For you, Tara --- part 1

I think it was about 2 years ago. I got a friend request from a lady on Facebook. I had seen her name/picture on comments to my friends' status updates but didn't know her at all. When she sent me a friend request, I checked who our mutual friends were & sent a couple of them messages saying "Who is this lady? Do I know her? She sent me a friend request. Since you are a mutual friend of ours, can you tell me about her?" Over & over, I got the same answers --- that she worked with the kids at a local mega(ish) church & that she was a sweetheart. I don't usually accept friend requests from strangers but for some reason, I felt safe with this one. Soon after, I wrote & asked her if we'd met before. I thought maybe we'd crossed paths somewhere along the way & her answer blew me away. She was SO sweet to tell me that she'd seen my comments on her friends' pages & she just wanted to know me because she thought I seemed nice. That was all it took for me to know she was a smart cookie (ha ha!) and that I wanted to be friends with her.

Over the course of the next year (roughly), we had a Facebook relationship. We commented on each other's pictures and statuses, but we never saw each other in person. Earlier this year, she sent me a message about some issues they were having & we realized very quickly that God had put us together for a reason. She felt very awkward about reaching out to me with a problem since we barely knew each other, but they were dealing with some things that Larry & I have dealt with firsthand. We were able to pray for them, tell them how things had worked for us, what we did to handle similar circumstances.

Several months ago, Tara's family began attending our church. She is an absolute doll! All those things people told me 2 years ago were true! She's one of the most authentic, honest, genuine people. And I LOVE that about her. I've long said that we need more transparent Christians in the Church and being a friend of Tara's is a breath of fresh air. I love this girl!! Her kids are precious, her husband is a hoot and I've had the best time sitting beside her in church, worshiping God together. She often says that she's glad I am her friend.......but she doesn't know that it's actually the other way around. I am thrilled that she's my friend!

In my last post, I asked if anyone would like to hear about anything in particular & my sweet friend Tara commented:

"I would love to hear who inspires you. Your favorite worship leaders/songs. What family habits have you developed for devotions for your kids and as a couple and as a family. How you keep organized. What you had for dinner! LOLOLOLOL...ok now I'm off on a tangent. I just like to hear how others make their homes centered around our Precious Savior! Just helps me to develop those things in our house!"

I may have to break that down into a couple of posts.

I would love to hear who inspires you.

For me, inspiration means someone or something that gives you a feeling, thought or idea that pushes you to move forward. Whether that means a recipe that I read that makes me want to try it....or a devotional I read that makes me want to follow Him more closely.....or a person who does something really cool that makes me want to do something really cool, too. So who inspires me?

My kids inspire me. Healthy people jogging down the street inspire me. People who get in bed at a decent hour all the time inspire me. My husband inspires me. My pastor inspires me every week! The list could really go on & on & on. Apparently I need a lot of inspiration in my life. ha ha!

I am so thankful that I have so many amazing people in my life that inspire me to do all sorts of things.