Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

So here are some of my favorite things from the past week.

1. These cute Easter sticky notes from my “secret sister” from our ladies’ group at church:

2. There is a new thrift store between our house and my mother-in-law’s place that I’ve been wanting to visit, and I finally got to yesterday. Found some neat stuff!

This accent table:

I’m thinking about painting it white.

This cute spring decoration:

And this heart-shaped box:

3. Getting the caterer and menu set for our upcoming ladies’ luncheon. The menu is probably the hardest part, trying to decide between all the great-sounding choices. But that’s one more big thing to check off the list for this event.

4. Wed. night at church, a lady was asking me about Jason’s plans. She thought he was getting married in May after graduation, and she was wondering how his job search was going. I told her their wedding date was in August so that he could work and save up some money over the summer, and we discussed some of the options he was exploring for after graduation. She responded something to the effect that knowing that his wedding was later in the summer would change the way she prayed for him. It was such a blessing to know not only that someone was praying, but praying specifically and intelligently for him.

Then a little later on a similar thing happened: I stopped to ask a question of the lady who has being doing the “leg work” for the program part of the ladies’ luncheon (and boy, has that been a blessing! I’ve never had anyone to do that before. I should give her her own listing here!!) She asked me about the decorations and favors: I told her I had some ideas “incubating” and hoped to have them set in the next few days. She mentioned that she had been praying for me about that, and I thought, “Wow!” That just blessed me to no end. General “How’s it going?” questions are great, general prayer is great, but when someone unexpectedly is praying specifically for you and your family — well, it was just a major blessing! And a rebuke, for too often I fail in that area.

5. Wednesday’s night’s message by a guest speaker was another blessing — one of those sermons that just stays with you for days, and your mind turns it over and over and continues to learn from it. The speaker was a missionary and the brother of one of our ladies. Some years back he and his family were ministering in Siberia when they suddenly found they had to leave. I don’t remember now the details, but I think it had to do with their visas being due to expire, and their renewal was refused. So he had friends, family, and supporting pastors calling and asking what he was going to do now, and all he could say was, “I don’t know.” He brought out what God taught him at that time, that the destination isn’t so much the goal as the direction. He pointed out that Paul tried to go to Asia to preach the gospel, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let him; Abraham was called to leave his relatives and home and head out, but he didn’t know ultimately where he was going, and several others in Scripture who were faithfully doing what God called them to and heading in the direction He sent them without knowing, at least at the time, where they were headed or why they seemed to be stuck in a holding pattern for a while. We’ve been in that situation so many times, both in little things and in major questions of jobs and locations. The Bible says much about our “walk” as Christians, and a walk is made up of individual steps. We may not know where we will ultimately end up (at least on this globe: as Christians we know the final destination), but we just need to faithfully follow the steps just ahead and trust Him for the rest.

Of course, he said it a lot better. 🙂

Well, as I was jotting down things I could include as favorites for this week, I had a couple more. One was fresh strawberries being in season (I used to say one of the first signs of spring was strawberry shortcake. I still haven’t made that yet, but we have enjoyed a couple of rounds of fresh strawberries with breakfast). And the other had to do with my annual doctor’s visit — IT’S not one of my favorites, but the fact that it’s over for another year is!

You can visit Susanne‘s for more favorites from the week, or to add your own!