Cover via Amazon

People are such strange creatures. We take forever sizing up a person before we let them into our private lives, if ever. We categorize people as far as who gets to see us do what. The mail carrier probably knows more about us than we would like, but he or she doesn’t get to see us in curlers, nor would we invite him to go fishing with us next weekend, unless he happened to be a close friend to begin with.

We go to church with many different people. We love them. Some of them are close friends, while others are acquaintances. We really wouldn’t want those we aren’t close with to just pop over to our homes after church. Maybe we left everything a mess. Maybe we were hoping to change from church clothes into really comfy clothes (read, no bra). Maybe the reason we aren’t close friends is because we have heard their views on life and we know we have too many differences to overcome.

We’ve seen certain people every week for years, at the drug store, the gas station, the post office or video store. We know each other by first name. We’ve shared personal information about ourselves and the lives we live. We have laughed together, cried together when their dog died after 25 years, and shared valuable information that has helped them and us. Still, do we send them an invitation to our daughter’s wedding or our son’s graduation?

Everyone on planet Earth has done the close friend, mere acquaintance, beloved family member and barely know their first name, dance.  They have heard our good news. We’ve won the lottery. They all believe themselves to be our very best friends. Surely, we will share – quite a bit, actually – with every person we have ever known and thousands we did not know existed.

We may not know ourselves as well as we think. We may believe we would willingly give ten percent to the church, ten percent to charity and several thousands to people we know who could use a friendly hand out. No matter how well we think we know ourselves, God knows us better.

Maybe we don’t win the lottery because God knows it would cause heartache when we learned our favorite brother was expecting more than the piddling amount of $200,000 we gave him and he no longer wants to associate with us. He feels slighted. God knows that our parents would be hurt that we did not send at least $25,000 to each family member back in Italy – France – Mexico – Poland – Iran, etc.

You know more about me than many people I see in person. Still, there are things you don’t yet know:

1. I am the most forgiving person you will ever meet. Just ask for forgiveness and you are forgiven.
2. If I have only enough bread and meat for one sandwich, I will give the sandwich to you and say, “I am not hungry.”
3. I believe we are living in the last days of the Age of Grace. Soon, God will remove Grace from the face of the earth.
4. My feelings can be easily hurt, but I will never let you know that you hurt my feelings. Maybe it was not intentional.
5. If you buy a present for me that does not fit, is not a color I like, I can’t use or isn’t something I would hang on my wall, you will never know. If you bought or made a gift for me, you thought of me. That is enough.
6. If we disagree on politics or religion or both, I won’t argue with you about these things. We just won’t bring up the subject. I don’t want to argue. Life is too short.
7. Don’t hurt my family. I would die for them. That should tell you how unpleasant your life would be if you hurt them.
8. I believe in romance. I believe you can be married one year or fifty, but the romance can be as strong as it was the first day you met.
9. I believe divorce is often unavoidable, but it is not a part of God’s perfect plan. God knew how difficult it would be for children. He does not want the children hurt by divorce. However, sometimes divorce is needed to save the children from the abusive parent.
10. I cry when people dump cats and dogs as if they were unfeeling insects. They love you. They thought they were loved by you. They are as innocent and as helpless as small children. If you can’t take care of them, take them to a shelter.
11. You don’t have to like me, but don’t pretend that you do. I would rather have one true friend than five hundred people who say they are friends with me, yet treat me as if my time and thoughts were nothing to consider.
12. We can disagree on a matter and still be friendly toward each other. Heck, no two people ever agreed 100% of the time on 100% of things. Life would be boring if we all thought alike and acted alike.
13. I am not superstitious. I don’t care that you sent me an email about acknowledging Jesus and receiving a blessing when I forward it to 12 people. God doesn’t work that way. Do you really believe God will punish you for not forwarding an email? He won’t rain down blessings because you do, either. That is just phishing. Someone wants your email address to sell you something
14. I am old fashioned. I love being a woman. I love the role God gave me. I don’t want to be just like the men. I understand there are some things women aren’t suited for. There are many things men aren’t suited for. I do believe both sexes are intelligent. Both should be paid the same if both jobs are the same and both do the same amount of work.
15. I may not ever get to meet you in person, but I love you. When you hurt, I hurt. When you rejoice, I rejoice. If I hurt you in any way, let me know. I want a chance to say I am sorry.

Do you know me? Not yet, but you are beginning to know me better. I hope you continue on this life journey with me. Who knows what we may discover together.