Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Illustrate the meaning of "Actions Speak Louder than Words" (without using the actual phrase). (02/21/08)
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TITLE: LOVE IN ACTION | Previous Challenge Entry
By Pat Thomas
02/21/08 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
We were next door neighbors first, then friends, now prayer partners and best friends. She has lovingly danced across the pages of my life in so many different and delightful ways it is impossible to describe them all.
The first “touch” from her came shortly before we were to move into the house we were building next door to her family. I had just about had it with the people working on our house….the mess they were leaving for ME to clean up, their failure to come when they said they would, things being done half way. She walked in one afternoon when I was just about to lose it. Her beautiful smile and great sense of humor soon lightened my load. The next evening she appeared with dinner for our family. LOVE IN ACTION!
A few months later, she “happened” to call one morning and she could tell by my voice that all was not well. When she asked what was wrong, I lamented over some problem I was struggling with regarding our son. She listened and let me know she would be praying for me. In a few minutes, she called back and gave me this verse, “They that go forth weeping, shall doubtless come again, bringing with them precious sheaves.” God spoke to my heart through that verse, encouraging this mother in a time of crisis. I never read that verse that I do not think of her and how she brought that nugget to me at just the right time. LOVE IN ACTION!
She was always reaching out to all our neighbors…not just me. One particular Christmas she hosted a cookie swap for the women in our neighborhood. My husband, not realizing it was a “women only” event was lamenting that he was going to miss a ballgame “to go to this thing.” He was ecstatic to learn that he was not invited, but did hope I would not fail to bring home the cookies. When I shared this with her, she thought it hilarious indeed.
The very next day…just days before Christmas, my husband fell from a tree while deer hunting and broke his back. As always, this family was there for us. Her husband came and helped me get him into the car to take him to the hospital and she took our 2 young children.. I had been so busy up to this point in the holidays with school functions, Christmas shopping, etc. that I had really let my house go. That day I was planning to get everything cleaned up for Christmas. Now this….! When we walked in that night from the hospital, the first thing I noticed was the carpet had been vacuumed, everything was neat and the bathrooms were even clean!!!!!!!!! (Horror of horrors! Someone had seen my dirty bathrooms and cleaned them!!!!!!!!!) But I was touched beyond words because I knew who had done it. LOVE IN ACTION!
The next day, she called to check on us and see if we were up to company. My husband was flat of his back in bed so was happy for a diversion. I went to the door to receive our visitors to find this dear friend, her husband and two of her three children standing there with a silver coffee service and a china plate filled with cookies. They had come to bring my husband his own personal “cookie swap”. Once more we were the recipients of LOVE IN ACTION.
Through the twenty plus years we have been friends, God has blessed my life through her more times than I can count. We have shared the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. We’ve howled together in laughter and we’ve wept together and prayed through our trials. We have rejoiced in each other’s happiest moments…children getting married and grandbabies being born and we’ve been there to hold each other during dark moments in both our lives. I have learned through her the true meaning of “A joy shared is a joy doubled and a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” Each day she models Christ through her LOVE IN ACTION and because she does, my life is richer for it.
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I'd recommend that you limit your use of exclamation points. As a writer, would you rather that you reader "get" your strong feelings because of the words you choose, or because of your punctuation? Exclamation points are best when used in dialogue, for extremely excited utterances.
Wonderful use of actions that speak volumes.
I know we all wish we had neighbors like her but what if we were the neighbors like her. :-)
A beautiful story told well. Thank you.