They wished me Happy Birthday and it wasn\u2019t even one of the \u201cbig ones.\u201d Ever since my granddaughter put me on Facebook seven years ago, I have loved re-connecting with friends from days gone by, some from years gone by. Every day that a long-ago friend and I re-connect, is a good day. Friendship is close to the top of my list of values. I have steadfastly refused to let controversy, disagreement, or division destroy my friendships. The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, \u201cThe only way to have a friend is to be one,\u201d and I have worked at being a friend to my friends, and even to a few of my non-friends (should that read \u201cenemies\u201d?). I believe that is being Christ-like. Jesus said, \u201cI have called you friends\u201d (John 15:15). So, it was rewarding a few days ago when over 600 Facebook friends wished me a happy birthday. Add to that the number of wishes from friends who are still using e-mail, plus various other means of communication, even birthday cards through the U.S. Mail, and it was indeed a wonderful day of celebration. Theologian Thomas Aquinas said, \u201cThere is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.\u201d C.S. Lewis said, \u201cFriendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art\u2026 It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.\u201d Surviving another year is rewarded with birthday wishes from friends. I\u2019m looking forward to next time, when I celebrate a \u201cbig one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Join me this week in praying for the following global concerns:
\n\u2022 Wednesday, January 13 is the start of Solid Kidz Bible Club in Amsterdam. Pray that children would attend and learn about Jesus?
\n\u2022 Pray for Glennda as she searches for a new apartment in Taichung, Taiwan, near the place where she serves.
\n\u2022 Pray for Marilyn and the ministry if Hope Clinic in Macau, especially as they begin to distribute 55,000 custom printed books on January 12.
\n\u2022 Continue to pray for retiring missionaries who are looking for permanent housing and transportation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They wished me Happy Birthday and it wasn\u2019t even one of the \u201cbig ones.\u201d Ever since my granddaughter put me on Facebook seven years ago, I have loved re-connecting with friends from days gone by, some from years gone by. Every day that a long-ago friend and I re-connect, is a good day. Friendship is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}