Been there...Done that...Got the t-shirt

I love that saying..."been there...done that.....got the t-shirt" I have many times said that in my few years of life. Well yesterday my good friend I graduated high school with text me and told me that her boyfriend of the past 7 months broke up with her. I was so incredibly shocked!!!! If you knew my friend you would understand why it was soooo shocking. She has not been the one to hold a relationship for that amount of time. I really thought that she had found some one that really was good for her.

She was soo happy and I loved seeing her like that. The joy that was in her cuz she was just so happy. And to get that text my heart just dropped into my stomach. I stopped and then began to text her back. I asked her what happened and she explained what he said and then asked me to call him and ask him what was going on. I told her of course I would. So I did. He didn't answer but he did call me back and I talked to him for a good 20 minutes. He told me that he felt like this was what God wanted for his life and it was very hard for him. He felt like he was pretending to love her and just didn't feel right. I talked to him about it and I told him that I knew how he felt. I have "been there...done that.." After I hung up with him I just sat in the jeep in the parking lot and began to cry. Not for me but because I knew this was going to be hard to be her friend because I know how she feels and how he feels. I have been in both there shoes. I didn't know what I was going to tell her, I mean I am her friend and I know what she wants me to say but I know its not what she needed to hear. I knew that I needed to be what she needed not what she wanted.

I prayed and texted her back and she immediately called me. I was nervous....She asked what he said. I began with the conversation saying that I am not going to say what she wanted me to say but what she needed. I told her what he said and his side of the story. Before she could say anything i kept talking. I began to explain to her that I know where he is coming form and where she is coming from. I encouraged her the best I knew how and was in prayer the whole time. She accepted it quite well. I explained to her that God puts us through trials to sometimes teach us things. When we don't learn those things he will keep putting us through them until we learn our lesson. I personally know how that goes, "been there...done that.." "still there...still doing that.."

Some days I often sit and think about my life and the things that God has let me go through. I have lived with arthritis now for five years. That in itself is a struggle, and constant battle. I am so thankful that God has brought me through what he has and made me who I am today. The past year or so has been very difficult for me not only spiritually but emotionally and physically. Four days after my high school graduation (five months ago) my house flooded and God brought another trial of faith into my life. There have been many days when the stress and anxiety of having a disaster zone for your home gets to you. the place you call home is supposed to be a place you want to go when you want to get away from the world. Not me, when I want to get away from the world home is the last place I want to go. It has been a journey that I some days hope ends very soon but is still going on day by day by day. And day by day I am learning something new, how to trust and have faith, love people no matter what. Give even when no gives to you.

I have had my selfish moments when I think to myself, "why help them, they don't help me?" But then... I think bout the times when I have helped people and feel so much better. Like yesterday. I didn't have to stay on the phone with Candace for an hour, I didn't have to encourage her or stop and pray with her, giver her verses to read that will help her. I didn't have to. But I felt so much better after I did. Often times when we don't want to give but we do it anyway we get so much more in return than we could ever imagine. I was on an emotional high after I got off the phone with her. i felt like God really used me in her life.

Looking back on my life and what I have been through, I am grateful that God did what he did in my life so that I was able to help someone else through there struggle..because, "been there...done that...got the t-shirt..."