An Open Letter to a Friend...

A friend moved away this week, and although we do not tag one another as BFFs on social media, I will miss her. However, I am excited for the plans God has for her next season, and I am glad that she will be living closer to some of  her precious grandchildren! This is my open letter to Debby, and to so many of the women in my life with whom I have shared a season or more...even though we may have parted ways eventually:

It's always hard when friends move away, and I hate super-teary good-byes, but that doesn't mean I won't miss you. I will. Even though we have not spent vast amounts of one-on-one time together over the years, you have been a great influence on my life. Thank you.

Thank you for welcoming me warmly when I was new, for helping me to find my place in rooms full of women I didn't know...yet.

Thank you for the gift of your laughter. I love the way you enjoy life with all your heart.

Thank you for agreeing (after your husband agreed, maybe without telling you first) to keep my gangly and awkward pre-teens for a weekend while my hubby and I went on a Jr/Sr Hi retreat as sponsors. 

Thank you for doing this multiple years...in a row.

Thank you for including the beagle as one of the kids, almost every time...even though she ate everything at your house...even non-beagle-food items.

Thank you for your smile, and for sharing it often. 

Thank you for being a Proverbs 31 woman, and for living out Titus 2, training younger women (myself included) "to love their husbands and their children, to be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands" through both your words and your own example as a wife.

Thank you for making it all look easy, but also being willing to admit that you aren't perfect and that you have struggles too. 

Thank you for your encouragement when I had difficult times. 

Thank you for loving me, and for being here, for such a long and wonderful season.

Now that the time has come for you to share your beautiful self with a new group of friends in a new town, I pray that God will continue to bless you richly, providing for your every need as he always has. I know that he is already at work preparing to bless another crop of friends through your heart and hands and feet.

Be Well. You are loved. Thank you.

Love always,
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