Days 2 - 3

Day 2 - Valentines Day

The Act today was focused on sharing love with people. I had already prepared a Valentines playlist on Spotify, which I shared with single friends. This seemed to go down well with quite a few people. A simple but thoughtful gesture on a day that us singles can sometimes find pretty tough.The rest of my attempts to demonstrate love and friendship were not so smooth! I discovered the potential pitfalls when you attempt to to do something on the a spur of the moment. I had an idea of driving to a friend's to surprise them and catch up. I decided on making a quick phone call, as they live around an hour away, and after offering to come and see them.They weren't too bothered, and would happily see me in a couple of weeks. Ah! Ok...

Then a light bulb moment. I could surprise a teenager from Church! Moulin Rouge was being shown at our local cinema. I could arrange with her parents to pick her up and treat her for Valentines. It's something I would have loved someone to do for me. But the light bulb blew. She already had plans... So what to do?

I ended up treating myself. A pair of shoes I'd seen a few months ago and tried on, but couldn't justify the money as I didn't really need them, but today I saw they were reduced to £10. So I did the 'love your neighbour as yourself!'



Day 3 - Being Thankful

We were encouraged to consider different ways that we could say thank you to people. I often meet with a friend who isn't a Christian but over the years has been a constant and grown into a close and valued friend. So during one of our regular coffee and chats I made a point of explaining what I was doing and said that I wanted to say thank you for their friendship. Thank you. It's such a simple word but I wondered when the last time I had specifically thanked this friend for being in my life.

From there I went to see another friend who knows what I doing for Lent. When they asked me how I was finding it and what I was doing today I was able to respond, 'I'm loving it! And you're part of my act today! We were encouraged to say thank you. So this is me saying thank you. Thank you for making me part of the family, for your friendship, encouragement and for all you bring to our Church
community at The Bridge!'

In some ways these two days sit nicely alongside each other. I love and am immensely thankful for the people I share my life with. In all probability, if you're reading this now, that includes you. So with that in mind...