Thank Full for dear Like-minded Friends

I was sitting in a room full of people the other day just listening. The conversation was spinning around and around and I felt pretty much an outsider. The talk was leading down a road I haven't ever walked. Most everyone there had no idea what to do about the situation they were talking about; it was all bleakness and desolation in fact. Suddenly I wanted out of that room so badly. But, I was bound to my chair having been invited to be there and I saw no escaping until the clock set me free. Finally, having been released I bade my farewells and wondered at my weepy feelings. What was wrong with me? I felt like the room's conversation of bleakness had worn off onto me! I called my husband and spoke to him and he cheered me up. We spoke of God's mercy to His people and how we should love people in the world, as the Lord does, but not the things they do. That it's okay to keep these two things separate. Love the person, not the works they do. Now skip ahead to later that night. I was again in a room full of people; this time they are all my sisters in Christ. Again I sat there listening. And suddenly I was so lightened in heart. I wanted to start singing! I was an insider here in this room... I belonged. Every woman there knew exactly where she was going in life and there was no bleakness or desolation. Now I didn't want the clock to set me free, I wanted that clock to stop exactly where it was. I wanted nothing more in life than to sit there in my chair and hold on to the sweetness in that room. When the time finally did come to leave, I realized on my way home that I was refreshed because I had been with dear friends who were like-minded and so dear to me. Once again, I am so thank-full of God's mercy to me to give me such a cloud of dear friends to walk this way with.