Prayer

Today I found out that my dear friend Tammy (a woman who I love with all my heart and consider to be one of the 3 wise women God has given me to help me on my journey of being a wife and mother) is on the other end of this country fearing that she is going to lose her dear husband of so many years. Tammy and Ralph are who I want Jay and I to be when we grow up. They are what marriage looks like when I imagine happily ever after. It just can't be fair that this is happening to them now...just after Ralph retired and they began all the wonderful journeys that retirement holds in store.

Okay, I know I sound like I am pouting. Well, I guess I am. I am just plain mad. Stomping on the floor, tantrum throwing mad.

It's funny, if this were another friend and Tammy were listening to me share my feelings (as she so often does), I know what she would say to me. "Kristy, it's okay to be mad. Your feelings are valid. But, let's find a better way to express them rather than throwing this tantrum." And then she would suggest so many different ways I could find the release from my pain besides acting like a 2 year old. All the while loving me just the same as she did before I ever began my rantings.

It's what she does for me. She listens, lets me be me and then advises me, all the while loving and validating me. She is so good to me! You see, that's why I feel so helpless. I want to listen to her share her heart, let her be herself or throw a tantrum and then validate and love her. But she is on the other side of the country and I can't. I long so badly to do this for her, but she is just so far away.

So, I am going to listen to the other 2 wise women God has given me (Sheryl and Janene) and listen very clearly when they tell me that prayer is powerful and IT IS an amazing gift we can give to our dear friends who are in pain. No matter where they are, God is still God and He is there with them all at the same time being he is listening to us.

And then when Tammy gets home (no matter what the outcome), I am going to hug her and let her throw the biggest temper tantrum ever seen, then I am just going to do what she does for me: love her through it!

Please keep my precious friend and her family in your prayers.