#UntilWeMeetAgain

 Happy 1st Birthday in Heaven, Dear One! 🩵🎂🎉🥳🎈🩵Oh, I can see your face clearly and hear your infectious giggle, Sheri 🩵💞💝💞🩵

What it must be like to dwell in the House of The Lord!! What it must be like to sing there!!! “What a Mighty God we serve, angels bow before the Mighty One we serve! Lord, You’re Mighty! Lord You’re Mighty! You are Awesome, Awesome!”

Carpooling to our MK meetings together is really where our friendship began nearly 20 years ago. You were the perfect “partner in crime.” One who could fill my heart with joy while distracting me from deep grief after So Much Loss! One who could make me laugh again. You’d go anywhere with me to keep me above the struggle 💓 and it was always a party to be with you! 🥳 We’d be singing to the top of our lungs back and forth everywhere we went, back then! And I was in heaven when you got that Lexus with the sunroof that I had never had! You’d open up that roof, our voices rising to the Heavens, “My God is Awesome, Awesome, He is Awesome. Savior of the whole world, Giver of Salvation, by His stripes I am healed! He’s Mighty, He’s Mighty, Awesome!” We sang til we couldn’t and then busted out laughing. I can’t wait to sing side by side with you in the presence of Jesus, Dear One! 🙌🏻 🙌🏻

Our friendship grew wider and deeper as the years went by… we wrestled through so many of life’s challenges together in the early years.  I remember that one time at MK Seminar we got up early enough to share a devotional, Sow A Seed from Draw The Circle, The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson. We prayed together afterwards, sitting side by side looking out over the skyline of Big D just as the sun was coming up. God had been creating the most beautiful image while we were praying. The rays of the sun formed a Cross in the sky. Clearly, it just for us! We giggled and shed a few tears leaving the hotel room to allow God to use us to encourage the women we would encounter. We testified to His goodness in the hard stuff of life that day while having our breakfast and lunch. 🩵💗💞💗🩵

In more recent years, we enjoyed many, many coffee chats on the phone making plans for trips with our guys, dreaming up an App for something “greater than anyone had ever thought of before!”😵😂🤣 and projects to complete in our remodeled homes. Thank goodness you and Brad came to our rescue “teaching” us how to lay the brick of our beautiful, new fireplace! It will always remind us of that day with y’all! “Gonna stand the test of time!”  🤣😂😘🤫😵🤣  David and I are so grateful for you two!

I will never forget your call that one day, “Amy you’ve got to come join me at Water Aerobics!” I was like, “Yes!, Yes, I do! What time? Where?” You said, “9am, my neighborhood pool!” Thinking to myself, “Have you lost your mind, Sheri?! That’s early! The water is Cold!” Then I said, “Yes! I’m in!” And so began our joint (pun intended) workouts! We had found yet another space for friendship and connection plus we were keeping our bodies strong for the “Grand” years ahead! Gosh we were so smart!! THEN we had a brilliant idea, “What if there was an App for that?!” 🤣😂🤣 Turned out there was! It’s called YouTube!! 😂😵😂 Now, we WERE on to something! We could exercise to videos in your pool! “This is brilliant!” The next thing I knew you had purchased water kettle bells, leg weights, dumbbells, gloves and pool noodles!! We had everything we needed; we worked so hard that summer getting stronger with every workout! We WERE the smart ones! 🤣🤫😂😍 We laughed so hard at ourselves over and over again as we found muscles we didn’t know we still had and movements we had no idea we could still do! The next year you convinced me to get into the water in April, It. Was. Freezing!!! But We Did It Anyway! Laughing with those GIANT pool noodles 😂😂😂 We could hardly push them thru the water but we got the workout done! 🤣🤣🤣

Took our first trip together with our guys to Navarre Beach!! We were loving doing nothing but soaking in the sun and waves. Our guys, not so much. They wanted to go and do and see but we were There For The Beach! ☀️🌊👙⛱️ After that trip, we figured out our guys could hang with us so we were good to go together again! 

You called me that Wednesday evening, giddy and giggly to tell me you were leaving the next day for Durango! Y’all were going back to CO! I was so excited for you and Brad to have another adventure together! We texted the morning y’all left… then… suddenly… unexpectedly…

But… For… God…, I’d be totally lost, totally undone. I opened up my Bible where I had left off the day before to Psalms 61, only eight verses:

“Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him! So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day.”

‭‭ Psalms 61:1-8 (ESV) To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. Of David. 

1 “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 

Lord, hear my cry of great loss and listen, give Your ear to my prayer 

2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 

From the end of the earth where I’m depleted of all resources, human understanding and strength. David needed stability, security, strength enough to stand against the crushing waves or quaking earth. David went to the Rock that was higher than himself, a place above himself, above his own wisdom, above his own abilities. David, unable to get to a firm-footed place, above his crisis, on his own and overwhelmed with exhaustion, so he went to the ROCK of the Judean Wilderness, a place he’d known as a refuge and protection, The ROCK, his protection

3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. 

David recalling how God had answered his prayers in the past. How God had been a shelter and strong tower for him before. 

4 Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah 

He wanted to dwell in the tabernacle of meeting with God, a space in the center of Israel’s sacrifice and worship; to trust in a protected place, like a mother bird to her offspring. A place marked and protected like the mercy seat of the Ark of The Covenant

The answer to David’s prayer 

5 For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. 

God’s care for His chosen king, David.  Eternal love and immutable faithfulness are the body guards of Jesus’s throne (Spurgeon)

6 Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! 

7 May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him! 

Appoint mercy and truth

8 So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day. 

David began his prayer desperately crying out to God with a heart that was fainting and overwhelmed. The song ends with praise, honoring the character of God as expressed in His name and doing so forever. David knew he had an unending obligation to thank and honor God, daily. David keeps his covenant, let us not forget ours (Spurgeon) He ever carries the mind illimitably FORWARD while day after day directs it first to what lies immediately ahead.”

Excerpts from Blue Letter Bible Commentary, Psalm 61

Essentially, I knew in my knower that God was showing me, there were 7 verses (7 is completion) and then the 8th, moving forward… Speaking to me, “So will you ever sing praises to My Name, Amy, as you perform your vows to me day after day, until one day when you’ll see Sheri, again.”

And, I will perform my vows day by day, side by side with Him, knowing Sheri is sitting side by side with loved ones at His feet, praising His Awesome, Mighty, Powerful Name! 

I love you, Dear One…I’ll miss you Dear One, Until… We Meet Again💗🩵🩵🩵💗

#IntoTheCalm2022

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#UntilWeMeetAgainMyDearOneSideBySideAtTheFeetOfJesus