For Lily On Her Birthday

Will you pull up a chair with me and share a cup of tea while I tell you about how sweet my friendship is with Lily?

I love thinking about meeting you for the first time in Greenville and not really being sure about being your friend. Do you remember our moms telling us that we needed to go play with each other and make friends instead of just being shy? Ha! They don't have to tell us that anymore.

I love playing Dragoons and Hugenouts every time we see each other. Can you believe we actually made up that game ourselves? And it's all the rage at Redeemer now :)

I love all the motherly doctor's appointments we had together; all the hospital visits; all the babies that were born at our birthday parties; all the paperwork we filled out; all the bulletins we made; all the pretend church services we had (and set up all the chairs for and put out the offering plates for, and scoured the house for all the hymnals for, and printed the bulletins for, and set up the nursery for, and put out the water for our babies' baptisms for, and got dressed up for, and packed our diaper bags for, and fixed our hair and make-up for); all the spankings we gave our children; all the times we had to take our kids out of church; all the fake crying we did (we were REALLY good at that) when our kids got spanked; all the walks we went on because it's very motherly to work out while you're pushing you kids in the stroller; all the cell phone calls we got while we were driving our cars that we set up in "the real car"; all the meals we made together. Oh! we had so much fun together.

I love all the newsletters we've sent; all the notes we've written; all the e-mails we've exchanged; all the summer weeks we've spent together; all the sewing projects we've done; all the cooking catastrophes we've had. Do you want some lemon with that? How about some lemon tea with a lemon scone with lemon curd on it? I know you like lemon. So do I.

I love all the sermons we've listened to together; all the quotes we've shared; all the blog posts "we've" written; all the books we've read; all the things we've laughed about...really hard; all the jokes we've made; all the tears we've cried; all the conversations we've had every Saturday (from scary stories to our greatest fears in life to all the ways that the Lord has encouraged and cared for us this week).

Lily, I love you so much! And I love our friendship. It's so special to me and I'm so thankful for the way our Father in Heaven has built it and is growing it and causing it to flourish. He is truly able and willing to do "exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask or think." From that day in the park in Greenville to laughing at me carrying laundry and spilling my tea all the way up the stairs to sharing the sermon we listened to last week. And He's not done yet!

To my very dear friend on her nineteenth birthday~

Happy Birthday!

May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and draw you ever nearer to Himself.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.