Lonely?

In her Bible Study "Stepping Up", Beth Moore said (and I'm paraphrasing), "With the modern convenience of texting, IMing, and even email, we easily and often 'keep in touch' with people through short notes, but we're still left feeling hungry for something real."

How true! If we were to take a poll, the large majority would say that they often feel lonely. Yet they would also answer that they have a lot of friends. It sounds almost oxymoronic. So why is this? Well we all know the Bible verse, "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly." But what does "friendly" mean? Being friendly, like Beth Moore said, means more than a quick text or a wall post on facebook. It means phone calls and written notes and coffee dates if one wants to build relationships and make real, deep, true friendships instead of casual acquaintanceships.

However, in my experience, that isn't enough. The problem is, it takes two. One can call and write and try to plan coffee dates, but if the effort isn't reciprocated then it becomes frustrating to both parties. So would you like to know what I think? I think people have given up. No one makes the effort because they're tired of the rejection, so no one else feels wanted and therefore they don't make an effort either.

So what would happen if, all of a sudden, everyone just decided to put themselves out there and make themselves a little vulnerable, and to sacrifice a little bit of time out of their day for the benefit of someone else? Maybe the loneliness would stop! Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? I recently read "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exubery and in it he paints a pictures of how something trivial becomes special because of the effort and care one puts into it; whether a drink of water, a sunset, or a relationship.

I know: this has nothing to do with my ministry here in Portugal. But first the Bible study and then the children's book in less than a week really got me thinking. For about a week these thoughts have been bouncing around inside my head, and I had to get them out. :-) So here's my blog; a convenient way to share my musings!

duck or pato?

Last week, Noah started repeating words. Lasagna = "ana", Wow = "ooow", Dog = "doug", etc. But on Tuesday he surprised me. While we played with his rubber duck I told him "That's a duck. Can you say duck?". As expected, Noah just looked at me and kept playing. When I said "or pato" (slowly but surely I'm learning Portugese words! lol), he said "duck!" I told him that's right it's a duck, at which point he ignored me again. But when I said "pato"...out he came with "duck" again. What a little stinker!

I know, I know...probably coincidence. Translating words at 11 months? Lol, not likely. :-) But it gave me a fun story to tell!