Encourage One Another

Happy Word-Filled Wednesday!

I Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up..."

I just love that. Don't you?

I often forget that. How about you?

Yesterday as Rachel and I were watching the Presidential Inauguration (She is still only going to school half days) we were sad for President Bush. As you know from my post yesterday, he was really on my mind. Regardless of how you feel about the job that he did in office, he still deserves our thanks. I have great admiration for President Bush and Mrs. Bush.

I knew that he was coming home to Midland and that we had tickets but that the noise of the crowd would be too much for Rachel so I just resolved to watch him in TV.

God began to stir my heart that I needed to do something to encourage him.

I jumped into action. I finished my homework, printed out signs, and picked the girls up from school as soon as the bell rang. We drove as fast as we could to the exact spot where Hannah and Granny and I waved to to the soon to be President Bush eight years ago. (Hannah was only 4 at the time. It was a cold January day. She saluted Mr. Bush as his car drove by and he saluted back. It was so cool!)

We waited with another couple for about 45 minutes. I was sad that the streets were not lined with people but I just assumed that they were all at Centennial Plaza. A few minutes later a nice man pulled over and explained that they had taken a different route. Oiy! Of course they did.

I don't give up easily. We drove across town only to see the last part of the motorcade drive by. We found 3 DPS officers in the parking lot and asked if we could park with them. Guess what???They let us and the even informed us when the President would be driving by again. I think they liked our enthusiasm. They were so nice!

Forty-five minutes later, we were on! In my amazing photo taking ability (remember Hannah's basketball pictures in Monday's post???) here is what I got. Oiy!


You can see his suburban (gotta like Texas) and his posse. The girls were holding up their signs and waving and...this is the best part....

President Bush leaned as close to the window as possible
waved and smiled as big as Dallas to us!

I know he waved to us because we were the only ones right there...

(I wish I had the photo to show you. His face was all smiles!)

and we were the only ones holding signs! Delight!

It was so moving, Rachel cried...and then I cried...and then we called Daddy and then my Dad (who was in an important meeting but he answered anyway) and then Granny

and then I had 10 minutes to get to my class that was 18 minutes away.
And...I made it on time. Ta-da!!! I just figured I would name drop the sweet DPS men who kept us company if I ran into one of their fellow officers with his lights flashing. What a fun night and a fun memory.

It's not every day that you get to encourage a President. Who will God place in your path today that needs a little encouragement too? Go for it! You will get a blessing out of it too.
It's so fun to be a part of what God is doing!

Joyfully,

Kristi