Tuesday, May 22, 2012

You've Got a Friend

How I felt this morning before I met up with my friends:




How I feel now, after sharing my heart with my friends:

(Side note:  I bought my husband red Converse for Valentine's Day.  Is there a better way to express your love?  I think not.)

I had been feeling more than a little beaten down, suffering the after-effects of a cold, and emotionally tapped out from caring for our frenetically-attached Safe Family toddler.  I don't think you'll find "frenetically- attached" in any official literature, but it works here, trust me.  I had let the words of another make me doubt everything I was doing and totally forgot for Whom I was doing it.  

Enter my friends.  They reminded me that it does matter.  They gave me the One Day at A Time speech- that never gets old and is always true.  They affirmed how hard it really is.  They would have given me grace if I threw in the towel, but they saw I still had a spark and they flamed it.  

I walked away thinking, "it is wearying to absorb someone's trauma, but isn't that exactly what Christ did for me? And with Him inside of me, why couldn't I do this?".

Are you weary and overwhelmed?  Reach out to a friend!  Like a real life conversation.  Let the kids play in the backyard and bear your soul!  You will feel so much better.  I know I do.

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad you have such friends. :) Lavish grace on you today!

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  2. Wow that is a great description "frenetically attached"! I have a frentetically attached foster toddler! Woo nelly.....I can barely go to the bathroom without her freaking out. Luckily it seems to be getting a little better. She has been with us for 2 1/2 months. But now she doesn't scream as much going to her visits with her birth parents.
    I am glad that you have good friends to keep you going. There are just days when it is hard. I will be very happy when our school year is over. I just finished an emotionally draining battle to get our daughter with NS back on to an IEP for middle school. We won, but it was a fight. Honestly, I am getting tired of fighting. But tomorrow is another day LOL Good luck with your gang

    Kelly in Colorado

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    1. Kelly, I don't know why we didn't have a big ole sit down talk at the NS conference last summer! We have so much in common. So, it only took 2.5 months to get better, huh?! Yikes. Somedays I can just laugh about how crazy it all is, and other times I don't cope quite as well ;) Glad you got the IEP for your daughter- good work, mama!

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