"You can only do the best that you can do."

My precious 90 something friend showers me with love from her reclined recliner at the care center.

She is the last of all my precious older ladies who loved me dearly just because I have treated them with loving kindnesses. 

She is a tough cookie even today, grown up on a dairy farm with loving, godly parents. She became a nurse, met her Beloved, married, had children, lived with her Beloved for 80 some years, and now she has her son....and me to visit.

Her joy when I come around the corner is a keeper. She is so touched that I have come to visit.

"Now don't you come when it is snowing!"

"Now be careful out there! People drive so crazy now-a-days."

When I must leave she will say, 

"Already?! Oh, have I loved having you here! Now take care of Glenn, and take care of You!  Remember he is your number one priority!"

What wonderful, godly advice!

Her wit is from her father. I regret not writing all those little quips down these last 20 years.

When we talk we always bring up the LORD as we are both looking forward to Glory and of our longings for our sufferings to be over, etc. 

I've added Scripture to her wall along with seasonal paper hearts, shamrocks, flowers...

Her son put a 2 hook Shepherds hook for 2 feeders now outside her window for the birds and she loves to watch them flock there. I made her own "bird book" with the 3 kinds of birds which come every day.

Her days go by and she has some tough ones. 

When we talk she will share her troubles, but add that she is only stating the facts- not whining. When she ends that part of our conversation she will always say:

"You can only do the best you can do."

Twenty years ago when we first met she was a tough lady with rough edges, her husband a gentle, kind, loving person. As I got to know her I saw her soft, tender side. And this is the tender person I know today. She loves me, loves my husband, and loves everyone I know - because she loves me.

I have learned that even tough, rough people can be so very precious when you love them and get to know them. 

May I be as precious with others as she has been with me.  

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Colossians 3:1-4

"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, 

keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, 

seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, 

not on the things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden 

with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, 

then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."...

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