Honeycomb

 Have you ever noticed how infectious an attitude can be? You can have a group of people and if one of them is being a noodge about everything, it can bring the rest of the group down, or it will take the efforts of 2 or 3 others working hard to counter-act it. On the other hand, if you're, as an individual, feeling a bit down, one person being kind and funny can bring you right up out of it.

I have a couple of friends here who excel at bringing me right out of self-pity. Not by making me ignore what's going on in my life, or trying to convince me It Will All Be Ok, but by simply making me laugh. 

I was missing Capt terribly one morning, and expressed that I was missing his hugs. So, a friend called me a little later, and loudly (everything he does is kinda loud) 'hugged' me over the phone. I needed that. We talked a little and he made me laugh. I always feel a bit better after talking with him. Another friend, who's a very funny person I've known since childhood, took me out and again, we laughed. A lot. Wine may or may not have been involved. (ahem). The effects of all that laughter lasted several days. Better than any pharmaceutical, to be sure. 

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

I am immensely grateful for having a couple of people in my life that can make me laugh in such uncomplicated ways. I'm not really like that, able to make people laugh the ways they do. It's a real gift they both have and I'm not even sure they're aware of how valuable that it. Me, I give jelly and pickles. It's what I know how to do. I can make people laugh sometimes,  but a person needs a pickle now and again, and that's the truth. 

And they don't try to FIX thing. Some things can only be fixed by God. Some things, no matter how much we want them to, WON'T be fixed by God because that's not in His plan. Oh, how I prayed that week Capt was in the hospital, that he'd be healed. I knew God could. I knew God heard my prayers, and the ones by everyone else...his family, friends, people we'd asked to pray for him. But that wasn't what God had in the plan, since the beginning of time. 

He did, however, know I'd need some help afterwards, and had all that in place at the right time. He did the same thing when Himself passed away. There were people, ones who made me laugh, let me cry, all those necessary actions for recovery from such a huge shock. 

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.  Proverbs 27:9

I have been immensely blessed; far, far beyond anything I could deserve. I have friends.