HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, Janelle Phillips!

 

So, in the midst of not having access to the internet for most of September, it was quite hard to stay on top of things. I decided to wait until the "month" mark to blog about Janelle Phillips for her birthday (which was September 4th.)

(This is the first day we met. I think I'd just told you the story about my hip, and you told me about Bolivia...after we talked about our sin =)

Janelle Phillips,

I don't quite understand how it is that I haven't known you my whole life, when it most certainly feels like I have. Why don't I remember our childhood memories together? It's inevitable that we had them, no?!

YOU, are a gift. I love that whenever I get to the part in "my story" about coming to Metro, all I can think about is you, and Lindsay, and Steph and others constantly drawing me out and asking questions about what I believed and the way I lived. Your accountability has been a treasured gift these past 3 and half years. (Can you believe I've only known you that long?) And your friendship is dearly valued.

Our coffee dates or sleepovers or phone calls or emails- whatever the "medium" of conversation is, 1. Biblical Fellowship never ceases to be present and 2. Scripture is inevitably discussed. Whether we're "debating" or talking about our time with the LORD in the morning, or challenging a thought or idea, here it comes: The Word of Life. Truth.

Thank you so much for your friendship. For asking the hard questions. For listening to countless hours of me pouring out my heart out to you. For encouraging me that week we were in Haiti. Man, I needed it. For loving and serving me those weeks after Haiti. For letting me adopt your mom as one of my "other moms". She is such a gift.

Thank you for the way you live your life. I will never ever forget- one time when your parents were out of town, you were 18 at the time I think, and I asked if you were going to see a movie or to "so and so's house" for whatever reason, and you responded with something to the effect of, "No, my parents are gone, so I need to clean the house and make dinner for my brothers." And you were CHEERFUL! I was like, "WHAT!?" And that, dear friend, became my first challenge to embrace my role as a woman. It was there, I believe, in the lobby of Metro, talking to you, that my love for Biblical femininity was birthed. Ah, what a treasure. Thank you.

Thank you for the way you have responded to the circumstances in your life. For regularly seeking to think objectively and not based on how you feel (an for encouraging me to do the same.) Thank you for your desire to overcome your sin, and faithfully fight your flesh. For your humility to share where and when you are discouraged or struggling, and allow others in to help you, encourage you, pray for you, and build you up. Thank you for the ways you serve the church. Whether it's watching nieces or nephews (whom it is CLEAR you love dearly) so your brothers or sister can go out with their spouse's, or the ways you've invested in the basketball girls, or served with TRA stuff, or sharing impressions or pictures the LORD has given you at a meeting-- you are such a joy.

I pray this year is marked with VICTORY as the LORD shows you the fruit of the struggles you have been faithful to fight.

I LOVE YOU! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!