery store. But... we've blogged together (if that's what you call it), we've e-mailed and we've talked on the phone. Some of us tease about our imaginary friends. But... we'll be "real" friends when we meet in August at the Siesta Fiesta! I am so blessed by this friendship! I live in Michigan... She lives in Texas!
I love her and am thankful for you introducing me to this Christian blog where there are so many lovely, godly Christian women! God is SO good!
Love,
Angie xoxo
I have a confession I need to make upfront: when I read Tennessee Volunteers I got excited thinking it was about my fav college football team and then I read the rest of the sentence. LOL!
I loved this post. Learning about Travis and Keith's friendship, how sweet!!
I have been thinking about who I would write about but I can't think of anyone where we are as different as night and day. I do have people that God has placed in my life that I dearly love and would do anything for! People that are in my life for a season but grow to love, the ones where you can go months w/out talking and pick up as if you haven't missed a day with each other. My blogging siestas that I have had the pleasure of meeting. God set that up and it was so much fun. Lisa, Kim, Tammy, Abby, Shelley, the list goes on. I just love how God brings us together!!
Love You,
Patty
Dear Beth,
I have just finished wrapping, to mail, a Christmas present to my precious "Beth Moore blog" siesta who lives up north. We have never met. We have e-mailed each other pictures of our families. We both love Jesus, and we have prayed each other through joys, sorrows, and crises during the past year as we bared our hearts to each other. She is younger than I, still raising children, but also has grown, married children and grandchildren, and has a heart as big as Texas.
I cannot wait to hug her neck in real life someday! I'm sure I will cry...so grateful for the privilege of knowing her so well. Amazing Grace....what a blessing! Merry Christmas!
Oh, how happy I am to have found this blog!
I am always so encouraged when reading your writings. You truly allow self to "shut down" and the words of Christ to flow through you. I don't know if you will read this, but thank you for your yielding to His voice...you are such a blessing to many!
Beth,
God loves to use you and you loved to be used I am certain :) I have been thinking about how I really love my church but I have not "clicked" with gals I thought I would or imagined friendships have not bloomed like I imagined. Your post has opened my eyes to realize that my relationships at church may not look like I thought they would and to just love and be loved by whomever.
I so look forward to your posts and truly feel loved by you though I have never seen you in person! Your love makes me ponder Christ's love even more!
Thanks for being you in Christ,
Blair
One would be my very best friend, Mandy, who has had Juvenile Rheumatoid arthritis since age ten. I remember when I first found out she was sick I asked her to PLEASE not hold back if she needs to vent. She warned me, "be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!" And I did...and I do...and I love the openness we have because we know each others' "stuff" so well. It is a gift.
I'm the grandaughter of a precious 85 year old Grama with Alzhiemers.
The daughter of a spit-fire GOD-fearing Texas Mama.
The wife of a man struggling with depression & life.
The mother of a special needs boy-who is more special than his needs.
and we all live together. Thank you JESUS for the fruits of the SPIRIT!! - & that they are for "whosoever will" - I WILL!!
But, we're talking about unlikely relationships.....
How about the newly single mom in our special needs support group. She is alone - because of her special needs child, but calls after kids are in bed to talk about JESUS.
Or the home school mom raising 7 children, but calls to talk about JESUS.
Then there is the Occupational Therapist who treats my son - he lives the gay lifestyle - he thanks me that I live my faith before him, not shove it down his throat - So GLAD he noticed!!
None of these people understand the dynamics of my life, just as I will never completely understand theirs, but JESUS paves the way for all converstations - if we'll let HIM.
There are so many unlikely relationships in my life - people I have little in common with - Yet, as soon as we talk about our Savior, or they see HIM alive in me, we're standing together on common ground.
No matter the circumstances, if we'll follow HIS leading, JESUS will bring so many people to us... so we can share HIM!
mistie woods - abilene
I have been blessed to have best friends since the teen years, and I have my friends from a season. Most importantly I have my pillar friends that I have so bonded with through and during your bible studies!
Beth, What a wild coincidence - or providence! I sat down to read your blog right after having the one of the best Christmas parties I'd ever hosted. It was mine and my husband's "small group" from our church. We just started meeting as a group about three months ago. We are as diverse a bunch of people as you could possibly imagine, but every one of us considers our group family now. We are just crazy about each other - all 20 of us! We range in age from 22 - 62. We're from all over the country and we walk a diverse set of paths. But we eat together, play games together, talk together, and study the Bible together like nobody's business! Like you, I am amazed at this bunch God has put together. What a sweet and satisfying mystery!
Kay
My best friend and I are most unlikely loves! She was my home ec teacher in high school ... I was a pathetic tomboy (it was providence that I ended up in home ec instead of shop!). She is a clothes lovin' runner and I'm a sweathog at best! But she loves me anyway ... She is the absolute picture of a Titus 2 woman in my life ... and we were brought together by a prayer that she prayed ... I turned 40 this year and we've been friends for 26 years! I marvel at God's grace and mercy everytime I think of our relationship! There's no shortage of blog space devoted to her influence in my life!
I actually had the audacity to tell God I had enough friends. And wouldn't you know it, less than a month later a family moved in two houses down with kids the same age as mine. Well, you can't ignore those type of folks. Needless to say, we have been two peas in a pod ever since. We are very different - she's even louder than I am, which I can't believe - but we are very, very close friends. I can't thank God enough for her!
I wanted how the carma was comeing along?
I have a few freinds that I am close to that were not alike.I love the way you put things ,& how wounderful it is that you have freinds like that.I have freinds that I hae neve mmet, but some day will. God bless love sister in Christ Victoria from NC ps I feel close to all of you & pray for all of you.
Well, I would have to echo the blog community it is a strange relationship but a love so deep! I think about my siestas and pray constantly. They get to me. Also, if I were going to say an odd pair in Christ it would be me and the man! We are as different as they come but somehow God saw fit that we be together! :) I go back to my prayer journals from 2001-2002 to see where God confirmed that he was the man for me to remind myself when I feel like we couldn't be any more different! LOL!! :)
I have never posted anything here, but I read religiously, but I just had to share this one with you.
Talk about unlikely loves....I was walking to our children's department this past Friday night to pick up my kids after a marriage conference and I heard this little voice say my name. I turned and looked at it was the 2 year daughter of some friends, not friends that we go and do things with, but are really friends at church. Her Mommy told me that for almost 2 weeks she has been praying for me. At bedtime, before every meal, snack time, in the morning and whenever else she decides to just stop everything and pray for me. I was overwhelmed and have just bawled every time I have thought about it since then. When I saw her today, I had to scoop the little thing up and hug her and she hugged back and patted me on the back and whispered my name. Is that a God thing or what?
I am a stay at home mother but the Lord allowed me to get involved in prison ministry. The ladies I serve are some of the best friends I have ever had the pleasure of making.
For a long time, a divorced single woman at church seemed to seek me out. She was quite overweight, on welfare, raising her child alone and about as opposite from me as possible. She was also a Democrat!! I, on the other hand, prided myself with a faithful husband, 3 charming homeschooled children, a ministry with women like me and a higher education. I declined all her invitations for years and carefully avoided even sitting near her. In 2002, soon after my first Beth Moore study (the first one written!), the Lord allowed my life to go into the mire, with only His Hand to hang onto. My pride was flattened and my heart was broken. When things settled down and time had passed, we had left church (for good, I claimed) and our lives were completely turned upside down. Then one morning in our local Staples store, that very woman bumped into me and took the time to ask me how I was doing. What resulted was a miracle. A friendship only the Lord could ordain, a return to the very congregation I had despised, healing and forgiveness that is pretty unbelievable, and slow, steady restoration. I am still in process, but this woman is my best friend in the world and I love her dearly. The hours we have spent together bless my socks off. And how we laugh now at what the Lord has done - in both our lives.
This is too long to print, but thank you for letting me share. Our God is faithful and true. He is I AM. I praise His name.
A neighbor of mine and I would probably never be friends were it not for two things: The Lord and our children. Those two things are about the only things we have in common, but they are more than enough and we have built a solid friendship upon them. We are so very, very different but our friendship has been one I've learned the most from because of our differences. The Lord definitely had some things in mind to teach me when he brought her into my life -- which by the way happened when I was walking by her house. She opened her front door and said hello, asked if I was a stay at home mom, just so randomly. I'm so glad she did...3 years later she's one of my closest friends.
Hey Beth and al ya sistas out there. beth your blog was just what my heart needed. and I had been thinking along the same tracks the last few days. Here is a little writing I journeled the other day. Hope it makes sense. Tee
You remember The short finger play as a child, "Where is Thumbkin?" ? Well, here is a copy to refresh your memory...
Where is Thumbkin
(Start with hands behind back)
Where is thumbkin?
Where is thumbkin?
Here I am (Bring right hand to front, with thumb up)
Here I am. (Bring left hand to front, with thumb up)
How are you today sir?
Very well, I thank you. (Wiggle thumbs as if they're 'talking' to each other)
Run away (Hide right hand behind back)
Run away. (Hide left hand behind back)
Continue with rest of fingers:
Where is pointer? Where is middle man? Where is ring man? Where is pinkie? Where's the whole family?
Well, anyway the other day, Something reminded me of some the finger plays that my mom played with me. I remember as a small child sitting there in awe as she made the thumb and each finger disappear. However, I always felt so sad cause each finger / thumb would run away. I thought actually that maybe it was because I had something to do with it somehow!!! Talk about abandonment issues!!! But, then I thought of another play she also did with me and that was Here is the Church...
Here's the church,
(fingers interlocked; fingers inside)
And here's the steeple.
(index fingers rise to a point)
Open the door
(keep fingers interlocked but turn palms up)
There are all the people.
(wriggle fingers)
So, the Church has been there even when my family ran away.
My co-workers and I lost one of your unlikely loves this past week. A 18 year old young man that we all came to love and adore was killed in a car accident on his way to work this past Tuesday. He was a wonderful young man that came out of a split home, whose mother was not very kind to him, but there wasn't a soul on earth this young man wouldn't help. The roads were not good that night because of snow and it just happened that another co-worker had stopped to help a lady stuck in the ditch and the young man came along and lost control hitting the other co-worker's truck and dying instantly.
We are struggling to work as we adjust to life without Jesse, I ask you all for your prayers as this small overnight crew adjusts to life without Jesse. He didn't care how much you made or anything else, he always wanted to know about you and how you were and took the time to listen. One of the rare geniune people that you meet in the world today.
Simona
I think the most unlikely friendship I've ever seen is Jesus and me. To think that after so many years of me turning my back on Him, He still loved/loves me, took me back and for heaven's sake, He uses me. Blows my poor little mind every day!!
He, the almighty King of the Universe and me, a prodigal of such huge proportions! Mmmm-mmmm!! Sometimes it is almost too much for me and all I can do is fall on my knees and praise Him!
Leah
www.thepoint-leah.blogspot.com
Oh Beth, What an interesting subject: God ordained friendships. My best girlfriend and I have known each other for about 23 or 24 years. She was my senior high school sponsor, and if you would've told me then we'd be best girlfriends now I'd have thought you were crazy.
She is a coach and I am not athletic, she is antique savvy and I am more cottage living, she is Southern Gospel music, and I am bring on the Travis Cottrell, but God had a plan in bringing us together. The layers of love and compassion we share are as unique and different as our personalities. God is so awsome!! Thank you for the opportunity to share the love I have for the differences God has made in us and still made us best girly friends.
Love and hugs,
Petrii
I feel this blog is a friend...or made up of many friends...unseen friends who do care about you and you know will pray for you...how incredible!
And I have a special friend that goes to my church and she is the best friend anyone can have! And then, of course, my Jesus...whom I'm so glad he is my dearest friend because I talk to Him alot about my life and what's going on in my life and what I should do....and He puts up with me because He loves me! :-)
I've noticed that quite a few of the commenting Siestas have mentioned age-difference in their unlikely loves. My own daughter has asked me, "Mom, don't you have any friends your own age?". :o) Of course, I do, and I love them all! However, I DO also have very close friends that are either 15 years younger or older than me. It may be "unlikely", but I've found it to be necessary in gaining perspective and staying grounded...not to mention that it's God-ordained (Titus 2). Man, does God know what He's doing, or what?!
It would have to be my neighbors. I am the only Christian "in the hood" - and at times, it can be a lonely place. God has placed two of my neighbors as "friends" - not the deep heart-friends, but a "we care about each other and will help one another" kind of friend. I'm not sure what I'd do without them as I walk through a life of mom-hood, and working outside the homehood--and unequally yoke-hood in my own marriage. God has provided huge helpmates to me in the most unlikely of places!
Amen and amen.
I continue to marvel at the women God has called to form the community in which I live. We are from all over the country and many different backgrounds. Yet we were all called to this same life of prayer and contemplation. And nearly 50 of us live together, in a really big house, and we get along (for the most part!). Truly, if that isn't grace in action and the Spirit of God then I don't know what is!
Beth, we love you, too.
Your sister - Lynn
Dear Beth,
My best friend is 15 years older than I, but she is such a God-send! We have exactly opposite personalities, but, we get along really well. She is such a servant of Christ and has taught me so much about my Christian walk by her example. I have no doubt that the Lord placed us in each other's lives to "shore" each other up when we need it. But, I also just really enjoy being with her. We can sit in a room and not say a word, yet we both know how each other feels. Isn't the bond that Christ brings to us so wonderful? It makes it possible for "unlikely" pairs to be joined together in fellowship with Him! I think all of our lives become "richer" when we can have these unlikely relationships. We see a perspective and dimension that we probably otherwise would never see. Praise be to God!
Terri in Alabama
Hi Beth,
I'm so excited that I found this blog of yours! You have blessed me so much with your teaching over the years--ever since my church did the study on David. Right now we are in the middle of Daniel. God has so anointed you and we are the ones who are blessed.
Without naming names, we are connected through mutual acquaintances, both with the Passion conferences and your home church. I hope someday we can meet in person.
If you ever bring your ministry to the Chicago area, I'm there! I wish you and your family the most blessed of Christmases.
I can't resist. . .
You should have taken a picture with your new camera so that we could see this uncommon love!
I can't wait til you get it up and running!
So true! Me and my friend were just talking about how friendship is so different with your sisters and brothers is Christ. You have to love a God who can draw all his children together, different as they may be!
I often think this very thing about the friends that God has placed in my life. Many of my closest friends I have met at the weekly Bible study I attend, and boy are these women probably the least likely any of my buddies from high school would expect for me to be friends with. I was a different person then! While I am a young mama of three, 28 yrs. old, I find myself being friends with many women who could be my older sisters or even my mother! I value their friendships more than any other! Friends that God place in our lives are the best friends of all!
Unlikely loves? That would be me + (insert your name here).
Before Christ, I was a bitter, cold-water dumping, wet-blanket laying, all-around killjoy. I was miserable and wanted to be sure you realized you were miserable to. And you usually were when I got done with you.
The fact my black heart now beats red and that anyone could look at me and say, "Love you, Lisa" (and mean it) is a testament to the regenerating, restorative, boundless love of the Father.
Great post, Miss Beth. It's awesome seeing men be open to these kinds of friendships. Healthy hunter/cowboy/musician dude love warms the cockles of my bleeding heart. :)
Lisa
My best friend ans I. She lives in Maine, I live in South Carolina. She has Five kids, I have two. She is always pisture perfect. She loves her pink clothes and I love my comfy jeans. As different as we are we have one thing truly in common. We can spend hours(i'm not kidding) on the phone talking about the Jesus. We met and as different as we look side by side our hearts chief desire is the love we have for Christ. We pray together, share scripture together and do the same Bible studies.Then over the phone talk about what we have learned and what an amazing ride He is taking us on.
I am so blessed by this friend and so happy God choose me to be her friend.
Merry Christmas,
Tabitha
Yes, yes, yes! How amazing is our God! I have had many unlikely friends in the seasons of my life...I have had many weird stares from unknowing strangers who had no clue what blessings come from such seemingly-odd pairings. What blessings would've been missed if I hadn't taken the Lord's urging to get to know someone who may not have been on my friend-radar if it hadn't been for Him.
This season as I listen over and over to Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God, I think of how unlikely all the people involved with Jesus' birth and life were...a lowly carpenter, a scared teenager (and I have to tell myself a young pregnant girl would be scared with what was happening to and in her body even if it was Emmanuel in there), rough shepherds, dirty setting for a birth, Mary and Joseph alone - no midwives...none of this, including the Messiah who was born, were who Israel were expecting to be part of their saving grace.
We have an unlikely God who sees the beauty in all He has created - plus as we have said in other blogs, He likes surprises AND mystery AND He has a fabulous sense of humor. He is so good! He is just amazing! Thank you, Lord!
There is a woman at church that I've seen for years. I've been at FBC since 1977. But not the whole time. Noticed this woman then. I remember when I would see her I thought not someone I would be interested in knowing. A bit older and what looked to me as a religious person and not a fun person. But, since 2006 and being in the choir I've gotten to know her. A very tender person she is toward Jesus. When she prays she weeps. She is simple and I really love that. And when I start joking around and can be funny she cracks up with me! When she told me I was a friend to her, I was floored, because I think so highly of her now.
Last year I was in the christmas program at church, FBC (First Baptist Church). I noticed this young woman in her 20's in the choir and in the program too. Not friendly, aloof and stand offish. One song we were to sing was the Little Drummer Boy. And I love that song. During intermission a whole set of drummers were out in the lobby doing a small drumming thing. The choir waiting, watching, preparing to go in to the second half. I was so stirred up by those drums (and i can be pretty demonstrative at times) that I started jumping pretending I was playing drums. Someone from the choir said to me, "were you in the high school band?" No! I wish I could play the drums!. Then this young lady I mentioned saw me and said, "You! You!, I want what you have!" From that point on we were like best buds. Just loving on each other each time we see each other. It was differently unlikely!
Allison
Jesus is so much the common denominator and with that, any thing can happen! I too have marveled over how God ordains a relationship. I've only been a Christian for 8 years of the 42 years that make up my life. In saying that, the last 8 years God has truly brought some incredible women into my path. One being my past housekeeper when I finally asked her to come to church, it was like the parting of the waters. Our relationship grew into a FRIENDSHIP! A year or so after that, her daughter accepted Christ and asked me to be her Spiritual Mother (God-Mother). What an honor, and only because of Christ!
Love you all, dearly!
Yolanda
As I grow older I find there is only one characteristic that I need in a friend, and that is a love and a devotion to Jesus. I have one friend who enjoys the things I do and other friends who hate those things and they are all friends to each other, the reason I think, is because all our eyes light up at the mention of Jesus. We all are in love with the same person and delight to share new things we find out about Him.
But, this should not be a surprise look at Jesus's disciples. John, the disciple who Jesus loved, could not have been more different from Peter, who was also part of Jesus enter circle.
The mountain is the most beautiful when contrasted with the valley.
Love to all my friends, fellow lovers of Jesus,
Wanda, in Georgia
Beth,
That was the sweetest post. I met a treasured sister through this blog and it has amazed me how God has knit our hearts together. Though we have only met once briefly, I find myself praying for her and thinking of her like I have known her my whole life. Amazing--she is precious and so are you! Thanks for sharing so much with us.
There is a couple at church that we just really clicked with. We are in our 30's and they are in their 60's. They are incredible people of faith that are just actually so very cool! Seriously, we love hanging out with them! We have had them over for dinner. They had us (and the kids) out on their boat. We have gone out after church for lunch! We truly love this couple! They are the real deal!
Tony Evans did a sermon on the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ and likened it to (forgive me) mayo! Water and oil are the first two ingredients and we all know they don't mix but you put the egg in there and it makes a beautiful thing!! (-: The Holy Spirit is our glue that holds us together! May He open our eyes so we make much of Him and little of us...
I know exactly what you mean. When you see this w/your very own eyes, it's a beautiful thing indeed.
We went to China in Feb. to adopt and traveled w/10 other families. We experienced our babies being placed in our arms for the 1st time together, and spent our first 14 days as family side by side. These 10 families could not be more different. It's really amazing how different we all are, but our babies spent the 1st 10 months of their lives together and we are forever linked. I love these other families with a deep and abiding love. People I would have NEVER gotten to know in my regular life. I am so grateful to God that he chose these specific families, it has made me see others, who are very different than me, in a new light. I love how God works, love it!
Two years ago we moved from AR to MD, big culture shock. When we found a church to attend I was eager to make new friends since I was a new mom and needed some mom support.
There was a woman that just rubbed me the wrong way but I couldn't put my finger on why. I never expected to have a relationship with her. Later she asked me to join her and another mother with a child the same age as mine at her house for a Beth Moore bible study. I agreed and started to love her so much. We had bible study at her house every week. Not long after we finished the study she moved to Spain (her husband was a Navy doctor). I miss her now. God works is crazy ways and he used your bible study to make that friendship happen. We still stay in contact through my blog and email. Praise God for unlikely loves.
My unlikely love would definitely be my hubby. As Melissa (@ breath of life) said, our personalities are as different as night and day. Well, we started out that way, but after 24 years of marriage, we've blended quite a bit :o)
We just joined a new church this summer, and are so enjoying getting to know the people in our Sunday School class. For the most part, they all grew up in the same small town in Tennessee, and are wildly different. I love how we are all so unique.
Hugs,
Adrienne
It never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit can touch your heart to develop friendships that seem odd. Not even that - how about friendships with people you weren't even sure about before your shared passion for the Word made Flesh made you Siestas! Now you would feel incomplete without them! God is so good!!!
This is so true and it brought tears to my eyes...along with Elaine's post on her "fake" friendships. What a testimony you have with the Lord, sister! Isn't He just the most awesome thing? Even when it hurts so bad you could pull your hair out, He will not stop doing what is best for the one He loves and has chosen. He is so faithful to perfect us. Man, you just have to love Him!
Your eyes are always open to recognize the work of our God.
I will just say that once I opened myself up to the possibility of the "unlikely love" thing, the opportunities just started pouring in to really love people deeply even if I didn't have much in common with them, and the same thing has happened to my husband... Love you too.
I sometimes think that my husband and I are like Donny and Marie's song--except he's a little bit country and I'm a little bit rock n roll. He loves old fashion blue grass music--loves Kentucky Cats, wears boots,just a good ole boy, on my end--didn't grow up in the country, i love the city, and all that goes with it. The one thing that joins us is Christ. He is the center of the joy of both of our lives. We minister as a team--he's the fireball preacher and i'm the cheerleader on the side. That's what makes life so grand is that God designs us to fit in His mold but with different flares and likes and dislikes but altogether!!
That's what is great about the body of Christ.
I cannot tell you how many times Jesus has stirred in my heart a love so deep - it blindsided me - but for people that I really should hate - people that had struck to hurt...ya know what I mean? The real mind-blowing thing is how many people He has allowed to treasure and love me...because I know that in itself is a gift from Him! Thanks for the post - love you girl! Sunshine
The simplicity of God ...isn't it beautiful! He always shows up and He always delivers what we need! God has certainly brought some unlikely friends into my life for which I am forever grateful.Being single,my close friends are all married and have children. While we certainly have our differences, we try not to dwell on them instead we enjoy the things we have in common...God,family, friends, and shopping!!!Thanks for sharing about Keith and Travis' friendship...it's a wonderful example of God's unfailing love for his children.
Blessings.
C. Anne
The dearest people to me in my life are a group of women I meet with at my church. I was asked to co-lead this group of "younger women" in the study of the Patriarchs that God blessed us with through you, Beth. Well us women, me 23 and the rest "39"+ have made fast friends. I am daily blown away at their vulnerability to let me, a child, into the honest depth of their hurts-- broken marriages, sick children, career re-workings-- and consider me a peer, a sister in Christ and not a daughter in Christ. My life, and most certainly my faith, is forever changed from gleaning Truth in their perspectives.
Amazing relationships brought together by Jesus... Hmm.. lets start with the HUSBAND!!! Totally opposite of me in EVERY way and yet we are crazy about each other...even when we drive each other crazy. We are two incomplete halves that Jesus made whole.
Then there is the best friend who comes from a completely different background and saved late in life...I marvel at Gods timing... when he brings friends to each other.
or how about the sister in law who has always managed to be a real "sister friend" and not like a relative at all.
I could go on and on... Meeting people on the other side of the world that I never saw before and because of Jesus feeling like I've known them my whole life...
Thank you Beth for these thoughts..
Heidi in Georgia
Elaine,
Thank you for your post. I, too, often tried too hard instead of allowing God to bring His chosen friendships - or sometimes ease one out of my life.
I'm having lunch with a new friend today...and we're both named Beth...do you think God meant this message for me????
This story makes me laugh. My best friend and I started out as casual friends. God laid on my heart to ask her to be my accountability partner(while doing When Godly People do Ungodly Things)she agreed and after 7 years of that you no choice but to become close. Complete opposites doesn't even begin to describe the two of us. I grew up as a goodie goodie hypocrite (that God miraculously saved) and she grew up doing all of the things I would have never ever done. I would have judged her to death (she was delivered also, but not until after many scars...her testimony is much like yours Beth). Robyn is 16 years older than me, but I could never tell. People ask if we are sisters all the time...sometimes we are asked if we are twins (she has RED hair and I have BLONDE - we look nothing alike). We laugh and say the Jesus in us makes us look alike. She is my God given sister and encourager. Our favorite thing is to visit you at your conferences. We have gone almost 1000 miles round trip to be fed by Jesus through you. We do a lot of feeding and desperately need to be taught sometimes. God has graciously given us a women and girl's ministry that is a huge blessing and takes a lot of devotion. We plan to see you in Jacksonville and Atlanta this year. We are anticipating a great time! ~Aleah
Oh yes indeed, I have an odd couple for you. That would be me and most of my dear Christian girlfriends in this community. To say I have an unchurched background is nominating myself for understatement of the year. I had the most worldly upbringing possible, raised on MTV and Top40 Radio and R-Rated movies, pop-culture saturation. My dear friends in the small town I have moved to, come from very conservative Christian homes, many of them only a generation away from the Mennonite communities that populate this area of Ontario, most of whom shun any sort of worldly entertainment.
So my favorite example of this is when I was going on a girls weekend with these lovely sisters of mine, and I put in one of my Beatles cds (which, if you read a previous post of mine, all of my secular stuff is on hold right now as I am trying to allow God to guide me on what is acceptable and what isn't, but I digress) into the cd player in the car. None of the girls knew who the Beatles were. The BEATLES for crying out loud. Ok, so we're listening to the cd, and I then take it out and put in Frank Sinatra's greatest hits. Two songs in one of my dear, dear friends leans forward and says, "I'm sorry, Nicole, but could we listen to something other than the Beatles now? How about some Casting Crowns?"
Bless her cotton socks, she didn't know the difference between the Beatles and Frank Sinatra!! It is a wonderful example of how different I am in these superficial ways from most of my girlfriends, we have such different beginnings but we are so bonded in Jesus Christ and that bond is much stronger than anything else. It's a miracle indeed. :)
Ooh! I have one! My husband and I are artists... he an art director and me, an illustrator. Our best friends in this ND town are quite hilariously a Cow Scientist PhD and a Physical Therapist/Gymnastics Coach. Women... well, we all can get a long. But I get the biggest kick out of our husbands... one of the most gifted designers/artists I've ever known who you'd think could care less about cow rumen and cow pies and cow food... and one of the most brilliant scientists who you'd definitely think wouldn't even sneeze in the direction of anything art. Yet somehow, God has brought them together as great chums. I marvel at this often! Our God is so wonderful! Oh how I love Him!
I just got back from taking my step grandma to the airport after a MOST WONDERFUL visit. So of course when you mention unlikely loves, I think of her and my grandfather. My grandfather passed away a month ago, after 25 years of marriage to a most unlikely love. He was 27 years her elder which unfortunately brings immediate judgement from those who don't know them. But those who do know them know that they were a match made in heaven. Their differences in age and personality were used by God to touch the lives of more people than I could even count. They lived and traveled many years in their RV and were on a mission to reach out and witness to all they came in contact with at campgrounds, on the road, ANYWHERE! With my grandpa gone, a part of her is gone, but she is living day by day with God's grace in her "new normal". Thanks for letting me share.
Kelli in Ohio
how truly beautiful is the body of Christ. I am living in nepal and I have found our fellowships on sunday nights with other "m" from all different companies and countries to be an amazing blessing. God promises that he sets the lonely in families in Psalms. I left an amazing body of Christ in america to come serve God in a foreign land.. but yet God has placed me in a family. We are very different from eachother... but I was just thinking last night as we sat around at our fellowshiph by candlelight (it was load sharing night, no electricity) that it was like the early church.. sharing our lives in common bond to spread the gospel. From a tennesse girl like me, to a hippy girl in dreadlocks, to a girl from uganda.. we are all here serving GOD in a dark place.
Travis and Angie are my favorite praise and worship musicians and knowing both your families through the years from Bible studies and conferences it thrills my heart to know those two guys are so close!
My odd relationship with my prayer partner actually developed from being in one of your Bible studies together about 4 yrs ago!!
We are total opposites with two things in common, we love the Lord and we love your Bible studies and conferences and have traveled all over the southeast together going to Living Proof Live. It has been one ofthe richest freindships I have been blessed with in my years!! So thanks for being the go between for God to bring us together!!!
Hi, Beth!
My unlikely love would be my former neighbor, Anne. She did her best to be invisible, but God chose my husband and I to love her with HIS love! She tried to sell her house probably three different times, but God kept her here until she made her relationship with him a priority. I will never forget her beaming face when she came over to tell us that she was right with God and to thank us for praying. She was able to sell her house about six months later and then was called to heaven two months later through a car accident.
Thank you Jesus for unlikely loves!
Dawn
My "unlikely love" is my dear friend Lory- we met as counselors at church camp, she is 20 yrs older than me and her oldest child is almost my age, but we have become the CLOSEST friends- she calls me her "Jonathan" we are two spirits knit together in our souls. We are an unlikely pair- but love each other so dearly. She is an example and an inspiration to me...especially as I am just starting out raising my daughter (who's 2) and she has her 3 girls who are 17, 19, and 21! She has so much to teach me, but we also learn from each other. I thank God continually that He brought us together on that bus heading to church camp- we went to minister to the youth...and ended up meeting a lifelong friend and being ministered too!! GOD IS GOOD!
I've had several of these "Jesus misfits" friendships! One of my newest is "Lucy" aka Tracy from SC. We "met" thru this blog as a matter of fact. I mentioned I was going to see you in Columbia, SC on a comment, she then linked to my blog to say she'd be there too and we've spoken at least 2-3 times a week since then! We love Jesus most, our men and our families next and we LOVE YOU, Beth!! Our lives have so many things in common and we've encouraged each other SOOO many times that we know it's a "God-thang!" All this and we've actually only been face to face ONE TIME! AMAZING how God can allow us to open ourselves up to one another because we know He'll guard and protect us!
Another misfit is my sweet friend at church Lisa. We're so much alike that it has to be Jesus that keeps us together otherwise we'd HATE each other!! teehee We have a lot of things in common, we have a VERY similar (twisted) sense of humor, similar taste in clothes, we're both musically gifted (if we do say so ourselves! haha) but more than all those things we have a wild love for Jesus! We meet every other Monday night to pray in our prayer room at church and it's not 5 minutes til we're both on our faces ballin' like idiots and then laughing like we've lost our minds! AND we both LOVE that God made us that way!
We're all just a bunch of misfits in a world that isn't our home!! Praise Jesus!
Ms Beth,
I have to say the most unlikely relationship is this whole blogging friendship. I have met the most wonderful women. We have talked on the phone, met in person, prayed for one another, cried for each other, laughed together, encouraged one another and just truly enjoyed growing that relationship. I had no idea that starting a blog for my friends and family would turn into such a true JOY!!
I honestly love these women and CAN NOT WAIT to meet them in San Antonio.
God is so GOOD!!
We love you and appreciate all you, Amanda, Melissa and everyone at LPM do!!
God bless,
Kim
Ohh, I have a story for you. I have trouble writing my name in one paragraph, so I'm doing my best to keep it brief! :) My Lisa and I met when I was in middle school. How? She was my awkard redheaded pubescent boyfriend's mother! He and I grew tired of each other fairly quickly, but, much to his dismay, it was after she had led me to the love of my life: Jesus. Lisa took me to church and was there when I fell on my knees and begged my Lord to lift me back up. In the twelve plus years we've known each other, we have been to two Beth Moore conferences (I had to say it), I've gotten married, and had three babies, the last of which was my Miller Grace who God was gracious enough to carry home after just five days. Lisa, though she has moved several states away now, jumped in the car and came to my side... not only because she loves me, but because her youngest son has gone home to Jesus in the time we've known each other, too. An awkward middle school student and a bossy mother. Only God could have ever known we would be the best of friends, who share everything... even grief over babies awaiting us in Heaven.
We Love you too!
:-)
In the midst of trying to "fit in" at church, navigating the maze of women's events in the attempt to find my place, I have met some unlikely loves. I am a 36 year old wife and proud mother of 2 boys - 7&9. Because of a ministry that was faithfully put into my hands, I now count several women who have experienced more life than I have, as friends. All three could be my mother. I run to put my arms around them when I see them, have cried in their arms, and have laughed until my sides hurt when in their presence.
So, to you, Jan Freeman, Joy Conway, Cathie Kirsch.....I thank you for loving me in a way that has made me a better woman in every way. I thank God often for those "unlikely loves" that can change your life!
This is an easy one. For some reason, I always attract friends who are nothing like me. My dear sisterface always shakes her head and laughs at my eclectic friendly group gatherings. She always says “you and your friends are like night and day, I don’t understand these relationships.” Probably half of my closest friends are non-believers…half of which are pretty close to not being in the non-Christian group. ;) I guess that is the evangelist in me. Anyway, one of my closest friends, while we do not share many commonalities, is the best person to spend time with. We love cabin time…that’s our link. Our cabins are places where we can just be us and respect each other’s differences. If we eat…I say grace. If I say “what a pretty blue bird,” she reprimands me because they are not blue birds; they are Steller’s Jay’s (I still call them blue birds just to get her going). I fish, she sunbathes; and I sit silent…quietly chuckling as she bounces off the walls and bellows out show tunes.
I deeply love my friends because they are who I am not, and I learn from them (sometimes learn too much), and every one of them know that as much as I care for them, Christ loves them more…and they are ok with that.
My unlikely relationship is with my husband. I am a professional woman with a college education - boring, really. Always did the right thing, never any trouble... and I married the most fun redneck who hunts and fishes and spits. Easter Sunday means he wears his good jeans. I'm crazy about him and he won't let me take myself too seriously. God is so good to not answer my prayers to give me who I thought I wanted. Instead, I have the most down-to-earth man who loves me unconditionally. For added fun, God gave him two more girly-girl daughters to live with besides me!
My husband and I share in a ministry that is full of unlikely loves. Take our relationship with a young minority woman with three small girls and a little boy on the way. She and my husband (who is definately old enough to be her father) gab for hours on end about everything you could imagine. She is family. We love her like our own and we feel like we have 3.5 grandchildren.
Love to you and your family and all my siesta's!
Kristi B.
I do not usually post as "anonymous" but my unlikely love seems to be turning more and more unlikely than love. My husband and I have had a hard marriage... we are complete opposites.... grew up TOTALLY different (I'm a Southern gal and he's from Cali) we just can't seem to get it together. we are growing farther apart though neither of us want to. we are just too lazy to try to fix it.... some prayers sure would be a blessing.
How sweet Keith is!
I have had several people come & go in my life. Special people...special situations how we've met, but mine has to be my husband. His is a sad story, but we never would have met had it not happened and his dad would probably have passed away a lost man had this not happened.
My husband was seven and had four older siblings and one younger when his mother was killed in a car accident. Picturing his dad at that funeral with all of those children still makes me cry to this day. My husband's mom attended church and took the kids, but their dad never went. He was a very different man then, than when he died a few years ago. After she was killed he gave his life completely to the Lord and through a pastor who moved to the town I live in, eventually his family moved here too. He and I started going to church together when we were in Jr. High. (we were just great friends until our jr. year in high school) His dad (who has since passed away) had the most remarkable testimony. I remember one day he came to our house and I was the only one there and he told it to me. So sweet!! He met and married my husband's step mom. I am very close to my mother-in-law & we are blessed to attend church with her still. She, by the way was in her early thirties when she met my husband's dad and she was not ever able to have children. God blessed her to marry this man with all of these children and be a blessing to them and to me. (not an easy job for a woman used to living alone etc.)
I still feel so sad sometimes when I think about those kids losing their mother, but I know she is smiling down from heaven and seeing us and our family praising God and knowing we will see her again someday.
God works in ways we cannot see at the time.
Oh Beth to talk about old couples (friends)that God has put together. What an extraordinary time for your post. Saturday night the some of the closest friends in my life came to my house for a early Christmas gathering. First off there is Troy (whose pic is on my blog) we have been friends for 4 yrs. Then came along Duke and Melanie they moved here from California 2 yrs ago complete opposites (we're southern and their from California that is just a little joke we have) and then a little over a year ago came Kevin and Christie the youngest couple of the bunch. Since I am keeping it short I want go into any detail on the difference because it could take all day, but the one thing that counts that makes our friendship great is that we all are madly in love with our Lord Jesus.
Also, I really enjoy that group of different friends and siesta that I have met and read about since I started blogging. Thanks Beth if it hadn't been for reading your blog for the first time I would not have met all these nice ladies that have a true love for God.
Becky
Attalla, AL
Mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws are supposed to be natural enemies, right? Not in my case! My husband and I have been "together" since we were teenagers, and his mother is a great woman of God. I was already a Christian when we were dating, and had grown up in a Christian family, but SHE had the family that I really wanted someday -- loving, always accepting, always laughing together. On top of that, they took me in like one of their own when I started dating their son. She treated me like I was her own daughter.
When I was in college I worked the night shift. Their house was just a few miles from my work, and my future husband and I went to the same college. So, I would get off work at 7am, drive to their house, wait for my guy to finish getting ready, and then we would carpool to the university together. Every morning -- every SINGLE morning -- that I entered their house, I was met with the same scene. My future mother-in-law in her bathrobe, sitting in her favorite well-worn chair, her reading glasses on and a steaming cup of coffee on the table next to her. She always had her Bible in her lap, deep in thought...or prayer. She loved Jesus so much...still does.
In my mind, I connected the vision of her in that position with her Lord, to the woman she was and the family she had, which I wanted to have so badly when I "grew up". The Lord taught me through her that if I was going to cultivate a wonderful, strong family of my own someday, it was going to have to start with me in that same worshipful position. My mother-in-law has been the number one spiritual influence in my life, and I absolutely adore her. We're strange friends, considering the in-law relationship that a lot of gals have, and I'm so thankful for it!
I love you, too, siesta teacha and firend. I was just talking with one of my unlikely loves... a woman old enough to be at least my aunt if not my mother. She has a daughter 10 years younger than I. We laughed at ourselves when we realized that the age doesn't seem to make the difference, it is the relationship with Christ that draws us in. She is one of my dearest friends, the person I consider to be my best friend in recent years in some 20 years my senior and she has children my age. But, we relate on such deep levels with Christ in common. I no longer attend church with her and --- well, she was my co-worker then as well... We saw each other everyday and talked often - even on weekends. I miss her - I think I'll call her after I get off the net... Blessings indeed.
Michelle
My best friend and I are an unlikely pair because we are so different! But we've been friends for 20 years now! I also have to say the blogging community of Siestas that I've made friends with (even though I don't have a blog).
I think about unlikely loves often because my best friend and I are such unlikely loves.
We met three years ago on a missions trip to help after the Asian tsunami. She was a baby Christian with an abusive marriage and two kids. I was an older Christian, single and recent college graduate. She was high-class, the wife of a dentist. And I was nearly broke. Our past couldn't have been more different.
Our relationship has been through good and bad times - the worst being when her husband took his life a year ago. But what God has done in both of our lives since then has been amazing.
We're looking forward to what the future holds for both of us (including godly husbands and children!) - and so thankful to God for bringing us together.
I too love how the Lord takes away those sterotypes and just lets us love one another. Two of my best friends in our church are my go to people when I have a need. One is ten years my junior and the other is 20. (we celebrated our 40th, 50th and 60th birthdays in the last year and 1/2. Guess whos the oldest) We have the best time together and age rarely enters into it. Carrie keeps me up on all the latest music and Patty makes me feel like we are the same age.The only thing that depressed me was when I found out that Carrie's husband & my son played basketball against each other in Jr high... (I was a young mother!!)God bless you Beth, I feel as though you are one of those friends as well.
Looking forward to the day we can ALL be together.
Merry Christmas
PS the King Ranch Chicken is fantastic!!!
My bff ;) and I met under the worst of circumstances...in a cancer clinic (she and my daughter were in treatment together). And as strange as this sounds, the minute I spoke to her, I knew she'd be in my life forever. We were an unlikely pair. She was much younger than me, single, no children. I was in my early thirties, happily married and a mom to two little girls. But we had a shared love of Jesus that bonded us like holy glue and we were inseparable. She went to live with our savior almost two years ago and I miss her every single day. But you know, I was right about that first day we met. We will be together forever, we just have to patiently wait on the reunion that we know will come some day :)
Love you too Beth. Merry Christmas!!!
Beth - your insight is precious. I can just visualize everything you wrote even to seeing you ALL in the "pew" at church yesterday morning! (And that was without a digital picture. I told you your words paint vivid imagery for me!)
Oh, I just love Travis Cottrell - his CD's are in 5 of the 6 CD slots in my car stereo right now. (The 6th one contains Christmas music I am learning for choir.) I listened to Shackles all the way in to work...really really loudly! :) So good - so good!
My precious pairing is with a woman at church that assists me with the Women's Ministries. She is Cindy, I am Jan (No Brady Bunch here!) She is blond, I am brunette; she rides a motorcycle, I will not-cannot-scared to; her husband is not a believer, my man is the worship pastor; she doesn't do "makeup and hair" except for special occasions, I fix up to go to the mailbox; she's in the details, I'm for the big picture; she's behind the scenes and I'm at the microphone. We are as different as daylight and dark, but I Love her to pieces!!!
The bond for us is JESUS and a desire to minister to the precious women in our church and community. It just doesn't get any better. God is so good to me.
PS: My man gave me some beautiful black lizard-skin cowboy boots for my 50th birthday last month! Hal-lu-jah!
I LOVE YOU BETH!
Jan
Isaiah 58:11
First of all, the group of women on my side bar have all become such encouragers. Being the wife of a youth minister I don't usually have the luxury of a lot of close "real" friends. For some reason the people are just so distant (I wrote about this on my blog today)
But I have started to find a friend in this one lady at our current church. I wouldn't have thought the two of us would have "that" much in common. We dress totally different. I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of gal and she is always dressed "to the t". The only thing I had found that we had in common at this point, other than we both love the Lord, was that we were both BIG supporters of our youth group.
Anyway, we were sitting in the sanctuary last Thursday night, practicing for our singing Christmas tree and the two of us started talking. For SOME reason the conversation ended up on candy and chocolate (if you can imagine that!) In our conversation we found out that both of us LOVE, the same Movie Candy....Junior Mints, Chocolate Covered Raisins, and anything with Dark Chocolate. Then she said to me...."Okay, one more thing, and if you like this, then this is all too crazy...Do you like chocolate covered cherries?" I died laughing, and told her "YES!! But I only have them around Christmas." And she said, "Me Too!!!"
I thought we were an unlikely pair, but turns out we are "Two Peas in a Pod!"
Beth,
Our unlikely relationship is me, the gal who has 3 colors in her hair, a diamond stud in her nose who is more comfortable in high heels and Lucky jeans than anything in the world.. .and adores Jesus... and some of my praying friends are the Amish.. in our small community in Indiana. They give me raw milk, eggs, milk and love.. oh how they love! And they love me! What a hoot, I bring out the 'joy' of Jesus they tell me.. and oh, I know Jesus loves this unity! Praise HIS name! Divertisy in harmony, His way.
Sandi Krakowski
Differences can keep the relationships exciting. I have a friend, she and I are as different as the extreme textures of sand paper. She is a well known leader in the community, higher class of living, and gorgeous. I on the other hand, sqeak out a meger living, am unknown. But we both adore our God, and love each other. We are a GOOD balance for each other, and NEVER run out of things to sit and chat about (for hours) She views much of life from her fast paced jet-setting, where I view from my quiet slow pondering. God is good to expose us to qualities that we can sooo appreciate and not grow tired of.
After reading todays blog, I ran upstairs and got my journal so I could share what I wrote just last week...My life is not normal. I find myself in countless situations thinking "this is not normal" "most people don't do this". This morning I sat across the table from a beautiful girl, who less than a year ago, was a stripper and a prostitute and listened as she spoke of God's provision and His great love for her. My gaze is fixed upon her gorgeous eyes and flawless complexion, she's radiating Jesus. All I can think is, why? Why would I get the honor of spending time with her? Why does God entrust one like me with one as precious as she? The God who created the universe and every single thing in it changed her life completely and for some unknown reason allows me to be a part of it! Who am I lord that you are mindful of me?
Mama B,
Well I have been blessed with one INCREDIBLE best friend to do life and this Jesus thing with. Our personalities are actually not that different, but she is twice my age (shhh!!!) which from the confused looks I get, I can tell is not typically the norm!
Our friendship was born out of what was probably the most horrible, nightmarish time in her life...and our hearts were glued together because of it. She has seen my heart at its ugliest and loves it anyway. Her heart is the most precious thing to experience, and if I have an ounce of the Jesus that she does when I die I'll be doing alright. She is the spitting image of an angel and the definition of sweet.
Her nickname to me is 'Orange', but you know her as Kathy Johnson (we sure know how to pick a best friend huh, Mama B?!?!) :)
Love her...and you...
I have a friend who has struggled in her life with her on again, off again lesbian lifestyle. Talk about an unlikely friend. I don't agree with her choices all the time but I'm drawn to her. And I really enjoy being with her. We make each other laugh. My husband and I have been friends with her for 8 years or so. My prayer is that one day she'll know who she is and WHOSE she is.
My "unlikely love" is my husband's ex-wife. Yep, you read that correctly. She is such a treasure to me! I could go on and on about what a wonderful woman she is. Even though we are very different, we love to be together ... and serve the Lord together! She came to know Christ after I continued inviting her to the women's retreats at my church ... and she finally came. NOW we coordinate the women's retreat together as a team. Isn't that awesome?!? Sometimes Jesus can cause you to go way beyond where society tells you to go, just to reach people in His precious Name.
My favorite is when you meet someone who you think you have NOTHING in common with only to find out how much you actually DO have in common.
For years I had been a member of the Maw Maw club(not a member of the popular club)and it seemed as if I was going to finally become a member of the "desirables". Our womens group was to make a trip to Houston for Women Of Faith with the advance by Kay Arthur and I was going to get to go with the "desirables". There were two women who were also going who were part of the Maw Maw club with me. I just knew I was going to get "stuck" with them in their room. And yes, that is exactly what happened.But God knows what He is doing when He directs(protects)our steps.One of the women in our room had a deep hunger for God that matched mine. We went to see Kay Arthur and some blond haired woman named Beth Moore prayed before Kay stood up to speak. Little did I know how this blond haired woman would become a fantastic mentor.(thank you girl)
Anyhoo, God began to show me that it was fine to be a Maw Maw. What it wanted was not what I needed. And what I wanted to avoided became the best blessing I could have asked for. She is still a dear friend some 7 years later. She knows me and pushes me to be the woman of God He wants me to be.
Being a member of the Maw Maw club has its benefits. :)
Wow-so true! Perhaps the one person who sticks out for me most is the woman who "loved me into the Kingdom." Ann and I had NOTHING in common; she was a military wife, a stay at home mother, a Christian who walked the walk and talked the talk and someone who would share what Jesus meant to her with a treestump if given half a chance. I was a single, working professional, 'cultural Christian' who wasn't much interested in hanging out with an evangelical. Normally I would have run in the opposite direction from someone like her; however, for "some reason" I loved spending time with Ann and her family. (Of course in retrospect it was obviously God's doing.)
Five months after seeing Jesus lived out in Ann's life and knowing that she loved me through His eyes and with His heart, I stopped playing Christian and gave my life to the Lord.
Although I seldom see her anymore, I know that she is there if I need someone to pray for me or to walk with me through a decision. Knowing her changed me forever.
BTW, I made both King Ranch Chicken and Texas Sheet Cake this past weekend (2 potlucks!) both were a raving success. Even though I'm not a "professional", I used Rotel's Extra Hot version of diced tomatoes and chilies!
my "unlikely love" is my husband. i told my mother and friends for years that i needed a "big, tall" man. my hubby is 5'7" and 155 lbs dripping wet! i wanted someone from Texas. he is from chicago. i'm from the country. he's from the city. i am a homebody. he likes to go out and socialize. i'm a saver. he's a spender. i'm a planner. he's spontaneous...
when we first got married, many of these differences felt overwhelming and almost like God had made some sort of "mistake" in bringing us together. but we have begun to really appreciate each other's differences and see how God uses them to balance our relationship. i think the more we have learned to value each other's personality and strengths, the sweeter our love is growing.
it's also a comfort to know that we're not the only ones that appeared to be "mis-matched." haha!
Ya know how you meet someone and – to put in nicely - you DON'T click? Well, I've learned that I should sit back and wait because we'll be best friends before long.
My closest friend from high-school is a male, Asian, atheist. As a Christian conservative, this friendship is bizarre. We met while arguing against each other in ethics class. We’re miles away, but our families are still close…sharing Christ with him for more than 20 years. (Your prayers are welcomed!)
On Sunday, I said goodbye to a girlfriend who is moving to the mid-west. She attended our church saying that she doesn't like "seeker-friendly" churches. My passion is evangelism, so I felt like asking, “so seeker-UNfriendly churches are your cup of tea?” Fast forward 18 months later...great friends.
When I meet someone and we don't connect, I just feel like saying, “whether you like it or not – which you won’t - we’ll be best friends before long. You just wait!”
Love in Sweet Jesus,
Susan
I was just thinking almost the same thing last night... had my accountability buddies (we are 4 strong) and their hubbies over for some dinner. Thinking how we are so different, but they are so precious to me...even when I think not. We are an odd brew, but I am so grateful that they have prayed for, with, over and on their knees for me for years. Our season of life has changed and we have gone from once a week to lunch once a month... but I will so treasure our LOVE for Jesus and love for each other! Thanks for sharing and loving your family so much. It keeps me encouraged!
I can't believe the timliness of this, but I just returned from my afternoon study group where we listened to the fourth installment of your Wising Up series about Friendships. Wow!!! I was so blessed by the lesson, but sad too as I was missing my best friend who is traveling because of a death in her family. Sigh. One of my favorite things about this blog is the online community. There are SO MANY women of God here, and I love checking out what's going on in their 'your' worlds. Thank you for being a blessing and for ministering to me and each other. Love you bunches!
Almost 8 years ago I was asked to be the leader of a Mom’s Group at church. I was a very young believer and when I was asked to lead I said I would pray about it, mostly because I wanted to be sure they had asked the right person! At this point in my Christian walk I knew how to find two books of the bible: Genesis and Revelation. I wasn’t exactly sure I could be a Girl Scout leader much less a Christian leader. This insecurity was doubled when I received my roster and Jenifer was on the list. Not only was she beautiful, and smart, but she was (GASP!) a pastors wife! I was very intimidated by her and when I first met her I remember coming home and thinking that there wasn’t any way I could lead a group with this woman in it! She, of all people, would see that I was highly unqualified! To make matters worse, she was quiet, only saying the perfect things at the perfect time. I on the other hand could be quiet if I tried real hard, but often chose not to. I never thought in a MILLION years that she would be the friend whom I could share my darkest hours and my greatest joys. I definitely think God has a great sense of humor, because Jen supported me when My Mister went to DTS, with thoughts of being (GASP!) a pastor. My heart cannot contain my gratitude that God picked her and I to be friends, because I don’t even want to think about how different my life would be had he let me do the picking!
Just this weekend I was talking with friends about all the people in the Body with whom I never believed I'd find common ground, yet today, I'd have to say I see God's hand more clearly in those relationships than many of the ones that seemed to come so much "easier" initially.
My unlikely love is also my husband. We've scored exactly opposite on any personality test we've ever taken. Our only common areas on spiritual gifts test are that we are NOT artistic, musical, or handy (are you picturing my home?). Outside of knowing Jesus our marriage almost crumbled. In fact, that tragedy is what brought us to the Lord. With one fail swoop, our Father reached down, grabbed us both by the scruff our necks, pulled us out of the pit and set us on a firm foundation- he is Christ the Lord! Hallelluiah! Sisters, as sure as I'm sitting here typing, He saved our marriage and our lives. The couple who was destined to divorce with little common ground is learning to love Jesus and each other more every day. Thanks for the question, Miss Beth, it surely has me reflecting and praising our Lord. Bless you all, love in Jesus, Kim in PA
My friend Rachel is 23 and I am 40 (a very fun and funky 40). Four years ago when I went through a divorce, Rachel was a Hope College student (I an alumni) and I was invited to lead these students on a mission trip to Jamaica. Rachel and I both have wacky personalities, a love for people and the nations. THEN...this summer, I was asked to lead a team of educators to South Africa for Vox United and come to find out Rachel was on the team! We roomed together and I felt like I was in college again. We cracked ourselves up all the time! We are both single and desperately want to serve our God by blessing the orphan and widow in developing countries. I wonder where God will send Rachel and I next;) GO GLOBAL!
First I would have to say this community of siesta's. That just blows my mind.
But a little closer to home, the 4 ladies God pulled together to minister to women. ("Freedom's Call") Each one of us is at a different point in life, but God has so woven our hearts together. I can't imagine a day without one of them! They are so precious to me.
This makes me almost "homesick" for heaven, and even more excited about Siesta Fiesta!
Blessings to you all!
stephanie
Well, I couldn't resist this one. Mine is one of my dearest friends in the world named Betty. She's 76; I'm 36. We worked together at a hospital in Ft. Worth years ago. I was just a kid and she was a wise woman who invested in me. She has been one of the strongest spiritual influences in my life, if not THE strongest. We have spend loads of time together over the last 18 years even though we've not lived in the same city since 1994. We have loved, laughed, cried, and praised God together. I will always be grateful to God for bringing such a gift into my life.
Beth,
I sware, I love you. I haven't checked the blog in a few days and just read the one on the camera. I can't quit laughing.
My best friend and I are two of those people you would never put together. As I read about your camera experience, I thought of her the whole time. She's too tight to go spend that much, but if she did, she would have thrown it out the door by now. She doensn't want to know how or why something works. She just wants it to work. Don't show her how, just get it done. I would have got on Consumer Reports, Ebay, and 20 other websites, researched where to get the best deal, created an Excel spreadsheet to compare all the options on each camera, etc. She would have bought it, brought it to me and said make it work and when I get done take the pictures off of it for me. We are like night and day, but we have one common thread, and that is our love for Jesus. God has given us such an insane love for one another that's it's unexplainable. We are both the sister to one another that we never had. We could kill each other most of the time, but we wouldn't take anything for our friendship. I told her a long time ago that I believe God just smiled down on us one day and said I'm going to bless those girls and He melted our hearts together. He's awesome and I praise Him for the awesome people He puts in my life. I love you and your ministry. You are a continual blessing in my life Beth. Thank you for all you are.
While in college and when I was first married a dear "Titus 2" lady named Ginger from our church took me under her wing and discipled me. This lasted for about 3 years and then we moved away. Thank Jesus for the internet we stayed in touch through e-mail and IM. It is only by God's grace that we continued to stay in touch and communicate with each other because a year later we lost our two year old son, Jake, in a car accident.
As only God can ordain, my unlikely friend had also lost a son and walked me through many a trial. She was such an unlikely friend and I am so grateful for our Lord for "unlikely friends."
Beth, I don't know if you remember but you were too! You wrote me such a sweet letter after his death. Words don't describe how that touched me that you took the time to do that. I still have it.
Praise the Lord for blogs, IM's,and e-mails that we can all love and encourage each other!
Much Love to YOU!
Kasey Lowery Ewing
www.theewingfam.com
I would say the unlikely loves in my life are my parents! Mom is the most soft spoken, soft hearted, kindest woman you could ever meet. She loves God and Loves others and it shows. She loves to lavish others with surprises and she is very touchy feely. My dad on the other hand is very stubborn and hard to know. Hates to show affection and at times can be a bit harsh. Yet they are in love again!
The unlikely pair God has formed is with the church God has us at. My husband is a first time pastor of 2.5 years. I am the full fledged city girl, and God has dropped us in the middle of (not the worst case but bad no doubt)a rural town. We have to drive 20 minutes for decent groceries and of course Starbucks. But God has formed some lasting friendships here that will never die. My kids(all 5 of them) have a new set of grandparents that we all dearly love. You're right the love we can have as the body of Christ is AWESOME!!!
Thanks for sharing! I love you and your family. We will have one great reunion in heaven!
Amanda
Daniel is mine.
I am a late 40's, white woman, married, and fairly sheltered.
Daniel is a black man,30,recovering drug addict, former gang member, and former prison inmate. Clean for 5 years.
He is my customer.
We love Jesus. We are both examples of a praying Grandmother. (Don't ever underestimate the power of a praying Grandmother, by the way.)
Daniel and I aren't that different ya'll. Two old pit dwellers that crawled on out with God's grace.
Amanda and Beth, if you have not seen this yet, please go check it out! Doesn't even matter if it's legit or not, it's the message that is sweet.
Subject: Logan's Calf
A remarkable phone call from a 12-yr old boy to Houston radio station KSBJ FM 89.3. So profound the station has it posted on their website. Click below to listen to it. It's short (2 minutes).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY
I attended Champion Forest Baptist church for a couple of years,when I lived in Houston. That is a good church.
I love God's sovereignty in every aspect of life, including love. When I graduated from college and was freaked out about what I'd do with my life, I "told" God: "I want nothing to do with cities, corporations, computers, law, or government."
Needless to say, about a year later I took a job as a computer tech rep at a legal corporation in the heart of the city of St. Paul.
Not only so, but not long thereafter I met my husband: a research analyst for the Minnesota Senate who was on his way into his first year of law school!
Believe it or not, I've since become fascinated with all of those things (my husband included!) and listen to more talk radio shows on politics than him!
God knew.
Grace and peace to you, Beth, and to all you wonderful ladies!
Linda
wow, this blog and one of the responses totally spoke to me, and i REALLY needed to hear it NOW. thank you:)
My unlikely love went home to her precious Lord three weeks ago after a courageous battle with cancer. She was in her sixties and had never had children. I'm in my forties and the mother of three rowdy boys, two of whom are in the throes of puberty (come quickly, Lord Jesus). I thought I was getting "stuck" working with her at AWANAs. Instead, we have the distinction of being the only ADULTS ever called down by the AWANA commander because we were laughing so loud and so hard. From her I learned how beautifully and gracefully we can enter the later years of our life when we pour ourselves out for others.
I just thought of another **unlikely love** I have recently posted on my blog about this, too....Mary (mother of Jesus) and Elizabeth (her cousin) were brought together by God and had a purely bonding experience for 3 solid months!!
Sometimes I think how unlikely it is that I am where I am today in my realationship with God! The odds were stacked high against me as a child who grew up not going to church. Not listening to christian music, not having a church family. It is sad for me to think about how unlikely it was that the two of us should meet! But we did! Now I have a church life, church family and a house full of prayer and christian music. And two amazing daughters who will never be able to say that their realationship with our God was unlikley!
Dear Beth,
Ms Mary would be my most unlikely friend. If we could choose our friends she probably would not have picked me, nor I her. We are definitely opposites. Mary is a take-charge kind of person; I'm not. She knows how to put an engine together; I don't.
A few years ago, I had just completed a Henry Blakaby study entitled, On Mission with God. In the book he said to look around and see where God is at work and ask Him to let you join Him. Soon after, I heard Mary give a testimony of what God had done that day at the jail. Many had come to know Christ. God spoke to my heart and clearly said, "I am at work there...why don't you get involved?" I did.
I have never seen anyone who cares for the lost more than Mary.
I am so thanful to call her friend.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8
Isn't He glorious!
Love you too, Beth.
Mary
My college roommate and I- the night we first met we had a lot in common as we were both dating ROTC guys and we wore the same shade of green to the Dining Out. Then we roomed together and found out she has a much looser definition of clean than I, she liked to hit snooze a zillion times before getting up (and before I had to get up), she "swept" the carpet and I vacummed... She was my matron of honor and remains a great friend.
I laughed at the story of the siesta who hates to fly and married a pilot- my husband is a military pilot who LOVES to fly. He is also afraid of heights! T.G.
I thought about this last night and again this morning and could not think of one opposite. Then I began to think that perhaps in many of my friendships, I am the odd one! Hee hee!
Won't Heaven be marvelous with all the time of gathering and sharing stories? Just like these comments, we will glory in the One who gave us the capacity to love.
Thanks for loving Jesus like you do, Beth! I love Him more because of you.
Hi Beth!
My mom made the KING RANCH CHICKEN and i just had some.. YUM-0! It was SOOO good! Tell Keith he has a winning recipe! thanks for sharing :)
My dearest friend who I share leading a bible study with is the complete opposite of me...
She is my prayer partner, my right and left hand in any endeavor, and a joy to be around. We are always amazed how God uses us together, and most of all why He brought us together.
I am a very outspoken sanguine and she is a quiet meloncholy. God has used the us to bring out abilities the other would not discover on our own.
Beth,
When I was a young mother(I was in my late 20's) I joined the Women's group at the church we attended. There was an older woman, about 60, who led the group. She and I had very different opinions about things and often rubbed each other the wrong way. And then the Lord put us together on a project where we had to spend most of a day together-just the two of us. By the end of that day, I found her to be one of the bravest women I had ever met and an inspiration of faith. We became friends and worked together on many projects until her husband retired and they moved away. She has gone home to be with the Lord and I thank Him for all He taught me through her.
I have to say this Blogging Community! (and I am not a computer person... it has made me try to be one! : ) ... but the JOY, LOVE and BOND I feel with these women blows me away! I can't wait to read everyones posts, comments, etc... and I love to pray for these precious Siestas! Isn't that so Jesus! He can give you a huge heart for people you don't even know... I love that about Him... so cool.. I know we are all SO different ...but I feel like I know and love you girls! I am thankful for my "Siestas"
Can't wait till San Antonio...I am going to hug each and everyone of you! Emmy : )
I wish we could have a Siesta lock-in at some church gym one night and just all sit in our pajama pants and eat and talk and talk and eat and stay up all night. That is so what I thought in reading all these posts.
What sweet siestas in Christ this blog has formed. I've cried, smiled and held back tears while reading these sweet stories of God's providence and favor. He goes before us and is our Banner.
Love and blessings, Jill
First of all, Beth, thanks for encouraging us to read all of the posts. I have had tears in my eyes as I did so.
My first unlikely friend was also the first person I ever was able to step outside my rigid Christianity for. I had moved (again) to Kansas City and had five little babies and no friends. My husband's boss was involved in politics and knew they interested me and directed a high powered political fundraiser to give me a call which she did because he gave her candidates money! I was so grateful to have someone to talk to and she could not believe she was getting stuck with someone whose life consisted of diapers, naps and the Disney classic roundup. I say now that I just MADE her be my friend, but the truth is I just loved her so much I couldn't help myself. She had no kids and smoked and swore like a sailor and all I could think about was how great she was and how much God loved her--and this was NOT how I'd been before. A year into our relationship her husband left and then she just started stopping by my house on the way home from work if she saw us sitting at the table for dinner. She had had a dreadful childhood and seen all the hypocrisy that she could handle, but piece by piece, Jesus loved her to Himself. One year after that I moved to New Jersey and she had to go with me on a visit just to be sure it would be ok.
It was. That's when I met Alicia, a Jew I would gladly do two more years in the Garden State for. We celebrated Hanukkah and Advent together and even when we moved to New York City, our friendship remained.
In Manhattan, God led us to a school at an Episcopal Cathedral--a place that could be so wacky you'd swear there was a hair salon in it. But there were also a tiny handful of dear believers and by then all my "shouldas" were gone and Jesus's love carried all of us. My husband lost his job and we lost everything, one best friend got cancer and then his wife did too. And in the midst of that crazy "I believe there are lots of paths to God" place, God used suffering to show me what the body of Christ was supposed to look like and it was a holy thing. Groceries dropped off at apartment doors, meals prepared for weeks on end, money passed between people who didn't have any. Even now it reduces me to tears. And just when people were opening up and really hearing about Jesus...we had to move again.
This time back to Kansas City but to a suburb and oh we were a broken lot and everyone else seemed to be doing great. Day by day, year by year, we put down roots and tried reaching out. In August my husband and I separated. My walking partner, suddenly morphed from a suburban matron into a passionate friend who checked on me every day and talked sense into me when I thought I was crazy. My sorrow gave others permission to share theirs and it turns out they all weren't doing as great as I'd thought. Then my friend's son was diagnosed with a brain tumor and as we all shared, something began to happen. Wednesday night was a worship service to send them off to San Francisco for his surgery. This morning my daughter and his sister met a group of 100 kids on the stage of their public high school for prayer and just before I read your post his mom called with the news that the tumor is out and the doctors amazed. A bunch of us put together a basket of love for the sister who is here while they are gone and today one of the moms said to me, "You know last night as people were bringing things by, I thought about what you told me about that community in New York. And then I thought, it's happening here."
She's right. Unlikely looks different every time you turn around and oh, how grateful I am to be included.
This was WAY too long, but I may never write again. It was just so extraordinary coming on this day.
Bless you all.
Great post, Beth. My unlikely pair is my 7th grade Sunday school teacher. I used to babysit for her kids, now she studies the word with me and holds me accountable. She counsels me on child rearing and isn't afraid to ask me the hard questions. We are great friends. As a side note, she was visiting us on Saturday visitation one day and we were not answering the door (parents weren't saved). She was standing out front and my sister came riding up on her bike and rode right into the garage, parked her bike and went inside and shut the garage door! God must be in it, if she could love us after that!
My best friend and I have been friends for 9 years. At first we were not in Christ. We believed but did not live it. Then things happened that changed everything for both of us.
My friends daughter was murdered by a stalker on her way to Bible study. We all worked together so I was friends with her daughter also. This was the most horrible thing to ever happen. What devestation and dispair.
Then my grandmother pasted away. A beautiful Godly women. Again devestation and dispair.
One day 4 months after her death I got the call from our beloved Father. I started going to church the next Sunday. I called my friend and she said she would go with me the following Sunday. I accepted Christ and was Babtised a couple of months later. Oh the joy!
Now we are going to church,loving God, and growing in our faith together. I could not have asked for a better best friend to share this journey. We have so much in common. Our husbands even work in the same field. The kicker is she is 20 years older than I. She is my moms age. LOL
My highly unlikely, miracle match is my daughter's husband. I had written briefly here before, that he was a Jehova Witness but there is more, he is a completely different race! I thought maybe God was trying to kill me!!! (not really!!!LOL) God dropped him in a family with roots deep in prejudice. But I had the privilege to watch God do many miracles. One of which was my son in law's salvation. He now loves Jesus and our "former" prejudice family adores him and his family (which are still Jehovah witnesses). But God has put us all together and I am forever grateful.
Dear anonymous who wrote for prayer for herself and her husband. I am praying for you. 2 years ago our marriage was in alot of trouble as well and He who raised Jesus from the dead raised my heart back to life... and my husbands. Please know you are loved, you are prayed for and you matter so much. Your internet siesta..
Sandi Krakowski
My husband and I are the perfect match even though we are completly different. I was (still am:) the rocker chick type and he was a frat boy when we met. i never thought we would be together, but God knew! Even today almost eight years later, I am still trying to get him in some vintage style bootcut jeans, but he will not stray from his beloved khakis and polo! I am thankful to God for him, I love that man so much, even in his khakis, he still makes me swoon!
ps-is that how you spell khaki?
Ok beth, i already posted once but it wasnt about my unlikely love so here it goes..... my unlikely love is my mentor Rene Meek, she is 42 and im only 19 but we are best friends and she is my mentor and i love her like crazy! she is veary shy,quite,ahtletic,and can sing amazingly! and im not any of that! in fact were like polar oppisets but we love eachother and the lord and i know we will be friends forever!
Hmmm...
Such a fun post. And, I didn't comment on the last one, but Mrs. Beth...the camera?! I am still rolling on the floor. Seriously, bless your heart. I read the post to my Mom out loud and all she said was, "That is so me!" I agreed. I would gladly help you, but I know you want to do this on your own! So, we will let you!
As for unliely loves...I would first have to say this blog and the MANY "friends" I have met. I just can't wait to meet them in person (I've just got to get my ticket, though!)
But, in real like, I would have to say my "old" friend from my church. She and I hit it off at a youth retreat. Me, the single girl, she, the mother of 4. I love it and her! It was so unlikely, but has blessed me much!
Lindsee
How awesome is our GOD who answers prayers of a lonely country girl, mother of 4, farm wife. I prayed for a friend who loved Jesus, and I wouldn't have to travel to town all the time to have fellowship. We both moved into houses literally right across the road with in one month of each other. She is 11 yrs younger and had lived on a school bus made house traveling America evangelizing, sharing Jesus's love. She and her family have taught me so much about how different we all are but are all loved the same by our Great Savior. Thank you Beth for all of your Bible studies. You are truly blessed with the ability to speak and write about God's love for us.
Its amazing how God brings certain friends into our lives for a time and then takes them out of our lives due to a variety of situations. After moving to start my new job I found myself far away from so many close friends.
God has so blessed my heart with a verse we read in BSF the other night: Is 42: 6 - I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you.
As girls we often seek protection and companionship and imagining the Lord holding me by the hand and watching over me gave me such an amazing sense of friendship with the Lord that I hope to never forget.
I have an unlikely love in my closest friend. I met her my first year in college, and we had a mind-to-mind connection at first... so we got each other's allusions and could finish each other's sentences before we made the effort to really build heart-to-heart.
She plays extrovert to my introvert, displays the grace of speaking direct truth to my more timid approach, and we've had all the fun, tears and joys of watching our rust rub off as we've sharpened each other. It might just be in this relationship that I've really seen the power of being someone's sister in Christ. We're in this thing for good, thanks to God's great grace!
Adding this because I thought you might enjoy it: somewhere in the past few years we started calling each other "other half" and not even my beloved new husband could take it over -- at my wedding a few months ago, she toasted him as "the significant other of my other half."
~amy
The Tennessean (newspaper) just had an article on this sort of thing.
It is amazing who the Lord brings into our lives so unexpectedly.
Blessings,
Karla
Beth,
God has blessed me so richly with so many friends in the Lord, people I'd never chosen for myself and could more than likely ruin if the relationship / friendship thingee rested on me, but God in His Divine plan is so out of this world and I benefit from the greatest blessing of all, Him loving me and sending me so many wonderful friends, all best friends to bless my life in Him. I am leaning closer everyday to beginning my own blogging season, just haven't gotten there yet ! I love it ! God Speed and God Bless !
In HIS NAME !!!! JesusChick NC
Hmmm how fun to reflect on our differences in Christ. We had our Deacon's (& spouses) & Staff Christmas party last night. You have never seen a more diverse group of believers! One table was so rowdy we couldn't hear a thing and at the opposite end of the room was the "more mature" gray haired group who just shook their heads and smiled. Life can be so amusing when we accept one another unconditionally with love rather than criticize differences. I can't help but look at our group of deacons collectively and think of what it must have been for Christ with his disciples. We always tend to think of them so seriously, but I'll bet they were just like the rest of us.
BTW my husband and I are as different as night and day as well, as are our children. The good thing is I can tell people their "warped" sense of humor is because of him!
Amen and amen. I'm loving all the stories - thank you!
Unlikey loves -- my family! DH & myself are truely each other's completer. Then, each child came out of the womb different as can be! They can appreciate their differences and love each other deeply. My pray is that the Lord continues to keep them close to each other as they begin to enter adulthood.
I don't want to be cliche, but my unlikely love is my husband, too. He's New York Italian and I'm a southern belle from Louisiana. I was raised Southern Baptist; he was raised Catholic. I'm blue-eyed "blonde" and he has chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair. When we got married it was NASCAR meets the Godfather. He could live in a tent, bathe in a river and cook over and open fire for days, and I want a Four Seasons or even a Hampton Inn. In high school his favorite band was Bon Jovi and I wanted to BE Amy Grant. We have been married for 15 years-not perfectly-but permanently. The perfect love of God brought us together and sustains us. We have four beautiful children who I know will do great things for the kingdom of God. We have said many times that only a divine appointment could have brought us together and I'm so glad He did.
I am 41. One of my best friends in the world is 91. We do lunch and have a wonderful time!
As a young woman of 16 I went to work with one of the most God like women that I would ever know in my life. I am now 51. When I lost my mother at 22 she at 62 at the time lost her mother the week before I lost mine. I know that God put that unlikely person in my life at that time to help me through one of the most difficult times on this earth. Ms Williams went home to be with God about 15 years ago. I think of her often and with much Love. Thank you God for all our unlikely Loves.
My unlikely love started in 3rd grade. It was the first day in a new school and I was/am not the sharpest tack in the box but I work hard to compensate. That day I met the sharpest tack in the box and we have been friends ever since. We roomed in college and we live in the same town still so we remain close.She generously helped me when I didn't understand a class. I am all girly and love perfume, clothes and sweet love stories. She is outdoorsy, jeans and shorts, and loves westerns. But through the years God has kept that friendship constant and it has brought a lot of joy to me.
Sheila JP
Thank you for the beautiful post. His love is so astounding. I did a word study on love a few years ago. I need to find my notes. The Scriptures I looked up were a healing balm to my heart which was broken at the time because my best friend died leaving 2 children and a parent who had the most extreme addiction problem I had ever witnessed.
Ladies, search for love verses...you will be edified beyond belief!
He loves us, He loves us, He loves us!
And for all the deer season widows out there, I must share a joke:
Two deer hunters were standing on a ridge near a highway in rural Texas on the opening day of deer season. They both saw a trophy-class buck meandering
towards them. As the one hunter raised his gun to shoot, a funeral procession came slowly by. The hunter lowered his gun, took off his hat, and stood with his head bowed until the procession was past.
Of course by then, the deer was long gone.
The other hunter exclaimed "Wow! That was the most compassionate act I've ever seen! You allowed this trophy buck to escape while showing such kindness and consideration toward someone's dearly departed. You are a great humanitarian and
a shining example to sportsmen throughout the world!"
The first hunter nodded and said; "Well, we were married for 42 years!"
Annette
My precious husband is a WAY outside the box thinker and doer. People come to him to be challenged - when a new idea is needed and everyone else is stumped. I live in the exact center of the box. I don't even veer toward the edges. I love to follow the rules. God knew I needed to be dragged out every now and then, and He also knew my husband would also need to be pulled back in! Isn't God smart?!
I am praying for a man to enter my husband's life who can be a Christian friend to him. Since my husband is not a Christian, I believe a Christian man would have a greater influence than I do.
God Bless you Keith and Travis.
Friends are such a blessing from God. I am so greatful for each one. God has brought several great friend into my life. We are all as different as night and day and I would not trade them for anything. We are all very close even though we live miles, many miles, many state's apart miles away from each other. I would love to have them all live in the same town that I do. But then I think who would be where they are to minister and show Christ to those the He has placed in their lives. Then I add you all to the mix talk about eclectic. I wish I could sit down with each and everyone of my friends(yes you are included in that list) and talk for hours and hours. Praising God for friends, Kim B. In AZ
Thank you for sharing the relationship that Keith and Travis have. I believe that in times that we see our men relate like this it makes us fall in love all over again.
This post has stirred my heart to share of a wonderful time when 9 lovely ladies were brought together by one. My dear friend Linda was going through a time of crying out to the Lord to use her in whatever capacity He chose. He delivered a group of women that met once a month at her home for fellowship, prayer, laughter and love in Christ Jesus. A more unlikely group there wasn't. We had every conceivable difference in our back grounds. Raised in the church (preachers kid), Never met Jesus (adult women), recovering alcoholic, and one woman that had been in jail for drugs, and to top it all of a wonderful unsuspecting woman that didn't know she was invited to quote her "a bible study". We shared our hearts, sorrows, victories, petitioned the heavenlies many times over and saw an amazing out pouring of His grace to answer our petitions.
As I am sharing this time in my life the feelings are rolling over me as if it were yesterday.
We ended our year in fine fashion as we piled into two vehicles and set a course from Southern California to Fresno to hear our mentor (yes you guessed it Beth Moore) speak. You blessed us so as you spoke a word to each and every one of us. And I will never forget that at that time you shared that you would be blessed to receive your first grandchild.
Thank you for letting me share how precious HE is to unite us all different, but the tie that binds us is HIS precious Son the Lord God Most High.
Much love to all you siestas
Celeste
Ms. Beth, I love reading this blog. I am currently (but I've been skipping) in the Daniel bible study. I teach at a Christian school. Our students have suddenly become intrigued with reading about end time events. Have you heard this wormwood star stuff? I don't have answers for them when they ask. And now they all think they are going to die in 2012...
Thanks for the help
Helpless,
Jamie Moon
Unlikely loves....would be my co-worker and I. We work in seperate departments, we are different races, she is single, I am married with 3 grown children. 2 summers ago I invited some ladies to my house for "Jesus the one and only" bible study. She accepted the invite and was hooked. We then did "Daniel" and then started coming with me on tuesday nights to Beth's class. We have built such a friendship that we even joined a gym and go together! We are counting down the weeks to start "Breaking Free" in January....
Blessings!
DeeDee
Unlikely loves? Why unlikely loves are seen to me as ones that behold the eyes of Jesus. Their actions are of love and compassion, sometimes with a mere smile as they are the stranger, merely a passerby. The love of Jesus is what bonds us together. Whether through a smile, hug or kind words we know His presence is the binding force.
My Mother passed away a year ago this Friday and I miss her so. You see while she was here on earth I missed knowing what I saw in her eyes was the love of Jesus. We never read the Bible together while I was growing up but did in her last months of her life while in the hospital. She explained that she taught me about stories from the Bible in terms that I would understand and that when I read the Bible for myself I would then recall such stories. In this last year I have had many an ah ha moment and realize that God is doing for me what I could not do for myself.
A few weeks after my Mother passed away a lady from our church asked if I would like to join the upcoming Bible Study... Breaking Free! The ladies that I grew to love during that Bible Study are indeed true friends and ones which are full of love and compassion. Knowing that there are so many other women like them out there ... like you siestas ... gives me hope that I can be that stranger to pass on a smile to some passerby and to shine His light throughout my day. What a blessing it is to have found LPM and the bond that is shared through His love, grace and mercy.
God bless all His children
In His Light
jaws
When I was 6, my mom had been raising my brother, sister and I by herself. We were involved in big brothers/big sisters and I met my unlikely love then. She was 19 and a true Godsend. She and I have been best friends since that first trip to the ice cream store that sealed the deal for both of us! She has 3 children, a very precious godly family and a loving godly husband of 20+ years. I went through a divorce at the age of 23 married only 2 years. Then was pregnant before my second marriage. She has loved me to the mountaintops and encouraged me through the valleys. Her love is the most unconditional I have ever experienced by a person and she is such an amazing spiritual mentor. We have been friends now for 26 years and our lives could not be more polar opposite, but tightly knit by the love of God.
To "Anonymous @ 10:16 am" there are many of us who are praying that very same prayer. And women with marriages who have seen this kind of breakthrough, please pray that we will be persistent at loving our husband's in a godly way that will impact their love for Christ and draw them to Him.
Beth, Someday I would love to read about how God has transformed your Keith into the godly man that he is. I think many of us need to hear the same tangible hope for our own husbands is possible. It is a very narrow, sometimes lonely, road to travel.
Okay, seriously...this blogging community has to be the strangest mix of loves I have ever encountered, ever imagined! Where else do strangers come together to pray for each other, cry for each other, rejoice for each other, long to finally meet on the other side? I've spoken to some of you on the phone and we've chatted like we've known each other (face to face) for 20 years! Incredible!
Sandra.. thank you for acknowledging my request.... we have actually had a small breakthrough the last 2 days.... Power of prayer for sure... keep it up!!! Thank you.
Wow, this was so good, and so much fun to read!
Thanks so much for taking time to share so many neat things about your life. I think we all feel like your best friend!
I was so blessed to meet a woman online who had a son who was a patient at St. Jude. My son had just finished treatment there as well.
I can not tell you how wonderful it was to finally meet her and her amazing son Brent!
Our lives are so different, she's a country girl and I'm a city slicker. (You would love her Beth, she hunts with her husband!)
Please keep Tonya in your prayers as it is coming up the one year anniversary of her son's graduation to heaven.
Blessings to you and your awesome ministry!
Susan
My husband is my polar opposite. I am loud, outgoing, and completely crazy. I love to "talk about things loudly" (aka argue) and he just is the most precious thing in the world to me. He is quite, talking only when required, is kinda shy but is willing to talk to the husbands of my friends because they are my friends and will let me win almost all of our "talks". He is an amazing man and I am so blessed to have him.
Thank you Beth for all of your words of wisdom, timely reminders of faith, love, hope, joy, peace and persistance. I will see you in January at Breaking Free
Tracie
Beth,
I think of my sister and myself. We are as different as night and day but we could talk for hours and still not get tired of each other. She would rather camp in the woods and I would rather camp at the Holliday Inn. She would rather socialize intimately and I feel "the more the merrier" is better. A good time to her is shopping at the Bass Pro and I assure you that is the last place you'll find me. I prefer the "cutesy nick-nacky" stores. But oh, I do prefer her. She is fabulous!
You are fabulous, too!
Love,
Kristen
Dear Beth,
I am so amazed at who God puts in my life. How richly I have been blessed.
My best friend and I are like night and day and we love the Lord and we are so blessed by each others friendship.
Thanks,
Lyn in New Hampshire
I'm still laughing about the camera...
The Lord amazes me. When I take a look at the relationships around me - former drug dealers and prostitutes, recovering addicts of one kind or another - sitting alongside women of faith who've long had the Lord in their lives... I think: Only God. He is awesome!
Hi Beth. I don't usually write on these things as I'm the type who never has anything to say; but when I saw this I had to post.
My husband, kids and I just came back from a mission trip to Costa Rica where we experienced so much heartbreak. My kids and I fell in love with a young woman there named Gloria. She is 21, has no family, and has spent most of her life on the street. She is in the women's center recovering from abuse, drugs and possibly prostitution. The people who work there have said that she has one of the saddes stories they've ever heard. However she is so full of joy and she is as sweet as she can be.
Talk about unlikely loves! She speaks spanish and I only speak english so we can't even share conversation. But I can tell you that we somehow laughed together, cried together, hugged, took pictures and loved on my children together. Goodness we even colored together! She is my sweet friend and sister (hermana) and I am so blessed to have her in my life. My son calls her "Glorious".
The sad part of this is that we recieved an e-mail three days ago saying that she had been taken to the hospital where they found and operated on a brain tumor. We have yet to hear about her condition. But as I cried over my e-mail I could hear God whisper into my heart that He was going to use this for her good and that He had great plans for her. I trust Him and I know that somehow He is going to strengthen her faith through all of this. Praise Him! He is wonderful and I love Him; I love His ways and His timing. What a great and beautiful God we serve.
Jacqueline
Thank you Beth for the wonderful story that brought tears to my eyes and thanksgiving in my heart as I praise Him for the unlikely love that that He has brought into my life. 26 years ago He crossed the paths of two unlikely people. She was shy, a fierce lover of God, and devoted wife. I was 16, a growing Christian and very outspoken. What God could see was how the matching of us would work for His kingdom. We sing together, we write musicals together we are family. I have a Masters degree in technology and she has a Masters degree in being a wife and mother. She is my special gift from God as I am hers. As I finished doing the Believing God biblestudy I told her that I felt God had something big for me to do. She said what will WE be doing. I laughed and then I laughed again when I found out what it was. We are adopting a daughter from Russia. Yes, WE. I'm still single and I know this is what God has planned for my life as well as my best friend and her family. What a ride He has taken us on and what journey it will be when we get to raise His princess to love Him as we do!
I know there are already a gazillion comments but I just wanted to share that my "unlikely loves" are my husband and me...in the first year of our marriage we (I) discovered that he was deeply intrenched in a pornography addiction. A year later I finally faced the fact that I had been battling some type of eating disorder most of my life--I literally had an addiction to dieting AND to food--how crazy is that? I thought for sure we were a mistake--one addicted to finding pleasure in perfect bodies, the other obssessed and imprisoned by her failure to obtain her perfect body, to please, and fearing it was all her fault.
God miraculously has healed us both in many ways, and has used my husband's counseling on addiction to help me face my own. I have been reminded many many times that not only are we not a mistake, but that we are perfectly suited--us unlikely loves--in God's glorious redemption and truly miraculous healing. He know has used our testimony countless times to encourage others. How amazing to me that He takes such messes and makes them even more beautiful than they could have ever been with all our human efforts!! Thanks for allowing me to share...love to you, Beth, Amanda, and Melissa!
i read the post on unlikely loves just yesterday and thought immediately of my dearest friend, deedee. this morning i awoke to an email from her telling me i needed to read your blog because she had read it and thought about me! how fun is God!! we have been the best of friends for 12 years, but have only lived in the same city for about 15 months at the start of those 12 years!! though we often go a year or more without seeing each other(we blog and email regularly!!) - she is the dearest friend i have ever had! she has been with me through infertility, my husband surrendering to the ministry, and the adoption of my two children! God has been so neat to me by allowing her to have the last 2 of her 4 girls within months of my two children!! she is truly a blessing that i thank God for!!
My unlikely love does not seem so unlikely now! But five years ago it made me tongue-tied to talk to her! She is my closest friend now; one of those that I can share anything with and she will encourage me, uplift me and spur me on in Christ. She is 45 and I am 35. Her children are grown, one in college and one in high school. Mine are small, five and two. She is wise, so very wise. And I am...not! :) She is the pastor's wife.
Five years ago I needed a long-term sub to cover my classes when I was out on maternity leave. Apparently something was in the water around here because so did everyone else! I could not find anyone. Then someone alerted me to the fact that our new pastor's wife had a teaching degree. So with trembling hands I called her and explained my situation. She quickly said yes! As she came in to observe me with my kids and take notes on how things were done, we hit it off! She was wonderful. She even came to visit me in the hospital when I had the baby.
She subbed for me and when I had to go back to work she said, "Now call me if you have to be out." I thought she meant to sub, but she did not. She wanted to babysit! I have no family near me, so she was an answer to prayer. She quickly took my son under her wing and filled in often when the sitter had to be out! Her husband, the pastor, even loved to watch him! They took him shopping, out to eat, even to buy their new appliances for their house!!
As the years have gone by, we have found ourselves closer than ever! My children adore her and her husband. They beg to see them both when we arrive at church and then again before we leave! She has become my forever friend who started out as an unlikely love!
Unlikely Loves...I remember when I met my husband, Stephen. I have always been known as a bit of a goody-goody and here God brought into my life a man with a "sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll" background (what a testimony of God's grace he has been given!). I remember thinking that we had so little in common--could God seriously be bringing us into one another's lives? Here we are 8 years later, loving Jesus, our children, and our God. And, only as the Father can, He has weaved our lives together in such a way as to use us even more together than we could have been on our own. I praise Him for an opportunity to do two things I love at one time: brag on Jesus and brag on my amazing guy!
Shelley
I have two unlikely loves. My first one is my best friend Shannon of 20+ years. We met in the second grade and are still best friends today. She has been there for me and has not judged me on my past life choices. My second unlikely love is my ex boyfriends aunt dorothy. She is such a godly, loving woman. I have not met anyone like her and wouldn't have met her if my ex and I hadn't dated because she lives in Marysville which is an hour and a half away from where I live. Even though that relationship did not work out we are still very close and talk as much as we can.
Oh my, you are so right. God has a wonderful sense of humor. Just looking at the "matches" He has made in my own life is evidence of that. My best friend, Melissa and I bonded over the song "Circle of Friends" and it's been a wild ride ever since. We are so different, and people at church often comment on this. How can the two of us be friends??? By the grace (and humor) of God!!
Much love and laughter,
~Cheryl
Dear Siesta Beth,
I couldn't think of an "unlikely love" when you first posted.
I'm not sure if this qualifies at all, but I have to share this!
The other night I was visiting a church and completely bonded with the pastor's wife over "Beth Moore Bible Studies". She was just introduced to the studies and she was doing the work and workbook by herself. She was totally blown away by "A Women's Heart, God's Dwelling Place". We made plans to talk again and to share.
Last night I went to get my "roots done" at a new salon. The guy that did my hair was an awesome Christian who had been set free from drugs, alcohol and a gay lifestyle a few years ago and he had posted on this posh salon door...."BREAKING FREE"!!! The women in his church were starting this study and we started sharing our faith and all about your Bible studies!
I dearly love that so many different people can love the LORD and bond over a Bible study!
Thank Ms. Beth!
Blessings, hugs and love,
Teri
Hi Beth,
I fell off the bloggin'-wagon for awhile dealing with the recent loss of my pecious mama, but this post REALLY hit me and I just had to respond.
I was one of seven kids (middle-child...the glue ha!ha!) Six girls and one boy. My mom and I and sisters have shared an incredible friendship and love and her loss has been felt deeply...but in the midst of this loss I have developed one of the most, (I thought anyway), unlikely friendships ever and that is with MY DAD. I shared everything with my mom, especially our deep love and passion for Jesus, often, okay if not always, to the exclusion of my Dad. Not always meaning to, just didn't think he cared or really wanted to connect. In the past, that may have been true, but what I am discovering is a man who deeply, deeply loved his wife in spite of all the problems, who feels lost without her in his life and now desperately wants to find her again through the eyes and lives of their children. This has been such a GIFT in the midst of great grief and loss. God is so good to take a death and use it to
birth new life with a Father and his Daughter.
Pray for us as we continue on in our journey that we can "lay aside every weight that ensnares us and press-on to ALL that God has for us our future.
I am soooo....thankful for my dad, who is becoming my friend too.
Love you!
Angela
Hello! This is my first time to reply to a post although I read all the time. I have to share this GOD story..it is amazing....
My husband is a minister and we took a new job two years ago. It was a huge move away from family to another area of the country. I knew that my Jesus was calling us away but couldn't imagine all He had His hands into. We found out that another young family had just moved and we had kids the same age. So before we moved, I prayed about 30+ times a day about the Roberson family. Once we moved, we started to spend time with them and hit it off very well. I was expecting at the time and at my baby shower, my mama and friend, Shea, were talking. They started making all these connections and then the startling news came... we realized we were SECOND cousins!!! We had played together as children and everything! Now Shea and I talk about 10 times a day and quite honestly I have never had a closer girlfriend. And our hubbies LOVE each other...and they are very unlikely mix. My Keith loves sports while Shea's hubby loves opera!!!
I LOVE my Jesus so much for Shea. She is one of the happiest things about my life. I love that He loved us away from family to move us into one of the closest family/friendships that my hubby and I could ever have. Thank you, my sweet Jesus!!
Martha
Actually, I don't have any really cool stories, but my husband and I are actually a very unlikely pair. Him being much like Keith, loving the outdoors. Roughing it is his idea of a good time and my worst nightmare! Shopping malls are my best friend and his worst nightmare. The bigger the better. I like the ones that you have to have a map to find anything! Haven't been to many, but I like them. Josh is terrified of those places. Another thing when we were introduced he was a college wrestler. What the person who introduced us didn't know was my intense prejudice against wrestlers. All the one I had known were drunks. God convicted me very strongly about assuming that about him. In fact, he was quite the opposite. He was really way to innocent to end up with me, but somehow it happened. That was another thing. Me, total rebel. He'd been a good boy (at least by his parents standards) all of his life. I was trouble no matter who you asked. In fact after hearing my stories he told me had he met me before I came to Christ he wouldn't give me a second look. He'd have just steered clear. Smart man. And I adore him. And even more amazingly he adores me! (Oh, and it scared me to realize that Keith also is not a fan of football just like my husband. Also, shocking. Especially having been a wrestler. They are way too much alike. It kind of scares me. I hope they never meet. That could be scary!)
Beth,
I think this is my first time to post on your blog, but my "Spiritual Momma" requested that I do, so here I am. :)
It's taken me a few days to think about this, but then it hit me...my "unlikely love" is a friend of mine that I met on the playground a few years ago. She was dressed from head to toe in black, and had almost a goth look going on.
I was dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals...it's AZ for goodness sake!
She was shy. I am outgoing.
She didn't know a lot of people there. I knew everyone, simply because it bugs the FIRE out of me for people to feel ignored!
So, I strike up a conversation with her and ask her if she works outside the home. She explained that she was a writer.
Now this got me REALLY excited, as I have a dream of one day writing a REALLY GOD HONORING, SCRIPTURE FOCUSED book.
So I ask, "Really! What types of things do you write? I want to write too!"
She responded, "Um. Well. I write for Penthouse, and hope to be published in Playboy one day."
It's worth mentioning that pornography was the "thorn" that God used in my life, to bring me to a point of total surrender to him.
When as a new bride, I learned that it had been given an open invitation into my home, without my permission, I gave up my life in exchange for Jesus'. I knew that only God could fight that fight, not I.
Suffice it to say that when my new friend told me that she wrote for the very magazines that almost destroyed my marriage, I instantly realized I was on soldier duty!
She then asked me what I wanted to write.
"Well, I am a trained Precept Bible Study Leader, and I have a dream of writing a Precept Bible Study to help women who are married to men struggling with pornography."
It was an interesting conversation that we had from that point on! :)
It's so funny, Beth. God used that time and the years following to lace my heart to hers. I love her so much, and I see God working in her life.
We've had many talks since that day about God, and His love, and repentance, and of how Jesus paid her sin debt, and about how she can become a follower of Christ.
I love her so much, and pray for her salvation. She's asking so many questions, that I'm hoping it's not far away. :)
Only God could form a friendship with these two unsuspecting people!
These two unlikely loves!
Wow. I was in tears reading some of these 'blobs'. I am jealous. I belong to an incredible Bible study group. It's a mixed bag of ages, economic status and shoe styles. I have held back, however, and not risked much. After reading these, I'll put myself out there. Thanks, gals!
OH Beth. I marvel at God's handiwork in our lives to bring us together with the most unlikely people. In my generation, born in the 50's we never ventured outside our age group. When I was 23 I moved next to women my mother's age and being a military wife missing my family with a 3 yr old and a 3 day old they loved me for 5 years!! I now have many unlikely loves. I remember when you were in albuquerque you said if you can't agree on anything else agree that you love Jesus Christ. I have stopped myself many times since then with unlikely loves I have in my life and say WE ARE DIFFERNT!!! but we love Jesus. I just love it!!!
Just returned from NYC for four days and catching up on the blog! I so love the body of Christ and all the personalities in it. Here is my story about unlikely pairs. I was adopted at one day old by amazing parents who taught me and showed me the love of Christ. Nine years ago at the age of the 30 my mom died. My dad had died 10 years before that so I was "orphaned" at the age of 30 as my 4 year old said at the time. I was so lost without a mother that I thought I would die and I began to ask God to send me a mother. I was like the Dr. Seuss book with the little bird asking "Are you my mother?" About a year later I met a couple who had never had children and I knew God had sent them to me. She was 20 years older than me and really could be my mother. We had so many weird connections, like her birthday being on the day my mom died. Its hard to explain but just believe me God made it clear we were to be together. Well it became clear a few months later that something was very wrong with this couples marriage and the glamour of the relationship was wearing off. To go quickly, the couple divorsed after 36 years of marriage and then reconciled their marriage a few years later. My family was involved the whole way. I asked God a hundred times to please take these people out of my life that they were "killing me" then I took the Living beyond Yourself bible study and discovered that sometimes there needs to be a good killing. I realized that it was me that had much to learn. I learned about my judgmental condemning spirit. I learned that we should never tell God certain people can't change. I learned that all things are possible with God. I learned some of the most amazing lessons from people I didn't think could teach me anything. It has been several years now since their remarriage and I call this mother, my mother of the "heart" God is so good to give us what we need. Its hard to write the story fast but God gave me a mother to give me birth, one to raise me to adulthood and now a mother of the heart to share life with. I'm so thankful God used them to help kill some of the areas in my life that surely needed to die. The stories are great. I love the blog.
delta
Oh Wow! I haven't been on the blog for a week. I loved reading all of your comments. This whole Siesta thing is the best online community I've ever been a part of. Who knows, we may eventually have Siesta Chapters in cities all over the world!
Unlikely friends...four of us bonded together because of our love for a dear friend of ours who was called home at the age of 36. She was a wonderful mommy who had a husband and two young daughters who adored her. I didn't know the other well, but we decided to go on a womens' retreat together the fall after our friend died. Four very different women who at first cried a lot together. After the storm came great joy. Our tears turned to laughter and tight bonds were formed. Nope, we almost certainly wouldn't have chosen each other but God did!
Beth, I was at Walgreens today and saw a whole row of memory cards. You and that camera need to make up, set up some boundaries and start uploading those photos!
My little family is made up of four unlikely loves. My two wonderful boys, that I had late in life (when I was 41 and 43), then, four years after a divorce, adopted my little daughter from China, when I was 49. And that be us! This unlikely foursome...in love with God and in love with each other. I was feeling sad tonight. My only brother and I are not close and at Christmas I miss it more. I miss it for my son's too, who need a man in their life who cares about them. ANyway..was feeling the pity party coming on....then I thought, Beth feels like family to me. I am going to go read her blog, and cheer myself up.
I pray I can raise my children in such a way, that they love each other, like your children do.
Bless you and thank yo for sharing!
Love ya Sister! It's kinda of neat how the Lord puts people you never laid eyes on in your path I guess it's easy to Love people you have never meet before sort of like God and Jesus we love them but never have seen them. Merry Christmas Beth and Keith and Melissa and Amanda and Curt and Lil Jackson!!!!!!!!
Love ya'll
Susan -La
God is so good!! We have been in a very difficult situation for several months and God in his GREAT GOODNESS has surrounded us with the most loving friends anyone could ever imagine. Those friends have cried with us (literally) and prayed us through several not so easy days (literally). We are all as different as night and day, yet our common bond is JESUS. We all love HIM and more than anything we want to sing HIS praises....we want to tell of HIS glory. God has showed us that even in the worst of times, HE is there and brings about friends who though different, come together to help, encourage and uplift each other in the body of Christ. God is good!!
Praise HIS GREAT NAME!!
I have one "unlikely love" in process right now. I am an early-40s mom of four boys aged 4-17 who met a late-20s mom of one boy nearly a year ago under random (GOD) circumstances when I took my two youngest to (I found out later) the WRONG playground :-). I was kinda grumpy that afternoon and wasn't in the talking mood really, but she was the only other mom at the playground and she struck up a conversation with me. A bit into the talk, she told me where she lived...across town, right down the street from me!AND that she wasn't having success making friendships (they had recently moved here due to her husband in the Navy..she actually told me she hated our city!). Ok, Lord, You have my attention now. Although we are very different women, in very different stages of our lives, I believe God brought us together so that this precious young woman can understand that He is a healthy, loving God and that He desires a personal relationship with her. Her whole countenance has changed as she has begun to understand His love and goodness! At this point we are beginning to grieve her leaving for 5 months (back to TEXAS ha ha)(no she's not near y'all or I'd send her your way!) as her husband does a tour of duty. AND they have accepted our invitation to Christmas Eve service :-) I completely believe she is very close to beginning that personal relationship with the Lover of her soul, and so glad He brought me to the "wrong" park that day and opened HER mouth to begin this friendship!
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