WHY GRETA?

This is a guest post by Annie Vavra. I am sick and it's all Greta's fault. Why do I still hang around her? Beats me! Actually, Greta and I have known of each other for a long time but finally connected this year when we had American Sign Language together. I have been realizing that God puts different people in our lives at different times and it's all for a specific reason or reasons. In the last couple years I have really been blessed with the friends that are in my life. I have made so many deep connections and I feel like it has really helped me. It allows me to have certain friends that understand and help me with all the different branches of my life. But, I would like to specifically talk about the timing and purpose of Greta in my life. I feel like Greta has been specifically placed in my life, by God, because she adds something to what I already know. I worked at a camp all summer and it really challanged my faith and allowed my relationship with God to grow. I love the challange and one of my worries after I left camp was that I would fall into the same place I was before I went to camp. I thought I would grow distant from God and that I would lose my accountability. Then I met Greta. She is someone that I really trust and feel I can share my thoughts with. I really enjoy discussing things with her, whether it's just some small topic or something that I really, deeply care about. I feel very comfortable talking to her about things that relate to my beliefs and Christianity in general. Lately, I have been discussing things regarding my Christian Theology class with her. I think these discussions really help me understand what I believe and help me discover more and more who I am in Christ, my purpose. I also feel like God put Greta in my life to give me someone who isn't scared to challange me, to give me someone that I feel is stable and has a lot of experience and wisdom in life. I love that I can talk with Greta about anything and not have to worry about being the strong one. I think we both carry equal weight of our friendship, where as in most of my other friendships I feel like I have to be the strong one, the one that everyone else leans on. It really ways my down but when I'm with Greta, I get the energy to stay strong. Anyways I feel like I have really just been blabbing about I don't even know. I am trying this blogging deal because Greta said that it is easy, but I told her I'm not very good at writing. Any hoo, all I really wanted to say by all of this is that God have purpose for everyone that is involved in our lives and until we take the time to sit down and really thing about it, we don't fully understand all that we have. So, I would like to close in saying that I am very happy to have Greta in my life, love the girl and I thank God for her everyday.

Through randomness we will see God's purposes and plans for us,
Annie

Greta here. I promised Annie I wouldn’t read her portion of this post until I actually posted it on the internet, but I do know a little of what she wrote. I know the title is “Why Greta?” and I’m pretty sure she tried to answer that question. So in light of her question I will ask, why Annie?

History:
My parents and Annie’s parents graduated with one another from Cambridge High School. Our families have been friends our whole lives. We did not become friends until a few weeks ago. We discovered we knew one another in our first ASL class together and the rest is history.

After a couple of times of seeing each other around campus we started chatting on facebook and then texting. Soon we were very good friends.

Who:
Annie and I are very similar. After spending some time with one another we discovered we are rather scary similar. We have the same opinions, same likes and dislikes, same ideas, same hobbies, same pleasures, same God. All of these things combine to form a super amount of commonalities, but we have one major difference. She likes science. She is a science major and she loves the facts. I am not too good with facts and I don’t particularly enjoy science, especially blood. This difference is so great because it helps us to be even better friends.

She claims she is no good at writing and that since that is my stronger suit we get along great. This may be true, but I wanted her to explore her writing abilities, so I asked her to post on my blog. I told her to write what she wanted. But, she said she needed to discuss it first. I love discussing things because it means talking and hanging out which are my two favorite things to do.

True story:
I cut my finger recently. I didn’t think anything of it. Probably because I didn’t look at it to make sure it was okay. I don’t like blood or flappy skin. I covered it with a band-aid and moved on. Annie checked it out and strongly suggested that I get stitches. I couldn’t believe it. So she gladly took me to the doctor where they put stitches on and told me to stop cutting my fingers and that it was a good thing I had such good moral support. Annie thought it was the most entertaining thing ever to see them put stitches in me and make fun of me for cutting myself with an X-Acto knife.

Why?
She makes me think. She asks questions that other people won’t ask because she cares. She helps me to see the smart and the dumb in many situations. She’s like another brain for my busy mind.

She makes me question. She helps me to question what I believe so that I make it my own. We discuss deep stuff because that is how we both grow and we question one another because only most the time do we agree.

She makes me feel convicted . She is one of the most humble people I know. She opens up her heart for people and lets them in because she genuinely cares. She is so real and she lets me be real with her. This genuine realness convicts me that I’m not always this way and it shows me where I could improve. It is such a grace. She was with me when my mom told me I should sleep. I tried so hard to pull her into my sin, but the Lord granted her grace to stay out to show me some more stuff.

She is wise. She gives me advice when I need it. She gave me wise counsel when I was sinning against my mom and God has used her for that purpose and many more.

She prays. If ever I ask her to pray for me, she says something along the lines of, “Of course. Anytime. I would do anything for you.” I strongly believe that when I do ask her to pray she does pray. I love that comfort in being prayed for.

She makes me laugh. We have a very similar sense of humor and her remarks are always witty and exciting. I’d like to think that I’m becoming more witty by spending time with her.

She’s silly. We laugh together all the time. In fact we probably mostly laugh together. Her laugh is so great because it is hearty and weezy and it makes me laugh harder when she is laughing hard. Her eyes get all squinty and she can’t hardly breath, but I just laugh at her more because she is close to tears.

She likes playing games. We are both highly competitive so it makes it very fun to play games and beat on one another.

She likes hanging out with me. This one makes me really happy because I love hanging out with her too. It doesn’t matter to us if were just doing homework, we just like to hang out.

She likes to be cozy. I love being cozy because it is so fun to be warm and cuddly, and Annie likes it too.

She’s good at listening. If I talk she listens. And then she responds in a respectful loving way.

She takes care of me. Regarding both the stitches and many other things including, whenever we watch movies she covers my eyes when scary or bad parts come up.


Why not?
God has given me a great friend. I praise Him for His awesome grace in this relationship. Why wouldn’t I take joy in being friends with Annie. And now I’m so proud of her for writing on my blog. I know she can write and I’m glad she’s my friend.

I encourage you to choose someone you love and figure out why it is you love them. It is very cool to look at all the reasons and in the end I am confident you will praise God. I love Annie even more now because I see the grace in her life and the grace in our friendship. God gives us fellowship and friends for a reason. That reason being to spur one another on and to love one another like Christ loved us. Take advantage of fellowship and friendship. Give in fellowship and friendship.

Praising God for my awesome friend,
Greta