Just a Thought #1

This is my first blog.  I never dreamed I would ever be doing something like this.....a 60's something woman doing this!!  Who ever thought?!?  However, after reading so many blogs over the last few months and really enjoying them and learning some interesting and fascinating things from them, I decided to venture out on this blog thing myself!!  So, here we go for the first one!!

I am a truly blessed woman.  God is so good to me in so many, many ways.  One of those ways was working in our church office for almost 15 years.   I just finished reading the blog of a dear friend whose husband was once my "boss".  I put the term "boss" in quotations because I was NEVER treated like an employee by this gentleman; I was treated like a friend.  I was loved and appreciated and I knew he prayed for me and my family daily.  Today this wonderful man is suffering from the effects of a brain tumor.  He is not the vibrant man we have all known and loved.  His memory is suffering; his ability to walk and talk is suffering; he spends most of his days now sleeping....not the gentleman I once worked for.  You see, this man was the pastor of the church I attend and once worked at.  I was his secretary for six years....the most pleasant of all the years I ever worked.  He cared about us and he protected us; he took up for his staff when the slings and arrows were tossed at us.  He laughed with us, he consoled us, he had coffee (yes, we had REAL coffee breaks!) with us, he brought each of us crates of strawberries he had purchased on his way back from visiting in the hospitals in Dallas, he knew my family as if it was his family and he cared about them.  It was easy to work for him because he was not a demanding, pressuring, harsh team leader.  He knew if we were having a difficult day (and, yes, those do come very often in a church office) and he made it his mission to try to make it better for us.  He truly cared!!  

The members of our church were all known by name and recognition by this pastor.  He spent many nights and days at the bedside of sick ones; he comforted their families and loved them, just as a pastor should.  There were very few days that he did not make a trip to Dallas to see someone who was in the hospital.  He was there when someone had surgery, no matter how serious or not so serious it was.  He spent many, many hours in the nursing homes and in homes were shut-ins lived.  It did not matter who you were, if you were a member of his flock you were important to him.  He loved people the way he found them, whether they were clean or not, whether they were wealthy or not, whether they were healthy or not, whether they knew Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior--he loved them and witnessed to them. He was a true example of loving people the way God loves them!!

I learned so much from him.  I learned that when people come to a church office they are usually truly suffering for some reason or other.  For the first time in my work history I felt free to pray over the phone with someone who called in who needed an ear to listen and a heart to care.   I felt free to take the time and listen, to laugh and/or cry with the person who had come in.  Working in a church office is not like working in the secular world.  When you work in a church office you have (or I had) 3000 "bosses".  He taught me to love all these "bosses" and to make sure they knew they were loved by the church and its staff.  

Today, dear friend Bobby Renfro, my thoughts are with you and Jane, Libby and Lane.  What examples you are to us.  You love and praise your Lord through it all.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for showing us how to love, serve, care and praise.  I am so thankful that God placed you in my highway of life.  You are truly a friend and are truly loved by more people than you can ever imagine!!  Love you, Renfro family.