Fan the Friendship Flames (Refuel Fading Relationships)
Fan the friendship flames.
Don’t sacrifice close relationships on the altar of envy or pride.
Go back to the Hot Spot and rekindle the candles.
Refuel the torches and carry light in your heart..
When Friendship Flames Need a Fan
Do you have a favorite hymn?
My mother-in-law’s favorite is “The Prettiest Flowers Will Be Blooming.”
She knows all the words, and years ago, when we walked in her door, we’d often hear her singing while she was quilting.
That isn’t the only song she knows by memory.
Her niece and she loved to quilt and sing. They spent hours and hours in perfect harmony. Mom sang soprano, and her niece sang alto or tenor, depending on the hymn.
Mom-in-law and this niece lived less than a mile apart, and became more like sisters than aunt and niece. They were only 10 years apart in age, and the only two of their family living in the same city.
They were very, very close.
And then, something happened.
It’s so unbelievably sad, but something spoiled that relationship. Maybe it wasn’t something. It might have been an accumulation of things.
Both of them hurt so much, but no fix seemed possible. Finally, by the time they were ready, both had changed too much to go back to their former relationship. Time and circumstances made them different people.
Thankfully, they are back in a good place. They both live in the same city again, but in a different state. Their friendship is different yet very sweet once more.
Rekindling and Refueling Dying Friendships
So much of a close friendship requires forgiveness and acceptance.
When something happens, it’s not one big bang that blows it all away.
It’s a series of things. Little hurts gone un-forgiven. Small misunderstandings never discussed or admitted. A little less dedication to meditation and prayer, a little less cultivating the good soil, allowing little weedy things to take root and grow.
Little weedy things can grow into big, tangly tumbleweeds of discord.
Ready to turn niece against aunt.
Son against father.
Willing to allow a 20 year friendship to fade into embers, then nothing.
Today is the day to seek out fading and cooling embers.
Fan them and reignite the flames of suffering relationships with the breath of God’s love.
Go back and find the Hotspot.
Not to quench the flame once and for all like a forest fire, but to rekindle your torch of tenderness and kindness.
Life is a vapor, and turns into smoke so quickly, dispersing, then disappearing. Never to return again. If we don’t keep the torches lit and the candles burning, it will get too dark around us.
God is here. He’s the Hotspot.
Seek Him every morning. Noon and night. Approach Him with torch in hand, feel His warmth, re-fuel,
then walk into the day, the noon, the night,
light the way and fan the flames for the weary, the cooling, those shivering without fire.
Let the Lower Lights be Burning
To us He gives the keeping of the lights along the way.
The keeping of the lights of love and friendship.
Fan the flames.
Don’t let the lights go out.
Fan the flames of your friendships
today and always.
Until next time,
Love, Kim & Dorothy
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