{"id":180,"date":"2023-02-11T14:40:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T20:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/?p=180"},"modified":"2023-02-18T12:01:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T18:01:57","slug":"thankful-for-my-girlfriends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/11\/thankful-for-my-girlfriends\/","title":{"rendered":"Thankful for My Girlfriends!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sitting with my girlfriends over lunch, the conversation turned to the struggles currently facing each of us or a loved one. They were all difficult circumstances, not for the faint of heart: an elderly parent whose health brought the family to a difficult decision about living arrangements, the loss of employment and financial crisis for another, the poor choices and consequences for an adult child, and a new chapter of life called \u2018a husband\u2019s retirement\u2019 for another. Any one of these can bring fear, trepidation, or panic. How do you handle the sticky, prick-lies of life each day? Life can be messy, and fear or worry can quickly destroy even the strongest of resolves, leaving us shaking at all the unknowns. It\u2019s been said, \u201cthat which terrifies you controls you.\u201d And it certainly can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perspective<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As I looked around the table, I knew each one of us had the right perspective. We know and trust the Lord. We know it does no good to worry and wallow about things\u2014and yet, some days we forget and catch ourselves fretting, doing just what we know we shouldn\u2019t. Looking at the waves around us just as Peter did, we focus on the crisis and not the Power and Presence of Jesus. The Lord is the cure for what terrifies us because He is God of the Impossibles of Life! He is trustworthy and faithful; His character is unchanging\u2014always True, always has our best in mind, no matter how it appears during the dark times; the path He leads me on is a good one, with eternal purposes in view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Psalmist, David the Shepherd, who later becomes King by God\u2019s choosing didn\u2019t ignore the difficulties of life; He didn\u2019t live in a bubble\u2014in fact, he cried out to the Lord about his: fear of the darkness around him in (Psalm 27), fear of the enemies looking to entrap him and take his life (Ps. 18 & 22), the fear of an unknown future (Ps.37, 16, 102); but by the end of each of these Psalms, David acknowledges the greatness and awesomeness of his God, the Almighty One. David realizes that God\u2019s light will dispel any darkness, His strength takes the place of weakness, and God is his Source for all he needs. David could take God at His Word, and so can I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remembering how David and others fought their battles, by kneeling before an awesome God, gives me and my girlfriends hope. We have the same Resource David had and that Source comforts, counsels, directs, encourages, and sustains us when we call on Him and follow Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lifting Up One Another<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we may borrow a cup of faith from one another and stand in the gap between fear and faith, holding up the arms of our sister whose strength is stretched; other times she allows me to soak in the balm of Jesus\u2019 words she reminds me about as she prays for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My lunch-date girlfriends have made all the difference because we made the same personal commitment, we know and love the Lord, we study Gods\u2019 word together weekly and we add another layer of understanding by sharing with one another how we are living out these Biblical principles every day. We hold one another up both in encouragement and in accountability to what we know God\u2019s Word says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forever Friends<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I am thankful for my girlfriends, both these around the lunch table, and those I\u2019ve known who invested their hearts over the years from faraway places\u2013for the bonding cords of faith in Jesus Christ that have held us together, making us stronger because we have done battle together on our knees. We have stormed the gates of heaven on behalf of one another. Our lives will be changed and blessed because of these lunches and the lives of those we touch will benefit from the strength we\u2019ve received from our Lord through the friendships we\u2019ve forged because we\u2019ve shared life and its struggles and lessons along the way. The Lord has bound us as forever friends because of His love for us and that is a very good thing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pam Stephens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pam\u2019s background has involved teaching, whether at women\u2019s retreats, Bible Studies, or Personality Seminars. She also owned her own businesses: one in the medical field and then in Real Estate, which she did with her husband Bob. They have just moved to a condo in Branson, Missouri, and look forward to more adventures!\u00a0Pam and Bob have loved their life experiences\u2014wherever they took them\u2014from the States and Canada, to a cruise in Tahiti\u2014Living Their Best Life has always been their goal!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life can be messy, and fear or worry can quickly destroy even the strongest of resolves, leaving us shaking at all the unknowns. It\u2019s been said, \u201cthat which terrifies you controls you.\u201d And it certainly can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[24,43],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-girlfriends","category-soul","tag-girlfriends","tag-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingyourbestlife60plus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}