A Girl Named Angela.

Raw, honest friendships are one of the ways I feel closest to Jesus.  I have a very hard time drawing a line between family and friendship; they feel so intertwined to me that I often forget which is which.  I know this sometimes hurts my family's feelings but I have decided that the community God puts around us is bigger and deeper than blood. I believe family and friends are vital to the success and lifeblood of our souls and I couldn't live without either.  

Angela and I work together at a coffeehouse in town.  When we are working together, you're bound to hear laughter and voices at an inappropriate level for a place of business.  We have so much fun that there are times I forget I'm at work (we also get great tips, which means customers can feel our joy and that's super cool).  

Angela told me her dad asks her when she's going to start acting like a lady because she has an edgy sense of humor and doesn't filter herself around anyone.  She loves 90's rock fashion, tattoos, working out, men that rock a good pony tail, making people laugh, and the occasional swear word.  

What I really want to write about; however, is her beautiful heart.  Jeremy asked me, when Angela and I first started working together, if she loved Jesus and I said we hadn't talked about that yet.  We still haven't had a "sit down and talk about your testimony" conversation and I don't need that to know Jesus is alive and well in her soul.  She loves in a way that is so fierce and selfless and that can only come from the Lord.  She drives back and forth from Sioux Falls to her hometown weekly, if not biweekly, to do things like:  play basketball with her dad and his friends, workout with her sister, visit her grandpa in the nursing home, and bake with her mom. She pays for people's drinks at the coffee shop when they've forgotten their wallets.  She knows customer's names and their favorite drinks and she works whenever our boss needs her. 

I think I feel especially close to her because one of the deepest and truest ways to love me is to love my child.  We've only known each other a few months and she regularly asks to watch my son so I can go on dates with my husband and refuses to let me pay her.  She came to Beck's birthday party, bought him a Christmas present, asks me to tell her stories about him when we're at work and says things like, "When are you going to go on a vacation so my sister and I can watch Beck?"  She sleeps over when my husband is out of town.  She has this "no strings attached" way of loving people; her generosity and genuine care for my family has taught me more about the simple, steady love of Jesus. 

The older I get, the more I relate to people who are unapologetically human and can talk about their struggles but who desire to grow in love and compassion.  

Thanks for stepping into our world, Angela.  As you like to say, "I don't think our lives' will ever be the same."