Tag: friendship

Happy New Year!!

~ Portia Stephens ~ 2 Comments

Today I start my first Pfysical New Year. I had the revelation back in April and in case you wondered, these things I write really come from my heart and impact my life! I haven’t forgotten about the new word I made up nor the intentions behind.

See original Pfysical post here

I spent the first part of June just trying to recover from the pandemic, the school year, the trials of the last year, in a cocoon of sort, it was much needed respite. Then I emerged determined to be a new creation rather than the tired old slug that drug herself into that cocoon. Determined that even in this late season of my life – I can still fly. We actually make the decision to fly or die everyday, somedays the choice is more clear than others.

Reflecting on Half A of 2021: Even though this was Half A of the year, I would certainly not rate it an A. We faced some terrible, awful, horrible, bad things, like continuation of cancellations, quarantines and restrictions from stinking COVID, five days below zero with no electricity, no heat, no school, the abrupt tragic end to Ryan’s career dreams, the passing of what should have been our 35th Wedding Anniversary (which is still way more BITTER than sweet) and certainly last but not least Grandma Nina fell and broke her hip in June. BUT Paxton graduated with his Cyber Security degree in April, we got to finish out the school year, in-person, Ryan got engaged in May (then actually married on June 1st at the courthouse, but they are still planning a wedding for next year!), I got to witness their first vows, I got to go with my new daughter to select a wedding dress. I’m so grateful for these crazy kids in my life that took over the month of June with love and new and madness when I would have wanted to just focus on what was lost! I restarted in-person GriefShare and have the sweetest group of people in my summer class, I’ve returned to in-person church with my dear old lady friends (ironically it’s the oldest of our group is the only one who doesn’t embrace our “old lady” moniker, one even likes to refer to us as hell’s grannies, but how do we have hell’s grannie’s Bible study?!?!) and have had lots of lunch dates with sweet friends since schools been out.

Reflecting on June 2021: My scripture theme for June was Friendship. It’s funny how you’d think by the time you’ve been on the planet almost 59 years you’d surely know all there is to know about friendship. I struggle with social media. We have a strong love/hate relationship. I guess it comes from my own struggle to put myself out there so I am therefore uncomfortable with others putting themselves out there. I struggle with this “friending” concept. How do you decide to “friend” someone or “unfriend” accept a “friend request” or ignore it? Am I defined by how many friends I have? Just because our paths crossed briefly should we forever voyeuristically “follow” each other?

I learned from scripture writing that it is a misconception that we get to choose our friends. Scripture tells me that I am to love others, sacrificially even, not just those that are easy to love, that love me back, or I feel deserve love. My take-aways were: we need each other, we need to let things go, we need to build each other up, we need to pray for each other, we need to be kind to others, we don’t need words, we shouldn’t take our friends for granted, we are called to love, Love, LOve, LOVe, LOVE, everything we do for others is for His glory, really everyone should be treated as my friend and who I choose to walk with really matters! I became aware that I have a very selfish view of friendship. I thought I get to pick my friends and it’s okay if that group is really small. But I need to develop a broader since of friendship that is much more like kinship which is a sharing of characteristics or origins. I need to be more friendly, I need to be more open to the friendship of others, I need to quit over thinking motives and motivations and just love and accept others. I need to just focus on all the times I commanded to love others and let the rest of it go. Not be a door mat, which I won’t be because I’m loving others for the glory of God not selfish gain.

Looking forward to Half B of 2021: My pfysical resolution is to focus more on the SWEET than the bitter. I know life will be bittersweet, but I get to choose what I focus on. I can let the bitter make the sweet so much more enjoyable and by focusing on loving others and building others up, I’m choosing to spend more time in the sweet! I want to walk more steps, say yes to more opportunities and overall just focus outward more! I get to witness the relationship of my son and daughter-in-law (that is still so weird to say!) grow. I get to see them both launch new careers, a new life and see them dream big and love large. I’ll, hopefully, get to see another son take off in the world and do great things. I get to plan a wedding! I get to be mother of the bride AND the groom because they have no other. I’ve got a front row seat to a wonderful show!

The thing about it is … I know that my hang ups are my sinful nature. I know that I’m not taking my sinful nature to heaven. If all God saw was our sinful nature, none of us would get in, because none of us are worthy. So why do I let my sinful nature rule me now. I am called to love period. I’ve been ruled too long by my sinful nature, I’ve lived my life to this point too small. I know that much of that is because living large opens me up to pain and heartache, but I’m learning that the pain and heartache are wholly unavoidable so I now want to experience my pain and heartache knowing that I’ve loved others, without defining a relationship, to the best of my ability.

On Grief and Friendships

~ Portia Stephens ~ 1 Comment

Someone posed the question at GriefShare: Do you think grief re-writes your address book?

I love the trees when their leaves are gone. They point to the beauty around them, birds nests, sunrises, sunsets, blue skies and gray skies. They also reveal damage from parasites and damaged limbs that need to be removed. Photo credit: Me 3/1/2018 7:34 a.m. headed out on a morning walk.

We used to sing this song in Girl Scouts, “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.” Grief changes you, it changes your relationships. We tend to view friendships as either forever or failures but God places people in our lives for a season and seasons change. Old and new are both treasures!

I used to think that friendship was give and take. That the people I’ve been there for would be the people that were there for me, but that’s not always the case. God is dynamic and so are our relationships.

I think He places people in our lives for a purpose. We remember those who have been there for us in the past fondly but there is no obligation, you don’t owe them, they don’t owe you. As a follower of Christ you realize that we are obedient to Christ’s calling in our lives. When he shows a need, a place we can serve others, our obligation is to honor Him by serving others. Friendships based on debt don’t work. I can like you, I can think fondly of you, but I can’t keep score of kindness offered and treat it as a debt to be paid nor expect any kindness I’ve extended to be repaid. I can only grow from it and pay it forward. Kindness makes both the giver and receiver better.

Sadly no caption needed! Gardening and photo credit … me.

I think He places people in our lives for a season. When a deep freeze hits in the winter some plants do not survive, some are permanently damaged, some bounce back. Plants require different kinds of care in different seasons and we’re like that too. Sometimes we need more water than others, sometimes we need fertilizer, sometimes we need constant attention to rescue us from the brink of death, sometimes we don’t survive and sometimes we thrive. But none of the seasons are forever. They may seem like forever when you’re in them, they may last longer than we want, but they always change.

The rings in a tree tell us about the climate and atmosphere throughout the trees life, no year is the same. Photo credit: stolen from the internet https://www.the-scientist.com/reading-frames/opinion-tree-rings-as-soothsayers-67130

I remember growing up my dad used to burn the lawn in the early spring. It was fun getting to catch the grass on fire and keep it in check with the water hose but it left our yard black and dead looking and horrible. But then it came back so beautiful with all the bad stuff burned away. I still look at pampas grass and think, “That would look so much better if it were burned in the spring.” The pain in our lives also breeds new life, sometimes we have to be burnt to be beautiful.

to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:3

I think we get into trouble when we expect things from a relationship that only God can provide. It’s in our relationship with God that we can survive and thrive with ourselves. Time alone with God fills a need only God can fill. When we expect that unconditional love, acceptance and grace from humans, we will be disappointed. Everything outside of God is temporary. You can survive the loss of a spouse, a child, a friend, a parent, a grandparent because God never abandons you. You can ignore him but that doesn’t impact His existence. We tend to look at other’s loss and think, “I don’t know how you could survive that loss.” The truth is neither does the survivor. You survive by putting one foot in front of the other and every day choosing to move forward.

I think that is living in light of eternity. When we live knowing that the only constant relationship is with our creator we can put our other relationships into perspective. We can see our spouse, children, siblings, parents and friends as the gifts from God that they are. Treasures for the time we have them. Time isn’t the only measure of the depth of a relationship. A spouse lost after a few years or 62 years is still a huge loss. A child lost at a couple of minutes or 70 years is still devastating. Depth isn’t quantified just by time.

I heard one time, I wish I could remember where, that we have 30 seconds to respond to a prompting from the Holy Spirit. If you don’t act on it within 30 seconds you’ll either forget or talk yourself out of it. I don’t know if the 30 seconds is accurate but I know that when you have that idea, action is required – act now! It could mean the world to someone else, it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship, it could be kindness from a stranger that makes their day better and it will definitely leave you better! Let God be the author of your address book.