How to Enlarge Your Circle of Friends

  A little boy about ten years old was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, “My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?” “I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boy’s reply.

The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel.

By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?”

As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, with tears in his eyes, answered the question with these words: “Are you God’s wife?” (Author unknown. A story told in mirthandmotivation.com).

One Foot in Front of the Other

So many times, we tend to ignore what is right before us. Especially now when we have just gone through a devastating change in our lives, our problems seem insurmountable and we see nothing else in our path. Each day is difficult. Each hour is excruciating. Each minute is painful.  

These types of feelings are natural and expected especially when our circumstances are brand new to us and it hasn’t been long at all since we became single-again women (divorced, widowed, single mom). At this point, don’t let anyone tell you not to feel the sorrow and distress. There is a certain period where we all go through the stages of grief.

Eventually at some point, we will turn a corner and begin to feel better with each passing day as we put one foot in front of the other. This is when our eyes open a little wider and we can lift our heads. We might even surprise ourselves simply by smiling—at ourselves and others too.

Now is the opportunity to figure out what to do with our lives. How to live differently because, obviously, we are different. Unfortunately, many women try and continue to make everything remain exactly as it was hoping their old life will just reappear in a better light. This is usually an unbelievably bad idea that holds us back from growing and spreading our wings!           

Be a Friend. Gain a Friend.

“Life is 10% what happens and 90% of how you react to it.” (Charles Swindoll, pastor, and author).

Just like the “wise” woman in the (likely fictional) story above, we might try and not dwell on ourselves so much that we forget what is happening in the lives of other people. Of course, the story does not indicate if the woman was single or not, but it seems to us that she was at the very least, generous, kind, and unselfish.    

One of the changes we may have already experienced as a single-again woman is that our circle of “friends” seems to have evolved into several new relationships. We find ourselves gravitating towards other women going through the same scenario. That’s a great sign!

Why? Because we are learning how to spread our wings and have become interested in finding out how others have successfully changed their lives for the better. We are “hanging out” with those who can provide insight, intuition, and intelligence about something we know little about.

Arms Wide Open

The greatest insight we can acquire is to recognize that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us above and beyond what we can imagine. He is unlike any earthly father we have ever known.

God knows us inside and out and cares deeply what we have experienced and what happened to us before and after the change in our marital status. He is waiting for each of us to turn to Him with all our sorrows, grief, heartache, and pain. His arms are wide open! Call out to Him. Run to Him now!                 

“The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life; a wise person wins friends” (Proverbs 11:30 NLT).

 

Are You Part of a Chain Reaction?

Domino chain reaction

Some people have a lot of fun setting up pieces of a game called dominoes into a long, long line with each piece perfectly facing the next one. This could take hours upon hours, or even days in some cases. Then, when the construction is completely done and ready for excitement, one tiny push of the first domino and the entire winding chain creates a reaction of falling one on top of the other. Lily Hevesh took two days to build her 15,524 piece domino world record. Amazing! Check her YouTube video by clicking here: Amazing Record 

People also can create "a series of events that are related to each other that each one initiates the next." In other words, it only takes one person to do something right--or wrong--and a whole chain reaction happens whether we want it to or not. There are no coincidences in life. We can not walk this life day by day and not affect someone else by what we do or say. 

Crossing Paths

Every day we run into people we know or even perfect strangers because their presence was meant to cross our path for a reason. For instance, maybe this morning we got up and our day started out badly. The can of coffee is empty so we have none to make. The cat threw up all over the kitchen floor and we stepped in it. And the car won't start. Ever have a morning like that? 

Chain reactions occur in chemistry, nuclear reactions, and unfortunately, vehicle accidents every day. In our everyday lives, however, we can enjoy much of what happens to us depending on our attitudes. Look at it this way: we are all interconnected and overlapping. Just as we are trying to get that car started, the new neighbor (we have not met yet) shows up with jumper cables. We introduce ourselves and begin talking. Now we find out our cat got out of the house while we were cleaning up her mess in the kitchen and the neighbor was trying to find the cat's owner as he discovered it in his yard. 

It Doesn't End There

God's Galaxy

We may have never noticed, but daily chain reactions happen all the time: "a number of events triggered by the same initial event." The world even began that way. In six days, God created one piece of the world at a time and each one affected the next. The day became night, waters were separated and sky and land appeared. All of this led to the creation of vegetation, stars, and creatures/animals. When everything was "good," God created two more perfect beings: "male and female" and named them Adam and Eve. 

This is a beautiful story but it doesn't end there. God also gave human beings "free will." And so, the first human beings chose to eat what they should have left alone. They wanted to do things their way. And because of that event, another chain reaction began and continues to this day. 

We have choices to make every single day of our lives. Will we say a kind word to someone to brighten their day or a sarcastic remark that will make their day worse? Can we drop what we are doing to help a stranger or will we remain in our selfishness? Can we give generously or hoard our possessions? All of these types of events will cause a good or unfortunate chain reaction. It's up to us just like Adam and Eve. 

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1 NLT).

"Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came marking the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31 NLT).

He wisely rested on the seventh day. And we are stronly encouraged to do the same!