My friend and her husband are our daughters God parents. We are their oldest daughters surrogate God parents (evidentally Baptists don't have God parents so we just appointed ourselves).
We met in college. We were neighbors. Each living in cinder block married student housing. Her husband had just started working at the university. My husband was getting his MBA. We clicked immediately. We shared a love of our sibling golden retriever puppies Charlie and Zack. Mexican food. The Connells, REM, and Lone Justice. And, most importantly, the birth of our oldest daughter. Those days in our early 20's were magical. My husband graduated and we moved back to his home town two hours away. They stayed in the university town teaching and raising children. Our lives were so very different but so connected. We were so very different and yet so much alike.
They were the first people I knew,way back in the day, to recycle and eat organic. Her husband is the sports information director for the university. My husbands idea of a sporting event is a duck blind or a marlin tournament. They are academics. I guess you could call us capitalists.
My friend and her daughter wear Birkenstocks. My daughters and I wear Tory Burch. Their kids want to save the environment while in college. Our kids wanted to attend attend every Greek mixer on campus. They take their kids to concerts to see 1980's bands. We take our kids to five star resorts.
We couldn't be any more different. And yet we are so much alike. We all put God, family, and honor first. We both raised our kids to be humble and to have servant's hearts. We both raised our kids to know right from wrong. To respect their elders. To love their country. To appreciate beautiful topography. Love the land & sea. A love of history. To revere marriage. To love the Lord. To use their Godly given time and talents to best serve others.
Claudia? Well, she just gets me. And I get her. We can go months without talking and pick right up where we left off. I hope you have a friend like that. Her friendship has been one of the greatest joys of my life.
Our kids, also couldn't be any more different. Yet they adore each other. Watching them interact this weekend was priceless. And then it dawned on me our kids are the age we were when we first met.
I know this isn't a post of any huge biblical revelation. And yet it is. The world right now is in utter chaos. More so than any other time in world history. The enemy is doing his best to divide and conquer us politically, economically, religiously, socially, and educationally. We are being fed lies hourly. Good has become evil and evil is now good. For now the Lord is allowing satan to win. But we know satan's demise based on scripture.
"And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." ( Revelation 10:20)
Don't believe the lies. Don't be sucked in. Healthy diversity? Godly diversity? Well it works. It's based on being able to love another, with different interests, as your own. There is no controversy. There's no judging. There's no hatred. There's Godly love to have the vision to see a coat of many colors. There's deep respect and connect to just "Get" each other. But none of this is possible without biblical love or a common moral ground. God unites us in understanding, love, and appreciation. The enemy divides us in fear, hate, and chaos.
"Don't befriend angry people or associate with hot tempered people, or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul"-Proverbs 22:24-25
