{"id":735,"date":"2013-03-06T23:29:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T23:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=735"},"modified":"2013-03-06T23:29:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T23:29:20","slug":"yeah-whatever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=735","title":{"rendered":"Yeah, whatever!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kandy<\/a>Yesterday, I wrote about the blessing of friendship.\u00a0 Over the weekend, my pastor spoke about having friends who love us enough to offer reproof.\u00a0 You know the type of friends who see we are doing something wrong and who are bold enough to say it.<\/p>\n

Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Proverbs 27: 6a (NASB)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Ouch! I don\u2019t think I had ever really dissected that verse.\u00a0 Reliable, faithful friends. Check! I\u2019ve got those. Friends who point out what I don\u2019t like to hear. Yep! I\u2019ve got those too.\u00a0 I have a couple friends who God\u2019s mission for\u00a0their lives must be to point out whenever I\u2019ve said \u201cYes\u201d once too many times.\u00a0 Do I like it? Not usually.\u00a0 Do I make excuses? Absolutely! Do I know they are right? Yes, and eventually, I accept that they have offered sage advice.\u00a0 There is always the one friend, however faithful, that just comes right out and says it like it is.<\/p>\n

After my pastor drew attention to that verse on Sunday, I was immediately transported back to a day about a week ago. \u00a0That day we received some unsettling news, and there was an big evening event at our school I was to attend.\u00a0 I chose to stay home to be quiet and crochet.\u00a0 After a while, I received a text from THAT friend.<\/p>\n

Where are you?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t feel well.\u00a0 Chose to stay home. I\u2019m watching Matlock & crocheting.<\/p>\n

Dan said you were under the weather.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u2019m fine. Just wanted a quiet night at home.<\/p>\n

Yeah, whatever! I don’t believe you. What is really going on?<\/p>\n

What just happened here?\u00a0 She saw right through my smoke screen, and she called me on it.\u00a0 Since she was sitting in the bleachers surrounded by my husband and many of our friends, I sent her the honest answer, but prefaced it with a \u201cDO NOT FREAK OUT! I will call you tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0 text. Then I proceeded to tell her that we learned that Sawyer was going to need another surgery.\u00a0 I always knew it might have to happen, but I just wasn\u2019t ready for it yet.<\/p>\n

It was going to be surgery \u2013 number 7, and another one in March.\u00a0 This month has not-so-affectionately become surgery month for our boy.\u00a0 I hate it, and I just needed a night to process it.\u00a0 I think if I had gone to the school and anyone even looked at me, I would have cried.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t bring myself to put on a happy face.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, I chose to stay home and surround myself with comforting things \u2013 old quilts, old crafts, and old shows. The whole time I sat at home wishing this wasn’t our life, and wishing I could I wish it all away.<\/p>\n

In reality, even though I was trying to hide from the world, God knew exactly what was going on.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t fooled for a minute.\u00a0 His awareness of my sadness is most likely what caused my friend to basically say, \u201cCut the crap. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, but you are NOT fine.\u201d\u00a0 Faithful are the wounds of a friend.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

Her \u201cwounds\u201d allowed me to open up and share with her and several others about what my tomorrow holds.\u00a0 Her \u201cwounds\u201d allowed me to face my fears, but more importantly, it reminded me of the heart of this verse.\u00a0 Friends who say it like it is do so because they love us.\u00a0They remind us that even if we feel isolated, we are never really alone.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I wrote about the blessing of friendship.\u00a0 Over the weekend, my pastor spoke about having friends who love us enough to offer reproof.\u00a0 You know the type of friends who see we are doing something wrong and who are bold enough to say it. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Proverbs 27: 6a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[135,233,312,393,499,601,619,662],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}