Amazed

It amazes me how when you want to bless someone you are the one who ends up being blessed. A friend called me the other day while at her wits end and needed help with a big project. I was honored to be the one she called and gladly agreed to come over and help her. That's what friends are for, right? To be there to offer help when your friend needs it.

Kiddo and I showed up at her home at the agreeded upon time. After laying out the ground rules to Violet I let her run off to play with my friend's kids. She walked me through the house to where she needed help tackling, appologizing for needing my help. Really, things weren't that bad. There was some challenges but it wasn't completely overwhelming to me. But it was to her and that's why I was there. To help straighten up a big room, organizing and purging things from it.

My friend is in the process of preparing for a garage sale. She had several items ready to take to the garage but wanted to show me a few things first. There was a beautiful quilt bedding set that was perfect for a little girl's room, along with several other items. My friend gave us that lovely bedding set and my heart swelled with joy and gratefulness. Here's why: I flipped through a Pottery Barn Kids catalogue recently and saw a bedding set that I loved which is almost identical to the one my friend just gave me! I flagged the page and started caculating how long it would take me to save up enough money to buy that set. And here I was today, being blessed by my friend, who I came to help/bless, with a gift that fulfilled a desire to dress up my daughter's room. The following photo doesn't do the bedding justice but you get the general idea of it.


My friend also loaned me several books that help teach reading. Violet has struggled with learning to read and it has been quite disheartening to me. Gregg and I love to read and have wanted to pass that love of books to our daughter. She loves being read TO, she just doesn't want to read. As I shared that with my friend, she took me by the hand and led me to her library, and said, "These have worked wonders for my kids. Take these home and use them for a while. I bet Violet will be reading better in NO time!" Again, my heart leapt with joy and hope began to burn again in my spirit.

I am amazed, and stunned, by how God turned this around on me. I went to my friend's house to help her and to be a blessing to her. I didn't expect to get anything in return for helping her. I enjoy helping friends, especially when it comes to organizing things. I don't know why, I'm just wired that way. Also, this was a way for me to get to know her better. Yet, somehow the blessings were turned around and placed on me.