Conversations

J and I have had several great conversations with Ek over the last 2 days. Yesterday J wanted to jog in the neighborhood and asked Ek to ride along, he didn't need to twist her arm. H, L and I rode along too. Ek rode about 3 miles on her bike. When we got home we were just encouraging her in who God is making her, strong, smart, beautiful, need I go on!, but we did. Then I came back to say a minute later if anyone ever said contrary, tell us so we can remind her they are wrong. Well about 5 minutes later she came to say a friend and her best friend at school told her she isn't strong because she could do a forward roll and a back roll. Her face was very sad and you could tell she was hurt. And it is true she can't do a backward roll, but it has just opened up great conversation about what could have been said, how she could respond and, thanks for encouragement from Tara that, of course we should be praying for her. She doesn't know her friend's best friend's name but she does know whose class she is in, so tomorrow she is going to find out her name so we can pray for her. This isn't the first time she has hurt Ek's feelings. All this reminds me of church this morning. We were at Christ Chapel in Macon, so fun! We were singing the song, "Rain down, all around the earth we're singin, Rain down." And Pastor John gets up to say, can you imagine how the flower feels (ok if it could have feelings, stick with me) to see (ditto) a dark rain cloud overhead? Probably not too excited to know it is going to be trampled by rain, yet that rain is what brings its deliverance. He reminded us that often our deliverance looks like inconvenience. Now, wouldn't it be nice to live without these inconveniences? Yet where would we be? I would love for my sweet Ek to always have kind friends (see picture below), yet I am grateful for the day's conversations. And I do pray we would continue to see the Lord in our daily life and know His love and thoughts for us, and we would submit to life in Him.

And I am grateful for sweet neighbor/ friends. This was tonight while I was cooking taco soup for all, J was wanting some bad after our last Athens visit when Mom made it.