My friend Janet

You have to stop right now and think of someone who has had a huge impact on your life, but you didn't realize how big until later. With that person in mind you can fully understand this post.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, all the fruits just well up out of Janet. She is clearly God's servant. I had almost forgotten just how well she displays these attributes until this weekend when I got to see her again.

Phil (her husband)and Janet were the college group leaders when Michael started taking me to church. Very shortly after that is when I became a Christian. There are so many things they tried to teach me back then that I wouldn't listen to. Things about living debt free, evolution, submission and love for your spouse, inerrancy of the Scriptures, the list goes on and on. (Michael wasn't nearly as ignorant as I was!) Now looking back I can see just how their influence has shaped much of my thinking today. All those truth seeds they planted during our time together have produced fruit in my life.

I am a huge proponent of love being a verb, not just something you feel, but something you do. Love is sacrificial service. Phil and Janet gave up sleeping in every Sunday morning to teach our college group, even when only 2 or 3 people showed up for the class. They made us dinner almost every Sunday night, took us camping, skiing, jet-skiing, played games with us until the wee hours of the morning. When Michael and I broke up Janet was the first person I called. As we were remembering this, she wanted to know if I knew what she said to me, and I can't remember, but she was there for me, that is what was important.

So thanks to Phil and Janet for such wonderful memories and more importantly for such wonderful examples to follow.

Maybe someday I will do a post all about Phil, well, I could do several posts about Phil...all good of course!