Laundry day and phone dates of encouragement

A lot of interesting things have happened over the last seven days.  A lot of things I had hoped to blog about, which I still might, even though it will be out of chronological order (and I tend to be OCD, so that could be hard for me), but today's blog focuses on yesterday.  God did a lot of great things yesterday, but one thing I want to focus on in particular, happened while going to do my laundry.

I was taking my laundry over to Andy's house to do while he was at work, because since I don't have a washer and dryer in my apartment, Andy figured that I should have some place comfortable to do my laundry rather than the crappy laundry facility in my apartment, and I only have to pay for gas to get over to his place, rather than like three dollars and some change to wash and dry one load.  So after I had finished my quiet time and was on my way, I got a very unusual text from twin.  Now if you don't know who twin is, she's not my biological twin.  Hannah Vaughn and I met in our first year of college, and spent quite a bit of time together.  We managed to connect incredibly fast, and most people thought we knew each other from high school, but we didn't- and considering our signing styles, our thinking styles, and our sense of humor were pretty much identical- we were dubbed the "ASL Twins," and it just kinda stuck.  Our teachers even confused us... it's really funny.  But yes, twin texted me at an unusually early hour for twin, since she has been working an internship in Washington DC.  She needed a phone date, and I knew at that moment she was not having a good day.  I told her to call whenever she could call- and so around 3pm in the middle of me doing laundry, I got a call from twin.

Twin had not had the best week.  In fact, twin was having a very crappy week- in which she was told she's not good at what she does.  Now the twinness power in me partly wanted to fly to DC and kick those people in the shins, but I knew that wouldn't do any good.  At the point where twin was telling me how she felt inadequate and she wasn't good enough, and how lonely she had been feeling all week- my hands were immediately searching for Scripture.  I got on my computer (because it was close and I'm terrible at remembering where verses are), and started looking up all the Scripture I could find about Godly thoughts and encouragement- something twin has always done for me when I needed her.  We talked about these verses, about God's plan for both our lives, and while I was talking to Hannah, in my heart I was praying like crazy that God would give me the right words to minister to her heart as I was in her position not very long ago.  By the end of the hour and a half phone conversation (which let me just tell ya, I'm not a phone talker), we were laughing and joking and were amazed at the work God was doing in both of our lives, as well as the healing power He gives us through people we might have never met if we weren't paying attention to the call He had placed in our lives.  I didn't realize that I needed the phone call from Hannah just as much as she needed it, but by the time I hung up the phone, I was thanking God that through our phone conversation, He had not only encouraged Hannah, but it had also encouraged me too.


And I guess I tell you all this to tell you a couple things.  That even in situations where you don't feel like you can encourage, God can use you to encourage other people.  Whether it's through you sharing Scripture with a friend, or just listening to them when they are having a rough situation in life they are going through and you just pray with them through that struggle- God can use you to do His work if you'll just allow Him to use you.  And if you're struggling with something, or you're feeling discouraged- remember that God uses times of distress to test us.  Spiritual attacks are of the enemy and Satan will start infiltrating wherever he can and most often it's your thoughts.  Which is why I always try to remember this passage:

"whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."   -Phillipians 4:8