by Joanne Wiklund
Somehow when the first yellow leaves begin to blow around the yard as the wind picks up, I get more nostalgic than ever. (If that’s possible right now!) But it is. I remember dances after basketball games at Cordova High School. The apple cider and glazed doughnuts that were standard treats when the dance was on. The music was the Twist, Fats Domino and lots of other do wa wa songs.
That time was brought home to me this week when I lost another good friend. She and I go back to when we double dated friends who grew up more like brothers around the country corner from each other. We married our dates. We live next door now to where she and her husband moved when they were first married. Lots of card games played in that old Quonset hut. We had so much fun. Seems to me the older we get the more important our friends really are. We find ourselves trading stories of what we are doing and what we can’t do anymore, We laugh a lot.
I think God invented friendship for us to invest in, to help us learn to love unconditionally. To do things for people out of pure agape love that comes with no strings attached. Little children are like that. As we watch children grow and learn to share toys, food, fun and animals, we see just how unconditional love can be. Children are so important to us also. Being a friend is not always a good thing in a parent-child relationship. We must show them how we love them, but we have to sometimes take a deep breath and be the parent God leads us to be. Saying no is not easy at all at times. Of course, I’m not the world’s best friend or best parent. I try hard still at both, and sometimes feel I have done a good thing. Other times I feel so inadequate when I know people are hurting badly. These are just “musings” after all. But I really would not have wanted to miss being a friend or a parent. God is so good.
Philippians: 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, think on these things. 9. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
1Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
Thanks Joanne, I really appreciate your thoughts in the weekly posting. The older we get the more important these memories become.
Love the parenting part – we try to do the best we can at the time but looking back we can always see where we could possibly have done it better – thank you Joanne