God and Monkeys

Today as I sat in MOPS, I thought to myself, "There's my next blog post." The problem with that is...I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Sigh.

We had a great conversation about faith with the pastor of our church. It was comfortable and pleasant and the time passed far too quickly.

One of the things that is popping to my mind now is our conversation about Godly friends (which was not the "There's my next blog post" thought but hey, you get what pops to mind when I sit down. You get what you pay for... just sayin'. ;) )

One of the great things about our MOPS group is that we do not all belong to the same congregation or denomination. In fact, while MOPS is a Christian organization they are highly cognizant of the reality that we all are in different places on our spiritual journey. We are all, however, on a spiritual journey and we are able to lift each other up, support each other and pray for each other.

This blog is called "1prayingmom" because I am one praying mom. I pray a lot because, to be quite honest, I need to. In the hard times I know I can turn to God (and Godly friends) and that I can walk through impossible things because of that faith. I actually wonder how I would get through any of it without that faith. It would be too easy to throw up my hands in despair and give up or lose myself in the depths of it. (I almost did lose myself to some extent last year, but I found myself again. I call it my midlife crisis.)

So back to Godly friends...I have been blessed with amazing Godly friends, through MOPS but in other places too. When I attended the Women of Faith event in Rochester last November, Dr. Henry Cloud told the story of research done on monkeys and how they weather stress better when they have another monkey with them. He told us to make sure we had our monkeys. Monkeys became one of those things the ladies I attended with referred to often...and a friend of mine whose mom was there texted her and told her to get monkeys. The monkey allusion worked and was meaningful for us.

So a few weeks ago, in the depths of some personal crisis this was gifted to me...

My friend wanted me to know she cared...So I look at this monkey and remember Godly friends who love and care about me and my family. They celebrate with me in the good times and hold me up in the hard times. They made the tough times more bearable, whether it was by babysitting or texting, calling or praying. You see, life really is easier with monkeys.

So I'm a monkey, you're a monkey, please make sure you have your monkeys too. :)

-Peace