I hope you’re having a wonderful week, filled with a healthy mixture of rich, rewarding work, revitalizing recreation, and quality time spent invested in your closest relationships. The older I get, the more I see and appreciate the immeasurable value of both nurturing old relationships and building new ones. This sentiment reminds me of the children’s song, “Make New Friends But Keep the Old”:
Make new friends, but keep the old,
One is silver, the other is gold
When my husband and I moved to a city about a year and a half ago, I seriously had the thought, “I think I’m too old (at 35!) to make new, genuine friendships.”
I wondered how in the world I, a mom of two little ones in a brand-new town, with zero connections, could make a single friend. It caused me no small amount of anxiety and self-pity, to be honest.
So, my husband and I did what we always do when faced with such negative emotions. We prayed, this time specifically for a community of people, whatever size, to meet and intentionally get to know.
I say “intentionally get to know” because it’s rather easy to meet people. It’s not so easy to really know people, unless you go out of your way and carve out precious time to get past those (frankly awkward) surface-level interactions. And that brings me to the first item in this week’s Top 4. Oh, and God answered our prayer in a huge way that all started by leading us to our church home, lickety-split (haven’t used that word in about 30 years, and I have to say it felt good). But before you jump into a church in hopes of making friends, go there seeking to hear from God’s Word first (see Matthew 6:33).
COMMUNITY OR PROXIMITY?
“Some people think they are in community, but they are only in proximity. True community requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other.” –David Spangler
How about you? Are you part of a true community comprised of open, honest individuals who sincerely know and trust?
WALK ON!
I saw this from Dr. Daniel Amen recently:
“An 80-year-old who walks one mile per hour has only a 1% chance of living until 90. But if that same 80-year-old moves faster, say at 3.5 MPH, he or she has an 84% chance of reaching 90.
“As walking speed goes down, so do executive function and decision-making skills.”
AS A CHILD
“I want to be as a child, delighting in life, at peace with God, living in the grace of the moment. I want to live above the pull of depression and cultivate a heart of joy from which others can draw.” – Sally Clarkson
What can you do today to delight more in life?
WARD OFF ILLITERACY
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler, American writer, futurist, and businessman
Can you think of something you recently “unlearned” and took it upon yourself to “relearn”? How about something you learned for the very first time? I recently learned the history of Louis Braille via a wonderful children’s book I read to my son called Six Dots. It’s a fantastic little book. You can find it HERE.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s Top 4!
Before I go, I wanted to share my latest podcast episode with you on my second birth story. Check it out HERE!
